HUMAN BEHAVIOURAL BIOLOGY

11/04/20

Lecture 1 – Introduction to Human Behavioural Biology

 We take continua and break them into pieces as its easier to deal with
- Example would be assigning names to colours along the colour spectrum, or
measuring distances in units like feet
- When we have words for things (like shapes), thinking in categories makes it much
much easier for us to remember & evaluate stuff
- So categorial thinking helps us to process and understand complex continua things

 There are some problems with this though:

- In Finnish there is no differentiation between B and P. When we pay too much
attention to categories, we may not be able to differentiate between two facts that
fall within that category
- Another example of getting 39 or 40 on a test. Realistically 1% is not much difference
at all, but when it is the difference between passing and failing, it becomes
important. When we think categorically, we miss the similarity of the two things on
either side

 When we think in categories, we underestimate the difference between two things

within that category, and over-estimate the things on either side of that category
boundary

The aim is to understand behavioural biology without thinking too much in categories
- To not attribute behaviours to exclusively hormones, genetics, environment,
neurology etc

 In menstrual synchronisation, the sync is not random. The subordinate female will sync
to the dominate females’ cycle
- The more ‘socially’ dominant. The more outgoing, confident, attractive
 15/04/20

Lecture 2 – Behavioural Evolution

 Behaviour, like phenotypes, are heritable and are subject to the law of natural selection
- Certain behaviours are inheritable, that is to say, certain behaviours have genetic
components

 Animals do NOT behave for the good of the species. This is an evolutionary myth
- Animals behave for ‘passing on as many of their genes as possible’
- Animal behaviour is optimised so they can pass on as many of their genes as possible.
They don’t act altruistically. Their end goal is leave as many progenies as possible
 Evolution works on ‘reproduction of the fittest’ not ‘survival of the fittest’
- This is the ultimate animal ‘end’

 We see 3 ways in which animals leave most copies possible to the next generation;

1) Individual selection – To help the individual survive

- Reproduction is one behaviour which an animal uses to leave its genes to the next
generation
- One way to get as many of your genes into the next generation as possible is just to
have lots of offspring
- So, animals having traits that allow them and their offspring to survive in
environments. This is natural selection

2) Sexual selection – To help the individual reproduce

- Traits that carry no adaptive value, but for some reason appeals to the opposite sex,
so that animal reproduces more and leaves more of its genes to the next gen

So far, we have these 2 selective pressures which influence how many of our genes are left
to the next gen. sometimes these selections can conflict. For example, female fish may
prefer brightly coloured mates (sexual selection), but these bright colours may attract
the attention of predators (natural selection)