Evolutionary psychology criteria for good decisions:
Does it lead to reproductive success?
(or, DID it lead to reproductive success, in the environment in which it evolved?)
1) Evol. psychologists go after SPECIFIC mechanisms that solve SPECIFIC adaptive problems
2) FUNCTIONAL approach --
Not just enough to describe HOW humans decide, but WHY they decide--
don
=t just predict what they picked, but explain why they picked it.
CONTENT and CONTEXT of decisions --
important to evolutionary psychologists.
Mismatch of evolved mechanism and context --
may result in bad judgment.
E.g., food preferences (cravings for fats and sweets) evolved in time when there were rarely food surplusses.
A
mismatched@ with our current environment