19.1.4: How Can Human Behavioral Ecology Help Us Understand the World?

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While it may seem that the field of human behavioral ecology is more concerned about our evolutionary past than our present, there are many contemporary issues that human behavioral ecology can help us solve. One area that human behavioral ecologists have focused on is reproductive decisions. Around the world, people are choosing to have fewer children than in the past. Some countries are still dealing with overpopulation, but an even larger number are dealing with population aging and depopulation. Understanding how people decide how many children to have is an important area of research in today’s world (Colleran and Snopkowski 2018). Researchers have also used evolutionary theory to improve handwashing rates around the world (Curtis 2013), reduce the obesity epidemic (Pepper and Nettle 2014), reduce conflict (de Waal 2000), and improve cooperation (Boyd and Richerson 1992).

Review Questions

Human behavioral ecologists focus on what two main factors as influencing behavior?
What are the three main explanations for why people in small-scale societies share food extensively?
Describe the environment that represents most of human history.
What are two misconceptions about human behavioral ecology?
What contemporary world issues can human behavioral ecology help us solve?