Introduction

H ow and why does the human mind work the way it does? Consider two very different perspectives on this important question.One inuential perspective emerges from the study of human evolution: The basic psychological repertoire of the human species consists of adaptations, or their by-products, accumulated over the course of a very long evolutionary history. Key aspects of our emotions are adaptations, as are specic aspects of cognition. Many basic behavior patterns can also be conceptualized as adaptations, such that we respond to environmental cues with behaviors that, in ancestral environments, were associated with incremental advantages in reproductive tness. In sum, the workings of the human mind-and the resulting psychological phenomena-must be considered the product of evolution.