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The Scientific FundamentalistA Look at the Hard Truths About Human Nature

by Satoshi Kanazawa

If general intelligence evolved to deal with evolutionarily novel problems,

then the human brains difficulty in comprehending and dealing with

evolutionarily novel entities and situations (proposed in the SavannaPrinciple) should interact with general intelligence, such that the Savanna

Principle holds stronger among less intelligent individuals than among

more intelligent individuals. More intelligent individuals should be better

able to comprehend and deal with evolutionarily novel (but not

evolutionarily familiar) entities and situations than less intelligent

individuals.

Thus the Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis (hereafter The Hypothesis

in this blog) suggests that less intelligent individuals have greater difficulty

than more intelligent people with comprehending and dealing with

evolutionarily novel entities and situations that did not exist in the ancestral

environment. In contrast, general intelligence does not affect individuals

ability to comprehend and deal with evolutionarily familiar entities and

situations that existed in the ancestral environment.

Evolutionarily novel entities that more intelligent individuals are better ableto comprehend and deal with may include ideas and lifestyles, which form

the basis of their preferences and values. It would be very difficult for

individuals to prefer or value something that they cannot truly

comprehend. So, applied to the domain of preferences and values, the

Hypothesis suggests that more intelligent individuals are more likely than

less intelligent individuals to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel

preferences and values that did not exist in the ancestral environment and

thus our ancestors did not have, but general intelligence has no effect on

the acquisition and espousal of evolutionarily familiar preferences and

values that existed in the ancestral environment.

In future posts, I will discuss some of the implications of the Hypothesis in

different domains of life, and empirical evidence pertaining to them.

The HypothesisWhy do people want what they want?

Published on March 14, 2010 by Satoshi Kanazawa in The Scientific Fundamentalist

Where do individual values and preferences come from? Why do people

want what they want? What explains the origin of idiosyncratic individual

preferences and values?

The problem of values their origin and individual differences is one of the

unresolved theoretical questions in behavioral sciences. The economists

traditional answer to the question of individual values and preferences is: De gustibus non est

disputandum. There is no accounting for tastes, and one therefore cannot explain individuals

idiosyncratic values and preferences.

I believe evolutionary psychology is key to uncovering the origin of individual preferences and values.

The Savanna Principle states that the human brain has difficulty comprehending and dealing with

entities and situations that did not exist in the ancestral environment. The theory of the evolution of

general intelligence suggests that general intelligence evolved as a domain-specific psychological

adaptation to solve evolutionarily novel problems. Their logical conjunction suggests a qualification of

the Savanna Principle and leads to a new hypothesis about individual preferences and values.

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Satoshi Kanazawa is an

evolutionary psychologist at LSE and

the coauthor (with the late Alan S.

Miller) ofWhy Beautiful People HaveMore Daughters.

more...

Instead of succumbing to fantasies of an endless

childhood, we need to embrace our stage.

Marc Freedman

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Tags: ancestral environment, behavioral sciences, conjunction, economists, entities, evolution,

evolutionary psychology, general intelligence, human brain, individual differences, intelligence,intelligent individuals, iq, nbsp, novel problems, origin of preferences and values, psychological

adaptation, tastes, the hypothesis, the savanna principle, the savanna-iq interaction hypothesis

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