Researcher ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-4230-5393
Document Type
Article
Program
Psychology (Pitzer)
Publication Date
2025
Keywords
developmental systems, evolutionary psychology, falsifiability, philosophy of science
Abstract
At the center of narrow evolutionary psychology’s theory lies the assumption that many human behavioral mechanisms evolved via natural selection. Although some components of this theory are falsifiable, its Lakatosian framework protects its core assumptions from falsifiability, even though most human behaviors probably do not require evolutionary explanations. Crucially, falsifiability is a necessary but insufficient quality of a good scientific theory, and the value of narrow evolutionary psychology (NEP) can be questioned on other grounds. NEP holds that only natural selection can create complex, functional adaptations, but natural selection is not a creative force; this process merely functions as a sieve that influences phenotype frequencies in descendant populations. Instead, only developmental processes can create the adaptations observed in individuals. Evolutionary explanations for behaviors will always be less useful than developmental explanations, given the context-dependent, emergent, and plastic nature of development. Evolutionary explanations will often be superfluous.
Rights Information
2025 American Psychological Association
Terms of Use & License Information
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001557
Recommended Citation
Moore, D. S. (2025). Components of evolutionary psychology are falsifiable, but does that make it a good theory? Commentary on Costello et al. (2025). American Psychologist.
Comments
©American Psychological Association, 2025. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001557.