evolutionary

In this age of science, many people see supernatural forces as illusions rooted in wishful thinking. But love remains a profound exception to humanity’s trend toward rationality. Evolutionary psychology may explain why magical thinking is so central to love. Viva Luna Studios via Unsplash, CC BY People are used to seeing romantic love presented as it is on the reality show “The Bachelor” – as a force cosmically bound to one’s destiny. It’s an idea that is at once laughable and uncannily relatable for anyone who has been in love and felt their pairing compellingly “meant to be.” Our research suggests that magical notions of fated love and soulmates are very common and deeply felt. As psychology researchers interested in why human beings think, feel and behave in the ways they do, we ask a...

Shelly Volsche, Boise State University A pup out for a stroll, without paws touching the ground. Shelly Volsche, CC BY-ND Have you noticed more cats riding in strollers lately? Or bumper stickers that read, “I love my granddogs”? You’re not imagining it. More people are investing serious time, money and attention in their pets. It looks an awful lot like parenting, but of pets, not people. Can this kind of caregiving toward animals really be considered parenting? Or is something else going on here? I’m an anthropologist who studies human-animal interactions, a field known as anthrozoology. I want to better understand the behavior of pet parenting by people from the perspective of evolutionary science. After all, cultural norms and evolutionary biology both suggest people should focus on...

Tag: evolutionary

Why Does Love Feel Magical? It’s An Evolutionary Advantage

Here’s The Evolutionary Explanation Of Why Cat And Dog ‘Moms’ And ‘Dads’ Really Are Parenting Their Pets