ABSTRACT
Human nature is a term that is widely used and understood in everyday conversation. Most people have a common-sense belief that there are some universal characteristics and predictable ways of behaving that make humans human. However, throughout much of the twentieth century, the idea of human nature was strongly resisted in psychology and the social sciences more generally. Other animals might have instincts that cause dogs to act like dogs and cats to act like cats, but humans were assumed to be above such base infl uences. Instead, we were seen to acquire all of our psychological characteristics during our individual lifetimes via social, cultural and other environmental factors. In the past few decades, however, some psychologists have begun exploring the behavioural implications of evolutionary theory to create the sub-discipline of evolutionary psychology, and to provide a scientifi c foundation to the concept of human nature.
