LIFESCI 15 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Naturalistic Fallacy, Parental Investment, Natural Selection

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5 Jan 2017
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LS 15 Final Review Questions
1) Happiness - why is the rate and direction of change of your situation more important than absolute
levels? And how does this relate to material acquisitions?
Brain states designed to alter behavior & to encourage fitness
Not permanent
Progress > absolute levels
example : “to do” lists & happiness
satisfaction when checking off items
What is the nature of happiness
A paradox:
Finding $20 would make me happier
But rich people are not happier than poor people
Do industrialized societies create the desire for material belongings
No. Acquisition desires exist cross-culturally
Material acquisition - dopamine spike but returns to absolute level (ex. Lottery)
Why do our genes only care about improvement, rather than absolute levels of
achievement
Evolution is a relative game
The alleles that win are those that do better than the alternative alleles
2) Why are emotions designed to be less permanent than they feel?
They are tools our genes use to manipulate us
They go away because once they’ve manipulated you don’t want to continue feeling that
emotion
Anger, jealousy, guilt, happiness, desire
Brain states designed to alter behavior & to encourage fitness
3) Using an example, discuss the interplay between culture and biology
Culture: the non-genetic/extracellular transmission of information
Biology: information that is passed down generation to generation through genes
Interplay between culture & biology
Culture can free us from biology
Biology can also constrain us
EX: Different styles of education but there still may be some level of cultural difference,
FRS (fundamental repro equation)
Biology and culture can each influence outcome
4) What is a fundamental reproductive equation and what does it reveal about interplay between culture
and biology?
Culture can modify what our biology expects
Sex ≠ pregnancy ≠ babies ≠ maternal child care ≠ loss of female economic opportunity ≠
loss of female political opportunity
1. Sex - Condoms
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2. Pregnancy - Abortion
3. Babies - Fake nipples
4. Maternal child care - Daycare
5. Loss of female economic opportunity - Democracy (‘Merica)
Describes a biological situation where culture allows for the outcome not to occur
Just because we have these primal instincts, that does not mean that is who we have to
be
Culture can help us get a different outcome, not the outcome our biology would lead us to
5) How is the culture biology interplay illustrated by constrained learning?
Constrained learning is the idea you can learn somethings fast but you can’t learn others
quite as easily
The difference between how we learn social information, versus how we take in
information complex like taking notes on EEA
Many other examples
You get sick, and you very quickly wanna attribute it to something you ate, even though
you’re wrong - easy for us to learn that (sauce bearnaise ex.)
Rat experiment
Drink water -> noise & flashing lights -> electric shock
Animals quickly learn to stop drinking when the noise & lights occur
Drink water -> weird taste -> nausea induced by x-rays
Animals quickly learn to stop drinking when the weird taste occurs
Rats have a “genetically-coded hypothesis” - > “if i feel sick it must be something i ate”
Drink water -> noise & flashing lights -> nausea induced by x-rays
Drink water -> weird taste -> electric shock
Animals didn’t learn to stop drinking water
Somethings cannot be learned easily
6) What is the EEA? Why is important for us to be aware of it?
Environment of evolutionary adaptedness
Environments don’t stay the same forever
The EEA is always changing
The rate at which the environment is changing and the rate at which you can
follow and track it
Natural selection is not fast (not as fast as cultural changes)
In our EEA:
1. NS has lead to RS
2. Can trust our instincts
BUT:
We are no longer in our EEA (mismatch) because…
Culture is faster than biology/evolution
Environment changes faster
Implications of no longer living in EEA:
Cannot trust instincts (some of them are right some of them are wrong)
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Example: food distribution, teenagers
Sources of conflict due to mismatch (alien nature)
Example: money, huge populations, armies
Almost every self-control problem boils down to a problem of mismatch
7) Why is the EEA sometimes different than our current environment?
-While NS acts slowly, Environment can change quickly
-Natural selection works generation by generation by generation
-Culture is faster than biology/evolution
-Environment changes faster
8. Do any other species have a different EEA and current environment?
-Dogs or any pet
-Polar bear - ice is melting, they gotta change their ways to survive but evolution/natural
selection is slower than the environments rapid change
-The squirrels that have been around for generations but live on our school campus
-Zoo animals/lab animals
Bad outcomes not in their EEA - they get fat and stressed out
9. What does mismatch mean? What are its implications for instincts?
Mismatch: The divide between what our EEA is and what our current environment is
Implications of no longer living in EEA (mismatch)
Cannot trust instincts
Examples:
Food distribution and production can get us anything we want
Instinct is to eat as much as possible
This “increases our fitness”
This is why ⅔ of people in the U.S. weigh more than they want
Birth Control
Reduces cuckoldry risk
Day Care
Reduces need for parental investment
It’s hard to be a teenager
Tough, instinct telling you you’re ready to reproduce but culture
tells you otherwise (like wait till you’re 30)
Firearms
Reduce the need for strength
Armies
Can fight our battles for us
Money
Reduces our reliance on others
Huge populations
Ability to afford more kids in society than we used to
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Document Summary

Brain states designed to alter behavior & to encourage fitness. Example : to do lists & happiness. But rich people are not happier than poor people. Do industrialized societies create the desire for material belongings. Material acquisition - dopamine spike but returns to absolute level (ex. Why do our genes only care about improvement, rather than absolute levels of achievement. They are tools our genes use to manipulate us. They go away because once they"ve manipulated you don"t want to continue feeling that emotion. Brain states designed to alter behavior & to encourage fitness: using an example, discuss the interplay between culture and biology. Biology: information that is passed down generation to generation through genes. Ex: different styles of education but there still may be some level of cultural difference, Culture can modify what our biology expects. Sex pregnancy babies maternal child care loss of female economic opportunity loss of female political opportunity.

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