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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Traffic, preterm birth, and adaptationism

So, here's a thing:
Best URL for sharing: http://www.darwineatscake.com/?id=30
URL for hotlinking or embedding: http://www.darwineatscake.com/img/comic/30.jpg

This relates to a criticism that I made of evolutionary psychology, but which applies to many naive adaptationist arguments: it is easy to come up with a plausible-sounding adaptive explanation of just about anything. In most cases, it is equally easy to come up with an equally plausible-sounding explanation of the exact opposite phenomenon.

Barnett AG, Plonka K, Seow WK, Wilson LA, & Hansen C (2011). Increased traffic exposure and negative birth outcomes: a prospective cohort in Australia. Environmental health : a global access science source, 10 PMID: 21453550
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1 comment:

  1. Colin PurringtonMay 27, 2011 at 8:48 AM

    I've read, but not confirmed, that evolutionary psychologists are taller, more attractive, and have younger wives (when male) than others...so I've always wondered whether acceptance of evolutionary psychology hypotheses is heritable trait. Some love them, some think they are silly. Some are in between.

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