BPS Core Textbooks Series

Developed in collaboration with the British Psychological Society

Chapter 26 – “You’re All Wet!”: Evolutionary Psychology and the Pleasures of Fantasy

Chapter Summary

This chapter explores the emergence and cultural influence of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology from the 1970s to the present. It charts how evolutionary explanations of human behaviour have triggered intense scientific and political debate, especially around gender, sexuality, and power. The chapter describes how sociobiology’s claims about kin selection, altruism, and sex differences evolved into the modular, mind-focused framework of evolutionary psychology. Through a cast of supporters and opponents of evolutionary psychology, readers are introduced to both the debates and ideological stakes of the field. The chapter uses Slavoj Žižek’s theory of fantasy as its central critical lens, showing how evolutionary psychology functions not only as a scientific paradigm but as a narrative that provides seductive, comforting explanations for complex social realities. These fantasies are shown to fulfil several functions, and to shape belief even when disavowed. Readers are encouraged to ‘traverse the fantasy’ by thinking critically about how scientific claims are constructed, received, and mobilised in culture.

Chapter 26 – Quiz

  • Chapter 26 – Flashcards

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  • Chapter 26 – Key Readings

    Alter, S. G. (2007), Race, language, and mental evolution in Darwin’s descent of man. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 43(3), 239-255. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.20238 

    Brown, G. R., & Laland, K. N. (2024). Sense and nonsense: evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour (Third edition). Oxford University Press. 

    Dunbar, R. I. M. (2007). Evolution and the social sciences. History of the Human Sciences, 20(2), 29-50. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695107076197 

    Dunbar, R. I. M., & Barrett, L. (2007). Oxford handbook of evolutionary psychology. Oxford University Press. 

    Fisher, K., & Funke, J. (2023). ‘All the progressive forms of life are built up on the attraction of sex’: Development and the social function of the sexual instinct in late 19th- and early 20th-century Western European sexology. History of the Human Sciences, 36(5), 42-67. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951231208992 

    Jackson, J. P., Jr. (2023). Arthur Jensen, evolutionary biology, and racism. History of Psychology, 26(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/hop0000221 

    Jarrett, S. (2020). Consciousness reduced: The role of the ‘idiot’ in early evolutionary psychology. History of the Human Sciences, 33(5), 110-137. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695120911557 

    Peters, B. M. (2013). Evolutionary psychology: Neglecting neurobiology in defining the mind. Theory & Psychology, 23(3), 305-322. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354313480269  

    Racine, T. P. (2021). The rhetorical use of B. F. Skinner in evolutionary psychology. Theory & Psychology, 32(1), 61-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543211030342  

    Rose, H., & Rose, S. P. R. (2010). Alas, poor Darwin: arguments against evolutionary psychology. Vintage Digital. 

    Roughgarden, J. (2013). Evolution’s rainbow: Diversity, gender, and sexuality in nature and people. University of California Press. 

    Ruck, N. (2016). Controversies on Evolutionism: On the construction of scientific boundaries in public and internal scientific controversies about evolutionary psychology and sociobiology. Theory & Psychology, 26(6), 691–705. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354316652968 

    Segerstrale, U. (2001). Defenders of the truth: the sociobiology debate. Oxford University Press.  Žižek, S. (1997) The plague of fantasies. London: Verso. 

  • Chapter 26 – Reflective Questions

    1. Why does the chapter begin with the anecdote of Edward O. Wilson being drenched with water? 
    2. How does the concept of fantasy, as used by Žižek, help us understand the enduring appeal of evolutionary psychology? 
    3. In what ways do critics argue that evolutionary psychology reinforces traditional gender roles? 
    4. How does the chapter contrast the approaches of Edward O. Wilson and Joan Roughgarden? 
    5. What role does popular science, such as Desmond Morris’s Manwatching, play in shaping public attitudes toward evolutionary psychology?

  • Chapter 26 – Weblinks

    There is no weblinks for this chapter.