The political downplay of evolved psychology in the United States: 1980–2010

Thesis

This dissertation explores the rise of evolutionary psychology—as both an academic discipline and a topic of heated public debate—within the United States from 1980 to 2010. Spearheaded by Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, this subdiscipline of psychology claimed that human behavior was heavily influenced by natural selection, and its popularity fueled—and was fueled by—countless newspaper articles, magazine features, and best-selling books. The field’s journey from the minds of Cosmides and Tooby to the homes of millions of curious Americans was riddled with hostility, however. I argue that evolutionary psychology’s founders and advocates in the press faced elevated levels of pushback and criticism from their fellow scientists and public intellectuals; not because their methods or data were being legitimately questioned, but because the field’s conclusions regarding the more sinister elements of human behavior were viewed as a threat to society.

This “downplay” was largely political for two reasons: First, it was “politically correct” in that it sought to dismiss legitimate explanations of human behavior that could reinforce harmful stereotypes or lead to violence. Second, it was predicated on a blind loyalty to an ideological team—the progressive Left—which was under pressure to adhere to a new set of social guidelines stemming from the rise of multiculturalist rhetoric and relativistic anthropology. These two motivations operated in tandem in order to stop the spread of potentially dangerous ideas.

Historians who have examined the modern Left’s rare yet notable rejections of evolutionary science have tended to focus on the radicalizing influence of Marxist thought, which spread through American universities in the 1960s and ‘70s. These histories have also focused specifically on the impact of Marxist science within the context of the sociobiology debates that played out in the 1970s, and the “science wars” that took place in the ‘90s. Little attention has been paid to the wider downplay of scientific theories that pointed to the existence of an evolved mind, which was driven more by an entrenched fear of public misappropriation than by a sincerely held and Marxist-driven belief that the science itself was flawed.

Authors: Logan, N

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-e2ajrv8pr
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: history of science; evolution; sociobiology; history of psychology; evolutionary psychology; psychology
• Subjects: History, Modern