Revisiting the Miller-Kanazawa Debate: Should Asia Be Afforded More Attention From Evolutionary Psychologists?

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Sean T. H. Lee¹ 

[1] School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University

关键词: Geoffrey Miller;    Satoshi Kanazawa;    debate;    Asia;    future of evolutionary psychology;    response;    opinion;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00547

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

A decade ago, Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa and Dr. Geoffrey Miller, two renowned evolutionarypsychologists, participated in a debate on whether evolutionary psychologists should focus onAsia in their quest to establish a stronghold in the general field of psychology (Kanazawa,2006; Miller, 2006a,b). Despite painstaking efforts to foster greater receptiveness among Westernpsychologists toward an evolutionary perspective of psychological phenomena, most still seem to becritically reserved toward it; favoring instead proximate sociocultural explanations of psychologicalphenomena as stipulated by the standard social science model (Tooby and Cosmides, 1992; Popper,2003; Derksen, 2005). Facing such an inertia, Miller (2006b)suggested that it may perhaps be wise tore-direct the field’s efforts on the up-and-coming Asia region, to potentially secure better prospectsfor the field of evolutionary psychology. Kanazawa (2006), however, opposed such a notion andexpressed considerable doubt on whether Asia would be worth the effort.

【 授权许可】

CC BY