Feb 12 2009
Evolution Slept Here
Evolutionary psychology is a fascinating field of conjecture study. Yes, the data it relies upon is indirect and thus ideas based upon it should be expressed tentatively. Still, I’m drawn to it, as a child in a zoo seeing a solo rhinoseros for the first time might be drawn to the animal’s horn. What is that for?
When I scan headlines for science news, titles like this one will catch my eye: Xenophobia, For Men Only.
Hmm. What’s this about?
It’s known that people are more fearful of “out-groups” – that is, people who are different from them, and this fear of “the other” has been clearly demonstrated with race. But Navarrete found that volunteers’ most persistent fears were reserved for men – that is, male members of the out-group. So white men and women feared black men, and black men and women feared white men; all the other lab-induced fears, including any conditioned fear of women diminished.
Shouldn’t the title then be, “Xenophobia, Of Men Only”? Further tests revealed that -
Those with close relationships outside their own race had less persistent fears than did those with little interracial experience.
Interesting and potentially helpful.
The article ends with, surprise, a tentatively worded explanation.
Why would gender influence these ingrained fears as much as race? It may be that men were more often the aggressors over evolutionary time, so that male faces became a potent cue for danger. So xenophobia is not an equal-opportunity emotion.
Evolutionary psychology doesn’t “close the book” on an inquiry with neat, tidy and complete solutions. It opens it.
