Human Sexual Selection, Good Genes, and Special Design

A bstract : Evolutionary psychology seeks to understand the functional design underlying psychological processes and behavior. Theories of selection pressures developed within evolutionary biology are key components of this understanding. Because past selection pressures responsible for current design cannot be directly observed, theoretical understandings of the psychological processes and behavior must be inferred. The most important epistemological concept within evolutionary psychology is that of special design‐evidence that a feature exhibits specificity, efficiency, and economy for producing a particular beneficial effect. A variety of sexual‐selection processes have been proposed to account for aspects of human mating. These processes are not mutually exclusive. More than one may account for aspects of human mating. A core task of evolutionary psychology within this domain is to identify which processes account for which phenomena. I have attempted to illustrate how the search for special design is central to this endeavor.