Health-related Behavior

Leading cause of death in young men (15-44) is behavior-related (accident, homicide, suicide).

Lung cancer (very rare in non-smokers).

Obesity (poor diets, little exercise).

Why, if our psychological systems were designed by natural selection, do we do things that are detrimental to our fitness?

Our adaptations evolved in the past (remember the notion of the EEA).

What shaped our behavioral and dietary preferences?

The structure of risks and rewards in our hunting and gathering past.

Do hunter gatherers go out jogging after work?

Do what work you have to do to get the nutrients you need, then rest.

What kinds of taste preferences would suit a hunter gatherer?

“Sweet” and “fat” were both markers of high caloric content.

Salt is a necessary electrolyte.

How much should they have eaten of these foods?

As much as they could find!!!

No wonder we love foods like ice cream and french fries!

Fast food is designed to push all your evolved preference buttons.

How often do you hear somebody say, “I really want a nice big salad”?

And wouldn't almost all of then change their minds if you took away the dressing?

The “mismatch hypothesis”

Refers to the fact that many of our evolved behavioral tendencies are poorly suited to the modern world.

Sugar can be grown cheaply and refined to a very high caloric density.

Domesticated plants and animals shaped by our evolved taste preferences to provide high doses of sugar and fat. (The Botany of Desire).

Mismatch applies in other areas also:

Social group sizeScarcity of kinFrequent contact with strangersLack of “work-related” exerciseLong periods of time in a single activityMedia (mistaken assays of danger, mate pool, average well-being)

Darwinian aesthetics:

Landscape preferences

Flowers

Fractal geometry (self-similarity at different scales)

Pets as co-evolved social parasites.

The Domestication of Social Cognition in Dogs Brian Hare,12* Michelle Brown,1 Christina Williamson,3 Michael Tomasello2 Dogs are more skillful than great apes at a number of tasks in which they must read human communicative signals indicating the location of hidden food. In this study, we found that wolves who were raised by humans do not show these same skills, whereas domestic dog puppies only a few weeks old, even those that have had little human contact, do show these skills. These findings suggest that during the process of domestication, dogs have been selected for a set of social-cognitive abilities that enable them to communicate with humans in unique ways.