Evolutionary Psychology最新文献

{"title":"The Role of Indigenous Epidemic Folk Stories in Shaping Adaptive Disease-Related Behaviors in West Papua.","authors":"Kiriakos Chatzipentidis, Marta Kowal, Piotr Sorokowski","doi":"10.1177/14747049261439652","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14747049261439652","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Epidemics rank among humanity's deadliest disasters, profoundly affecting societies across health, psychological, social, and economic domains. Past outbreaks have left a unique cultural legacy in the form of epidemic folk stories that explain disease etiology and provide behavioral guidelines during crises. This aligns with theories suggesting that storytelling may serve as an adaptive mechanism facilitating transmission of survival-relevant information. We explored this premise among Indigenous people in West Papua, Indonesia. We interviewed 100 Asmat men, asking them to recall folk stories about past infectious diseases and report their attitudes toward coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We found that individuals more familiar with epidemic folk stories were more likely to express fear of COVID-19 and adopt social distancing behaviors during the pandemic. Content analysis revealed that these oral narratives emphasized themes such as dietary and good health practices (42%) and hygiene (23%), whereas direct recommendations for social isolation constituted only 12% of identified themes. This pattern suggests that folk stories may not primarily function as precise behavioral instruction manuals, but rather as mechanisms that sensitize individuals to potential disease-related threats. Consistent with this interpretation, exploratory mediation analyses were compatible with the Behavioral Immune System framework, suggesting that folk story knowledge may be associated with heightened sensitivity to pathogen-related cues, stronger emotional responses, and greater behavioral avoidance in threatening contexts. However, the cross-sectional and exploratory nature of our study precludes strong causal or temporal inferences. Longitudinal or experimental research is needed to test these hypotheses and provide stronger evidence for causal interpretation.</p>","PeriodicalId":47499,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Psychology","volume":"24 2","pages":"14747049261439652"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13145047/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147785577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adaptive Memory: Story Processing Improves Recall Performance.","authors":"Matthew B Reysen, Zoe H Fischer","doi":"10.1177/14747049261421967","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14747049261421967","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Across four experiments, participants were asked to process unrelated common nouns after listening to pleasantness processing instructions, survival processing instructions, or story processing instructions. In Experiment 1, participants were provided with a list of words and were asked to list various ways that the words were pleasant or unpleasant, list ways that the words could help them survive in an ancestral grasslands scenario, or use the words in the list to create a short story. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to perform similar tasks, but rather than being provided with a word list at the start of the experiment, words were presented one at a time at a fixed rate. In Experiment 3, participants were asked to rate words as they were presented one at a time regarding their perceived pleasantness, their relevance to an ancestral survival scenario, or the ease with which they could be included in a short story. In Experiment 4, a combined survival-story condition was included along with survival, story, and pleasantness processing instructions to determine whether combining story and survival processing produces an additive effect on recall performance. Across all four experiments, after a brief delay, the story processing condition produced either enhanced or comparable incidental recall performance to the survival processing scenario, and both of those conditions produced enhanced recall performance relative to the pleasantness processing scenario. These results suggest that processing information in the context of a story, like survival processing, may represent one of the best deep processing tasks identified to date.</p>","PeriodicalId":47499,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Psychology","volume":"24 1","pages":"14747049261421967"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12881306/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146133277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Green and Generous: Virtue Signaling Environmentalism and Community-Mindedness from an Evolutionary Perspective.","authors":"Maryanne L Fisher, Hidenori Komatsu, Hiromi Kubota, Nobuyuki Tanaka, Mariah Griffin, Glenn Geher","doi":"10.1177/14747049261423756","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14747049261423756","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We explore the self-reported propensity for virtue signaling of environmentalism and community-minded messages. Evolutionary psychologists have not paid much attention to virtue signaling, although it has implications for social relationships, in-group/out-group dynamics, status, mate choice, and kinship. We tested three hypotheses regarding sex differences in samples (<i>N</i> = 20,423) obtained in 2020 from Canada, Japan, and the USA. First, across all samples, we hypothesized that both sexes use environmentalism and community-mindedness to engage in virtue signaling, which was supported. Second, we hypothesized that conspicuous ethical consumption, as a form of virtue signaling, is performed more by women than by men, which was not supported. Contrary to our prediction, men reported higher engagement in conspicuous ethical consumption, suggesting that status motives may have a strong role in their virtue signaling behaviors. Third, we hypothesized that known sex differences in the Big Five personality traits are linked to virtue signaling. That is, typically, women are reported to score higher than men in neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, while men score higher on openness than women. Our findings partially support this pattern. Last, we report on intercultural differences. We close with a discussion of the usefulness of studying virtue signaling from an evolutionary perspective.</p>","PeriodicalId":47499,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Psychology","volume":"24 1","pages":"14747049261423756"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12924965/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146259055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Propensity to Punish in High Psychopathy may Promote Cooperation: Human and Computer Prisoner Dilemma Experiments.","authors":"Lloyd Balbuena, Nathan Kolla, John Logan","doi":"10.1177/14747049261435215","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14747049261435215","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We tested the adaptive hypothesis of psychopathy in human and computer Prisoner Dilemma (PD) matches. From a cohort of 448 male undergraduates who completed the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP), 31 high psychopathic (PP) and 29 low PP students, sampled from upper and lower quartiles of the cohort, played a 40-round PD match in which real money was at stake. The human matches were of three kinds: Low PP versus Low PP, Low PP versus High PP, and High PP versus High PP. In computer simulations, the empirical defection probabilities from High and Low PP human players were entered in a three-player round-robin match with tit-for-tat (TFT) or a less cooperative variant. The strategies proliferated or dwindled in subsequent generations in proportion to their winnings and the matches continued until two players became extinct. In the human matches, High PP players had higher earnings in matches with Low PP and lower earnings in matches with other High PP players. In the computer matches, TFT drove both Low PP and High PP to extinction. However, High PP drove both Low PP and a less cooperative variant of TFT to extinction. Our experiments showed that PP traits may proliferate in two ways. People with low psychopathy engage in selfish behaviors also and people with high psychopathy are capable of cooperation and deter defection by means of harsh punishment. The broader significance of the in silico experiment is that randomness in social encounters may allow behavioral expressions of psychopathy to thrive over an altruistic and reciprocal strategy such as TFT.</p>","PeriodicalId":47499,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Psychology","volume":"24 1","pages":"14747049261435215"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13009891/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147494255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Predictability Outweighs Individuality of Developmental Goals With Respect to Their Functional Value: The Sample Case of Non-Cooperative Goals.","authors":"Chantal Janßen, Werner Greve","doi":"10.1177/14747049261436250","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14747049261436250","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human developmental goals are both flexible and highly individualized, yet long-term cooperation requires behavioral predictability. This raises the question of whether goals that prioritize personal autonomy and independence (\"ego-goals\") might hinder or even contribute to cooperative behavior. Building on the assumption that predictability of action, rather than social content of goals, is a key prerequisite for successful cooperation, this study examined whether ego-goals predict cooperative behavior in novel social environments. In a two-wave longitudinal design (<i>N</i>_t₁ = 155, <i>N</i>_t₂ = 48), participants transitioning from school to university reported their developmental goals and self-perceived behavioral reliability as well as their cooperative activities. Cooperation was measured via self-report and external assessments by close others at both time points. Regression analyses revealed that ego-goals at <i>t</i>₁ significantly predicted cooperative activity at <i>t</i>₂, even when controlling for prior cooperation. Including behavioral reliability as a mediator reduced but did not annihilate this effect, supporting the hypothesis that goal-driven predictability facilitates cooperation regardless of goal content. These findings challenge the assumption that only prosocial goals foster cooperation, suggesting that the signaling function of consistent behavior, even when rooted in non-cooperative goals, can promote cooperation in new social settings. From an evolutionary perspective, these findings align with theoretical accounts highlighting behavioral consistency's role as a basis for social bonding and cooperation. Stable goals, regardless of their social direction, may serve as reliable predictors of future behavior, reducing uncertainty and facilitating partner selection, thereby supporting the evolutionarily adaptive function of cooperation, even amid variation in goal content.</p>","PeriodicalId":47499,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Psychology","volume":"24 1","pages":"14747049261436250"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13031755/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147522382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is a (Threatening) Picture (of an Animate Stimulus) Worth a Thousand Words? The Animacy Effect Using Eyetracking and Photographic Stimuli.","authors":"Juliana K Leding","doi":"10.1177/14747049261429900","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14747049261429900","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The mnemonic effects of animacy and threat were explored with photographic stimuli. After studying labeled photographs of animate and inanimate items that were either threatening or nonthreatening, participants recalled significantly more animate items than inanimate items and more threatening items than nonthreatening items. However, a recognition test of the photographs showed higher accuracy for inanimate photographs. Eyetracking technology was utilized in the second experiment to determine if participants' eye movements are affected by the animacy or threat status of stimuli and whether the pattern of eye movements were similar to the pattern of memory results. The free recall patterns followed the typical effects of animacy and threat, but a reverse animacy effect was again found in photograph recognition. Further, eyetracking measures revealed patterns similar to those of the free recall data, with more fixations and more time spent viewing animate items and threatening items. The data present a dichotomy between memory for the specific details of the studied stimuli (i.e., the details of the studied photographs) and memory for the more general semantic information of the studied stimuli (i.e., the ability to recall more animate items than inanimate items). The results of the eyetracking show that animate items and threatening items are more likely to capture visual attention of participants when compared to inanimate items and nonthreatening items, which could be at least partly responsible for the increased memory for these item types in recall memory, but not necessarily recognition memory.</p>","PeriodicalId":47499,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Psychology","volume":"24 1","pages":"14747049261429900"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12961148/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147357181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reduced Readiness for Social Interaction as a Strategy for Pathogen Avoidance by Women in Various Stages of Pregnancy and Postpartum.","authors":"Natalia Frankowska, Aleksandra Tołopiło, Michal Olszanowski, Šárka Kaňková, Mikołaj Kuczmarski, Aleksandra Szymkow","doi":"10.1177/14747049251411481","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14747049251411481","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Behavioral Immune System (BIS) drives disgust-based avoidance, but its response to immunological changes during pregnancy is understudied. The Compensatory Prophylaxis Hypothesis (CPH) predicts heightened disease-avoidant social behavior in early pregnancy due to immunosuppression. We examined whether first-trimester women show reduced willingness to engage with outgroup members or individuals displaying infection signs compared to later pregnancy stages and postpartum. We also assessed moderation by perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD) and perceived COVID-19 threat. Data were collected in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic via online surveys in two studies. In the cross-sectional Study 1 (<i>N</i> = 425, age 18-46, <i>M</i> = 29.64, <i>SD</i> = 5.37), pregnant participants at different stages of pregnancy assessed their willingness to engage in social contact with individuals displaying or not displaying infection cues shown in photographs, and then completed measures of PVD and Perceived Threat of COVID-19. The longitudinal Study 2 (<i>N</i> = 112, age 22-41, <i>M</i> = 30.14, <i>SD</i> = 4.05) employed the same procedure, administered four times-during the first, second, and third trimesters, and postpartum. Findings did not support CPH. Social avoidance was unrelated to the pregnancy stage but significantly associated with PVD and COVID-19 threat. Results underscore the situational and individual flexibility of BIS responses.</p>","PeriodicalId":47499,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Psychology","volume":"24 1","pages":"14747049251411481"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12949289/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147291440","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Childhood Demographics and Socioeconomic Conditions Predict Reproduction 15 Years Later.","authors":"Vinícius Betzel Koehler, M D Rutherford","doi":"10.1177/14747049261432881","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14747049261432881","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Psychosocial acceleration theory (PAT) posits that experiencing harsh and unpredictable environments during childhood cues the development of earlier and more frequent reproductive events. However, this developmental association has not been tested in large human populations. Visible minorities and Indigenous people are also subjected to harsher and more unpredictable circumstances than the general population. These circumstances might not be detected in common measures used in PAT literature. In four studies, we tested whether an exploratory analytical approach using measures of harshness and unpredictability from census data of a high-income country (Canada) would be relevant predictors of measures of reproduction 15 years later, whether the proportion of Indigenous people and of visible minorities are relevant predictors, and tested methodological and statistical assumptions and limitations of this approach. Following PAT assumptions, we hypothesize that higher rates of harshness and unpredictability will be associated with higher rates of reproduction. Results were mixed in offering support or working against PAT claims. A higher percentage of children in low-income households was predictive of a higher percentage of single-parent households in Canadian census divisions. However, measures indicative of lower access to resources and unpredictable parental availability were negatively predictive of reproduction outcomes. A higher percentage of Indigenous people was also predictive of a larger family size of single parents. Findings can help inform public policies around early pregnancy and family planning.</p>","PeriodicalId":47499,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Psychology","volume":"24 1","pages":"14747049261432881"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13070147/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147640080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is Parenthood Contributing to Emotional Wellbeing? The Neutrality Paradox and a Possible Resolution.","authors":"Menelaos Apostolou, Mark Sullman, Agata Błachnio, Ondrej Burysek, Ekaterina Bushina, Fran Calvo, William Costello, Tetiana Hill, Maria Galatiani Karageorgiou, Yanina Lisun, Denisse Manrique-Millones, Oscar Manrique-Pino, Yohsuke Ohtsubo, Aneta Przepiórka, Burcu Tekeş, Andrew Thomas, Yan Wang, Mads Larsen, Sílvia Font-Mayolas","doi":"10.1177/14747049261436325","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14747049261436325","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Evolutionary theorizing predicts that parenthood is associated with higher hedonic wellbeing (experiencing more positive and fewer negative emotions), higher eudaimonic wellbeing (experiencing greater meaning in life), and greater life satisfaction. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed a dataset comprising 5,556 participants drawn from 10 different nations. We found a small positive effect of parenthood on eudaimonic wellbeing, which was more pronounced for women. Conversely, we found virtually no differences between parents and nonparents across all measured dimensions of hedonic wellbeing and life satisfaction. Furthermore, for most dimensions, we did not detect significant interactions between parenthood status and sex, age, or relationship status. Additionally, participants with children reported lower relationship satisfaction than those without children; however, the observed difference was small. Our results contrast with evolutionary predictions, as well as empirical findings showing that parents perceive their children as sources of positive emotions and life purpose, creating a paradox for which we offer a possible resolution.</p>","PeriodicalId":47499,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Psychology","volume":"24 1","pages":"14747049261436325"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13009945/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147499906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is Ornamentation a Universal Human Preference? Cross-Cultural and Developmental Evidence From Scotland, Pakistan, and Papua.","authors":"Piotr Sorokowski, Jerzy Luty, Wiktoria Jdryczka, Michal Mikolaj Stefanczyk","doi":"10.1177/14747049251388596","DOIUrl":"10.1177/14747049251388596","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ornamentation is a widespread feature of human material culture, yet its preference varies across societies. We tested the hypothesis that variation in ornamentation preference correlates with socioecological factors, comparing 215 parent-child dyads from three societies differing in WEIRD characteristics: Scotland, Pakistan, and Papua New Guinea. We found that less WEIRD societies exhibit stronger preferences for ornamentation, consistent with adaptive socioecological influences on aesthetic valuation. Moreover, a decline in ornamentation preference with age was observed only in the Western sample, suggesting cultural suppression of ornamentation across development. These findings support the view that children's aesthetic preferences may more closely reflect evolved, foundational biases toward ornamentation, which are subsequently modulated by cultural context. Investigating such developmental trajectories is crucial to understanding the biological basis and evolutionary origins of human aesthetic preferences.</p>","PeriodicalId":47499,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Psychology","volume":"23 4","pages":"14747049251388596"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12618845/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145524223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}