ABSTRACT
I shall discuss several problems with this research. First, the connections of Cosmides' "Social Contract Theory" to evolutionary biology - contrary to the claims of its promoters - are quite problematic. In addition, it seems that the ostensible links to evolutionary biology - rather than the experimental evidence - are doing much of the work of eliminating rival psychological hypotheses. Once the exaggerated and ill-reasoned claims are removed, the experiments appear to support a non-evolutionary psychological theory at least as strongly: in fact, none of the usual burdensome evidential requirements for an evolutionary hypothesis are even attempted. Evolutionary psychologists are primarily using evolutionary theory to attempt to eliminate other competing theories within psychology, without regard to - and, in fact, in violation of - the standards of evolutionary biology. In what follows, I shall describe briefly the Cosmides theory and its evidence and problems, review updated evidence within psychology, and finally, discuss the relation of evolutionary psychology to evolutionary biology. Part I of this paper will focus on the two leading psychological theories; in Part II, I consider the evolutionary aspects of Social Contract theory.
