Blindingly obvious flaw 1: it might be true (or at least defensible) to say that Thing X exists in modern beings because of Thing-X bearing ancestors. But it is *not* therefore true to say that Thing X confers reproductive fitness. It might be a side-effect of Thing Y that confers reproduction fitness. It might even be a *bad* side-effect of Thing Y, but +Y > -X so it doesn't matter.
Evolutionary psychology is *all* post-hoc; see above re belief and hindsight. There may be evidence for e.g. men tending to prefer women of particular sizes/shapes, but the "it's because of evolution" bit is entirely unproven. And probably unprovable. (And the research that's done on this often operates on some pretty dubious prior biases - in particular in terms of gender.)
no subject
Blindingly obvious flaw 1: it might be true (or at least defensible) to say that Thing X exists in modern beings because of Thing-X bearing ancestors. But it is *not* therefore true to say that Thing X confers reproductive fitness. It might be a side-effect of Thing Y that confers reproduction fitness. It might even be a *bad* side-effect of Thing Y, but +Y > -X so it doesn't matter.
Evolutionary psychology is *all* post-hoc; see above re belief and hindsight. There may be evidence for e.g. men tending to prefer women of particular sizes/shapes, but the "it's because of evolution" bit is entirely unproven. And probably unprovable. (And the research that's done on this often operates on some pretty dubious prior biases - in particular in terms of gender.)
Interesting stuff, though.