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The sketch is blank: No evidence for an explanatory role for cultural group selection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Max M. Krasnow  and
Andrew W. Delton
Max M. Krasnow
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. krasnow@fas.harvard.edu http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/epl/people/max-krasnow
Andrew W. Delton
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, College of Business, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4392. andrew.delton@stonybrook.edu http://andrewdelton.com
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Abstract

As evidence that cultural group selection has occurred, Richerson et al. simply retrodict that humans use language, punish each other, and have religion. This is a meager empirical haul after 30 years. This contrasts sharply with the adaptationist approach to human behavior – evolutionary psychology – which has produced scores of novel, specific, and empirically confirmed predictions.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e43
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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