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Welcome to Evolutionary Psychology and Art!

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Evolution of Evil

Course Description

Although we enjoy watching movies, reading novels, and listening to music, we might think that these are not very productive ways to spend our time. Yet every society throughout history has devoted significant resources to creating and enjoying art. Why is this the case? Some scholars have proposed that there is an evolved, biological “human nature” that can help explain why people are psychologically inclined to create and consume art, particularly art that tells stories. Just as songbirds have evolved the ability to create complex melodies, the argument goes, humans have evolved an ability to create and enjoy complex images, music, and stories. We will address questions such as: why does every human culture have art? Why do we enjoy hearing made up stories about people who don’t exist? Why do beautiful models date ugly rock stars? And why do we like watching good guys beat bad guys?

Like all Thinking With Writing modules, “Evolutionary Psychology and Art” is fundamentally a course in effective academic writing. This particular section will teach students to write effective arguments by discussing and evaluating theories that use evolutionary psychology to understand art and its effects on audiences. In doing so, students will also learn general concepts about critical thinking, humanist and scientific methods, evidence, and the nature of proof that can be applied to nearly any academic area. No prior knowledge of biology, art, or any other topic is necessary to succeed in the course.

If you have previously studied art or literature, you should know that this course studies these areas differently than you may have done so in the past. We do not focus on close examination of individual works with the goal of appreciating them by identifying their formal features or themes. We focus on art as a concept and understanding how art and its effects can be better understood. The course discusses art more in terms of groups, such as specific art forms or genres, than it does individual works.

This website provides all information about the course. We will use the Canvas course site 🡕 for submitting assignments and discussion posts. See here for more information.

Changelog

2024-09-21

  • added page Assignments → General information → Assignment Feedback
  • reorganized Assignments links into three groups
  • revised Exercise Guidelines

2024-09-15

  • added page Writing → Grammar

2024-09-14

  • fixed headings on citations page
  • revised citations page

2024-09-13

  • updated GenAI policy to emphasize that following policy is required to receive credit for assignments
  • revised Paper 1 assignment to clarify the parts of Pinker’s argument you should discuss
  • revised formatting page to make it even clearer that paper formatting guidelines apply to paper-related assignments, not just final papers

2024-09-09

  • added writing resource: topic sentences
  • added ev resource: niche construction theory

2024-09-08

  • reorganized sidebar links

2024-09-07

  • added feedback form to site pages
  • fixed typos

2024-09-06

  • added paper 1 assignment
  • added paper 1 proposal assignment
  • changed ‘exercises’ link group to ‘assignments’
  • added 4.1 class videos to schedule

2024-09-01

  • added discussion questions to 4.1 assigned reading
  • added new section “Writing”
  • added pages “Citations” and “Software”

2024-08-26

  • posted resources pages for evolution concepts and evolution & religion
  • revised evolution resources page

2024-08-25

  • updated links to Canvas exercises and paper assignments
  • fixed reading download links
  • revised “readings” page

2024-08-21

  • added download links to assigned readings and videos
  • updated assignment “Due” styling

2024-08-20

  • added workload log for download
  • fixed formatted paper example download

2024-08-18

  • revised GenAI policy page to include ChatGPT Convdown image
  • revised/condensed other policies page
  • various wording revisions

2024-08-17

2024-08-16

2024-08-15

  • reorganized sidebar to reorder links
  • added arrow icon to external links
  • external links open in new tab
  • changed ‘Course schedule’ layout to make assignment due dates clearer
  • revised ‘Technology guidelines’ policy
  • [note: ‘Writing’ tab links still broken]