Reliability of Evolutionary Psychology
In module 3, we got more information about evolutionary psychology, from which such ‘fun facts’ come that red is a colour that is correlated to sexual excitement because of baboons’ behinds being red. Or the theory that there is a difference between the sexes that is significant in jealousy. All these theories might seem plausible at first glance, and we might just go along with the ‘facts’ that are being told; however, are these still applicable, and are these studies even replicable?
Eugenics, the theory that everything is based on the genes people get, and other theories based on factors we as humans cannot change, are most often much older and based on a lot of research that is not replicable. This comes most often from the horror of the research world called the replication crisis. Most often, these research papers do not have a strong or clear method section, so when these studies were tested again, the researchers could not replicate them exactly. This case has been brought up before with a certain theory regarding identifying faces and emotions. Specifically, the theory that humans can easily identify eight emotions in human faces. This study was, however, suffering from the replication crisis, and besides that, when it was tested again, the results were significantly different from the previous experiment, which suggested that the methods were not specified in the right way or other factors might have been at fault.
Thus, besides the replication crisis, there is also the chance that when a study does get replicated, the same results come out, and that there might be a different factor affecting the relationship. We, as psychology students, are warned about it countless times; however, somewhere in the process, these studies in evolutionary psychology have shown that they might not have identified the actual relation between the correct variables. Such as jealousy between the sexes. The exaggeration that jealousy is based mostly on someone’s sex and not on other variables is an outdated idea that, if the study were recreated again, might show different results. Other factors might be at play, such as how the person is raised up, how old the person is, or what their experience is. These factors might sour the experiment if the test is done based solely on sex. This is why a high count of diverse individuals would be best for these studies; however, often this is not achieved in evolutionary studies and is only tested on a small part of the population.
Another outdated practice is that these studies mentioned only two sexes, even though people who are intersex have existed forever as well. Often evolutionary psychologists avoid the argument of transgenderism, as this brings in question often their studies. Also, to not forget, what about same sex attraction, and how would that correlate to red lipstick or jealousy? All these factors that have not been taken into account when these studies were made are things that in our current society have to be considered.
Evolutionary psychology should remind us once again why it is so important to be precise in writing your methods, to exclude any potential variables that could ruin the testing, to get a large enough sample and to consider sources based on their date. Our world develops every day, and we as researchers and psychologists have to challenge each other to create a scientifically healthy and educated world, and that starts with doing our research in consideration of all the aforementioned factors.
This blog post is inspired by this video by Münecat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31e0RcImReY&t=11951s
