What is a commonly cited weakness of evolutionary explanations of behaviour?

What is a commonly cited weakness of evolutionary explanations of behaviour?

• A. They ignore the huge influence of culture and society on behaviour.
• B. They fully explain aggression through biology alone.
• C. They focus primarily on conscious decision making.
• D. They ascribe all behaviour to random chance.

Answer: (A)

Evolutionary explanations frame behaviour as adaptations shaped by natural selection, often emphasizing biology as the driver. A frequently cited weakness is that they tend to ignore how culture and social context shape what we do. Culture—learned norms, social learning, institutions, language, and shared practices—can produce wide variation in behaviour across groups and can change rapidly, sometimes more quickly than genetic evolution. Because of that, purely biological accounts can struggle to explain behaviours that are clearly influenced by culture or context, making them feel incomplete for understanding human actions. Other common criticisms—like saying such explanations claim biology alone fully explains aggression, or that they focus on conscious decision making or random chance—don’t capture this key issue, which is the often missing cultural and societal influence.

Evolutionary explanations frame behaviour as adaptations shaped by natural selection, often emphasizing biology as the driver. A frequently cited weakness is that they tend to ignore how culture and social context shape what we do. Culture—learned norms, social learning, institutions, language, and shared practices—can produce wide variation in behaviour across groups and can change rapidly, sometimes more quickly than genetic evolution. Because of that, purely biological accounts can struggle to explain behaviours that are clearly influenced by culture or context, making them feel incomplete for understanding human actions. Other common criticisms—like saying such explanations claim biology alone fully explains aggression, or that they focus on conscious decision making or random chance—don’t capture this key issue, which is the often missing cultural and societal influence.