Paul Ehrlich challenges evolutionary psychology and the 'selfish gene' in his new book, Human Natures: 9/00

9/14/00

Mark Shwartz, News Service (650) 723-9296;
e-mail: mshwartz@stanford.edu

Paul Ehrlich challenges evolutionary psychology and the 'selfish gene' in his new book, Human Natures

Do "selfish genes" program men to be more promiscuous than women?

Beneath the veneer of civility, are people innately aggressive?

Some researchers -- and a growing segment of the general population - would answer "yes" to those and a host of other questions, suggesting that we are tightly programmed by our genes.

But according to Stanford evolutionist Paul R. Ehrlich, there is little scientific basis for such widely accepted notions.

Ehrlich challenges the so-called "selfish gene" and other tenets of evolutionary psychology in his wide-ranging new book, Human Natures: Genes, Cultures and the Human Prospect (Shearwater Books/Island Press, Washington, D.C.).

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