Evolutionary psychology is responsible for the identification of the human psychological traits that are evolved adaptations. While evolutionary biology, for example, is there to identify the ways in which our bodies have adapted through time, evolutionary psychology studies the psychological adaptations that people went through.
Those that study evolutionary psychology claim that our minds can and have gone through changes similar to those that our bodies went through. Evolutionary psychology is said to mainly affect our emotions, the way we behave with our closed ones and with ourselves.
So, let’s find out more about the benefits evolutionary psychology has on our day to day lives. You will be surprised with how many things we actually do just because of how we’ve evolved – and in quite a few cases, you would have had no idea that they are actually a product of evolution.
It Helps Us Love and Care for Our Children
If you are in charge of a naughty child, then you might wonder sometimes why you are still willing to do everything for him or her. Well, the past helped us greatly when it comes to this.
Before modern health care or any types of medical care that would be able to prevent most common diseases, as much as 50% of newborn babies didn’t make it past one year old. Moreover, 80% of the people living back then with no reach to proper medication, didn’t make it past eighteen years old. What’s the result?
Well, in time, we have learned to care more and more for our offspring. As we have few of them, we also put a lot of time in their caring and education. There is a small remnant of the past, back in our head, which tells us that, at any given time, we might be left without our children – and that just makes them more precious.
It Taught Us to Be Altruistic
By nature, people help one another. This trait was given to us back when we were just apes – that is if you believe in Darwin’s theory. Nevertheless, history proves to us that humans always try to help others of their kind, and not only.
Of course, not all people have evolved to be altruistic, but that’s just the influence of the many bad things that have happened so far. However, we see how important altruism is in our day to day life.
For example, people will sometimes do everything they can to appear altruistic – why? Because people, who are or just seem this way, have a better relationship with other people or with a group they’re a part of. No one likes a grumpy person who wouldn’t do anything to help his kin or donate for charity.
It Is Why We Still Love Nature
It is a fact well-known that our ancestors were not living in four-story buildings. Most of their time was spent outdoors, in nature. This has led to a human-nature relationship that is still available in some places in the world today. Nature would provide us with everything we needed for survival, while we were tending to and preserving it.
While nowadays man has a very hard time keeping this relationship balanced, we still feel the need to go a bit wild time to time and take a holiday far away from everything that’s modern.
This is why we still love going outdoors, even if our lifestyles are characterized by aspects of the modern age: staying inside all the time, working in a cubicle, being restrained by the cities’ grim look.
No matter how much we love our technology, gadgets, and living conditions, some of us would give it all away for a couple of months in the wilderness.
It Makes Us Want to Be Close to Our Kin
Until the Industrial Revolution, people usually lived in communities, of around 150 people, in which many people were related to one another. If you wanted to talk to your cousin, you would have just gone and pay a visit to her – right on the spot.
Many times, after we finish a call with one of our relatives, we feel like we would give anything just to be closer to one another – to be able to visit him or her whenever we want, without having to spend two or more days on the road, for example.
But, it is not about only wanting to be closer to our kin. It also makes us care more for those that are far away from us. We call them weekly, we ask them how they’re doing and how’s life going – sometimes with no purpose whatsoever; we just want to know they are healthy and good.
As you have noticed, evolutionary psychology does not have immediate effects on real life. However, just like evolution, it affects us in the long run, giving us traits and characteristics that help us be better people.