Evolutionary Psychology

Abstract Evolutionary psychology applies evolutionary theory to explain aspects of human thought and behavior. Evolutionary psychology begins with a few important assumptions: 1) the human mind is the product of a long evolutionary history; 2) for much of that history, our species lived in an environment (hunter‐gatherer groups on the savannas of Africa) very different from the environments most of us find ourselves in today; 3) therefore our minds have evolved as adaptations for survival in that ancestral environment (called the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness, or EEA); and 4) the mind is composed of many separate “modules,” each evolved to solve specific problems important in our EEA. These modules include mental processes for finding and keeping mates, competing with rivals, finding food, and other evolutionarily important skills.