The Effect of the Distinctiveness of Stimulation on the Survival Processing Superiority

Evolutionary psychology holds that our psychological mechanisms have evolved as the product of the hunter-gathering society of our ancestors’ (Tooby & Cosmides, 1990, 1995). It originates from Darwin’s theory (1859) of natural selection. This evolutionary perspective has recently been applied to psychology. The assumption (Nicholson, 1997) of the evolutionary psychology is that, we are not only physically adapted, but also mentally adapted. Humans are evolved to be mentally adaptive to their ancestor’s hunter-gathering society (Tooby & Cosmides, 1990). Our brain can be regarded as an adaptive organ like other physical adaptations (e.g. immune system protects human from disease). The role of evolutionary psychology is to identify these specific modulations of human mind (Barkow, Cosmides, & Tooby, 1992; Li, 2018). One simple example of adapted modulation is the fear of snakes and spiders. Serious studies showed (Mineka & Öhman, 2002; Öhman & Mineka, 2003; Rakison & Derringer, 2008) that human and other primates fear snakes and spiders more intensely than most other objects, even like cars and guns, which is more dangerous in the modern society. Evolutionary psychology explains that this fear helps human to avoid danger swiftly in the wild world (Mineka & Öhman, 2002). The adaptation of human also comes along with by-products and noise (Barkow et al., 1992; Confer et al., 2010). For instance, the fear of harmless snakes and spiders is byproduct of adaptation. Noise, however, is the random characteristics that are result from casual environment or genetic mutations.