Why do some people hate evolutionary psychology?
In my experience, most knee-jerk criticisms of evolutionary psychology are motivated by the following (incorrect) syllogism: I [the critic] want political change. Political change requires changing people. Evolutionary psychologists argue that people have innate and unchangeable natures. Evolutionary psychologists are therefore opposed to social or political change, and are merely attempting to scientifically justify the status quo. More generally, all scholars, particularly ‘scientific’ social scientists, need to acknowledge the ideological underpinnings of their work. The irony, of course, is that such critics are assuming that humans are unavoidably political by nature. Further, these critics also assume that not only are people essentially political, but that they act to promote their own self interest. How sociobiological! I doubt any evolutionary psychologist would disagree! Biological determinism is somehow seen as antithetical to social or political change. If evolutionary psyc
