4.4 Review

Deciding what to observe: Thoughts for a post-WEIRD generation

Journal

EVOLUTION AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Volume 41, Issue 5, Pages 445-453

Publisher

ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.05.006

Keywords

WEIRD; Evolutionary social science; Cross-cultural comparisons; Phenomics; Replication crisis; Slow science

Funding

  1. Geography of Philosophy Project - John Templeton Foundation [60813]

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The evolutionary social sciences (ESSs) are thriving, and seem to have entered a period of normal science. This is a good time to examine our own practices, theoretical and empirical, and to ask how we might improve. Here I review papers published in the past five years in EHB to explore major trends in the field. Theoretically, the popularity of certain topics (cooperation, mating, life history) has led to great progress, but might have narrowed our theoretical vision. Empirically, most research is still conducted in WEIRD populations, with a smaller mode of research in small-scale societies, and very little in the middle. I offer suggestions for broadening our theoretical and empirical scope, centered around the project of constructing a representative map of the human psychological and behavioral phenome.

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