# What is a good book on evolutionary psychology

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-book-on-evolutionary-psychology/351315>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 4, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-book-on-evolutionary-psychology/351315 "2006-04-04T21:05:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-book-on-evolutionary-psychology/351315/1 "2006-04-04T21:05:48Z")

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One that covers all aspects of human psychology preferably instead of just one aspect like physical attraction, emotional attraction, why we compete to one up each other, etc. Preferably one that is somewhat well known so the school library will carry it.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-book-on-evolutionary-psychology/351315/2 "2006-04-04T21:21:35Z")

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Start with one by the grandaddy of the evolutionary biologists, E.O. Wilson. I recommned _On Human Nature_ (won the pulitizer prize). It may be a bit dated, but it’s still very good. Then you might try something more recent, like _The Blank Slate_, by Stephen Pinker.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-book-on-evolutionary-psychology/351315/3 "2006-04-04T21:22:39Z")

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Ooops. “psychologists”, not “biologists”, although he certainly is one of those, too!

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**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-book-on-evolutionary-psychology/351315/4 "2006-04-04T21:31:12Z")

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Leda Cosmides was one of my undergrad advisors and a scarily bright person. You might check out some of the stuff she’s written with her husband, John Tooby:

[http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.html](http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.html)

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**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-book-on-evolutionary-psychology/351315/5 "2006-04-04T23:41:34Z")

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A friend lent me a good book once called, “[EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS: THE ORIGINS OF THE WAY WE THINK](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C4SPO2/sr=8-1/qid=1144193839/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-5947009-1162545?%5Fencoding=UTF8),” by Robert Ornstein.

I only read about half of it but it was really interesting. It had a lot of focus on how the brain itself evolved and then subsequently how our consciousness came to be.