From an evolutionary perspective, psychological factors that bear on reproductive success are of particular importance as such factors directly pertain to Darwin’s bottom line. The psychology surrounding human mating, then, is particularly important from a Darwinian perspective. Mating intelligence is a construct that integrates work on mating psychology with work on intelligence. This broad construct is divided into two general sets of abilities: cognitive mating mechanisms (such as the ability to detect romantic interest on the part of a potential mate) and mental fitness indicators (which are outward behavioral displays of intelligence that facilitate successful courtship).

Developing creativity in students is not a luxury. Technology experts project that about 47% of current jobs in the United States will become obsolete because of computers within the next decade or two, and the jobs that will remain are those that require creative intelligence (Frey & Osborne, 2013). In this chapter we propose that supporting youths’ capacities for social-emotional imagination – their abilities to creatively conjure alternative perspectives, emotional feelings, courses of action, and outcomes for oneself and others in the short- and long-term future – is a critical missing piece in many classrooms. This mental act of imagining precedes and translates into creative behaviors – behaviors that demonstrate divergent thinking or a novel approach to a problem and result in the formation of a useful idea or work.

Students’ school success and lifelong creativity are facilitated not only by the cognitive skills measured by IQ tests but by other cognitive and social-emotional attributes. Critically, a capacity for imagination enables many of these cognitive and social-emotional skills, such as intellectual curiosity, openness to experience, passion, inspiration, love of work, envisioning future goals, persistence, sense of mission, courage, delight in deep thinking, tolerance of mistakes, and feeling comfortable as a “minority of one” (e.g., Cox, 1926; Duckworth & Seligman, 2005; Fredricks, Blumfeld & Paris, 2004; Furnham & Bachtair 2008; Kaufman, 2013a, 2013b; Kaufman et al., 2015; Nusbaum & Silvia, 2011; Oyserman & Destin, 2010; Runco, Millar, Acar, & Cramond, 2010; Torrance, 1993, 2003, 2004; von Stumm, Hell, & Chamorro- Premuzic, 2011). Imagination is central because it allows students to reflect holistically about what they learn such that school-related tasks are more meaningful, personally relevant and rewarding, and more connected to the adulthood they hope to achieve one day. Imagination facilitates creative, critical dispositions toward new content and skills by helping students conjure new connections between ideas and invent new ways to represent and apply information.

Introduction

Schizophrenia, a debilitating mental illness affecting roughly 1 percent of the population worldwide, is widely accepted as being highly genetically influenced (Cardno et al., 1999; Gershon et al., 1988; Kendler and Diehl, 1993). Schizophrenia is often marked by distortions of reality, disorganized thought, emotional blunting, and/or social isolation that may interfere with optimal functioning (Cornblatt et al., 2012). Schizophrenia may be associated with creativity, although research findings are mixed (e.g., Andreasen, 2011; Kyaga et al., 2013). Evidence also points to adverse effects on fertility and reproductive success among (particularly) males with schizophrenia (Svensson et al., 2007), in part accounted for by marital status (McCabe et al., 2009), suggesting potential biological and social influences. Collectively, this raises an intriguing potential evolutionary puzzle: How does schizophrenia persist in the population at a stable prevalence rate too high to be explained by simple random mutation? (Doi et al., 2009; see also Del Giudice et al., 2010). Among various hypotheses, including in the context of the emerging field of evolutionary epidemiology, schizophrenia may represent “one extreme of a sexually selected fitness factor” (Shaner et al., 2004).