The Evolutionary Approach to Political Psychology

Abstract

Abstract This chapter reviews how biological evolution has shaped human political psychology and how political psychologists can approach the study of evolution and politics. The core argument of the evolutionary approach to political psychology is that our ancestors repeatedly faced political problems as part of their small-scale social life. If evolution had not designed the human mind to deal with these problems, our ancestors would not have survived and reproduced. Accordingly, political psychologists should expect the human mind to contain a large number of psychological mechanisms specifically dedicated to political decision-making. The chapter outlines the general political problems faced by our ancestors; illustrates the evolutionary approach through in-depth discussions of the politics of pathogen avoidance, cheater detection, and status seeking; provides concrete advice on how to theorize about political psychology from an evolutionary perspective; and discusses how an evolutionary perspective sheds new light on classical discussions about citizens’ rationality.