We are beasts, you and I. Total animals. As sophisticated as we
might fancy ourselves, we are as zoological as dingoes, goldfish, and
llamas. This empirical fact, which is the first principle of the
fledgling science known as evolutionary psychology, may seem obvious,
but its implications and manifestations are staggering. In Why
Beautiful People Have More Daughters, Alan S. Miller and Satoshi
Kanazawa detail with fascinating clarity how and why our genes are
responsible for just about everything we do.
We accept that salmon spawn, peacocks strut, and dogs howl at the
moon because it’s part of their innate nature—something in their
genes tells them to. Until the advent of evolutionary psychology,
scientists agreed that every animal operated this way—except
humans. We supposedly emerged as slimy tabula rasa, and our
empty brains were instantly filled with socially fabricated gender
roles. This means that genitalia aside, men and women are otherwise
identical, which should have been clue number one that this was a
flawed theory.
Evolutionary psychology contends that the brain is a biological
organ that has adapted, much like our hands or eyes, to ensure maximum
survival and reproduction. And since spreading your genes around is the
primary goal of evolution, it’s no surprise that nearly everything
boils down to getting laid.
From the biological determinants that dictate why women have fewer
affairs, why newborns will stare at photos of pretty women longer than
at ugly ones, why guys love porn, and why most suicide bombers are
Muslims, evolutionary psychology boils it down to genetic hardwiring
that has been propagating the human species for the past 10,000
years.
Of course, there are plenty of exceptions to these guiding
principles, which the authors address, and they also confess to huge
gaps in the field: Homosexuality, for instance, has yet to be
“explained” with evolutionary psychology. Beautiful People is
sure to upset some people (liberals and feminists, particularly), but
the authors have written a science book, and frequently remind us that
this is biology, not morality. Even if some of their findings are
startlingly politically incorrect, it’s impossible to read this book
and not see yourself throughout. You can’t help it: It’s in your genes.