The XX Factor : evolutionary psychology, gender issues

Evolutionary Psychology: Bad Science, Bad Journalism, or Both?

Rachael Larimore — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:58:00 GMT

Our evolutionary psychology discussion has had me on the lookout for stories that seem particularly ridiculous. And on Fox News today, the morning hosts mentioned a study that purports to show that gentlemen preferred blondes as far back as the Ice Age....(read more)

Why 9/11 Means More Daughters

Morgan Smith — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:23:00 GMT

If a woman's stressed during pregnancy will she not have a son? A piece in the new issue of the Economist suggests a connection between maternal stress and a baby's gender. Here's the theory: First World women are 5 percent more likely to have a male...(read more)

Hard-Wire This!

Dana Stevens — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:01:00 GMT

I just had to join in with a "hear, hear" for stamping out evolutionary psychology (at least in its pop-science incarnation.). Now that I have a child of my own, I'm constantly eavesdropping on playground conversations about which behaviors are "hard-wired"...(read more)

Evolutionary Strippers

Emily Yoffe — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:42:00 GMT

Meghan , Anne , Here's another recent study to add to the pile of questionable evolutionary psychology findings about women's sexual signaling—the evo psychs are obsessed with proving that women on their fertile days actually do experience estrus like...(read more)

The Utter Phoniness of Evolutionary Psychology

Anne Applebaum — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 04:19:00 GMT

It's taken a long time, but at last— thank you for contributing , Meghan!—evolutionary psychology is being revealed as the psuedoscience it usually is, at least by the time it reaches the newspaper columns and the conversations around the water cooler....(read more)

Evolutionary Psychology Strikes Again

Meghan O'Rourke — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:58:00 GMT

The trouble with evolutionary psychology is that there are no (or few) ways of testing its theorems. With enough ingenuity on the part of the researcher, nearly any finding about gender can be twisted to suit the evolutionary lens. Prime example, from...(read more)