Evolutionary psychology has been one of the most important and stimulating streams of insight about who we are over the last thirty years. But - like all disciplines - it's also responsible for a lot of guff. David Brooks puts his finger on what the most reductive analyses (the ones that suggest there's a gene for everything and we're just following orders) are missing:
Individuals are created by social interaction. Our identities are formed by the particular rhythms of maternal attunement, by the shared webs of ideas, symbols and actions that vibrate through us second by second. Shopping isn’t merely a way to broadcast permanent, inborn traits. For some people, it’s also an activity of trying things on in the never-ending process of creating and discovering who they are.
And no, not every post today will be an MJ song title.
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