Definition
In evolutionary psychology, maladaptive theory holds that some human behaviors are the result of past selective forces that are no longer operative, usually because of changes in the physical and social environment, resulting in behaviors that are no longer beneficial for fitness.
A maladaptation is a feature of an organism that, despite being genetically encoded or influenced, hinders the biological fitness of the individuals that bear it. Rarely is it straightforward to determine that a given trait is unambiguously maladaptive. Indeed, as noted by Crespi (2000), “Conditions for unambiguously identifying maladaptation are considerably more stringent than those for demonstrating adaptation.” Nevertheless, the existence of maladaptive physical and behavioral traits is undeniable and reminds us of the limits of adaptationist explanations for human behaviors.
At its very origin...
References
Bowman, J. (2007). Honor: A history. Encounter Books.
Bramble, D. M., & Lieberman, D. E. (2004). Endurance running and the evolution of homo. Nature, 432(7015), 345.
Brent, D. A., & Mann, J. J. (2005). Family genetic studies, suicide, and suicidal behavior. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part C: Seminars in Medical Genetics, 133(1), 13–24. Wiley-Blackwell.
Breslin, P. A. (2013). An evolutionary perspective on food and human taste. Current Biology, 23(9), R409–R418.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). 2016 leading causes of death report.
Charles, D. (1859). On the origin of species by means of natural selection. London: Murray.
Chesler, P. (2010). Worldwide trends in honor killings. Middle East Quarterly, 17(2), 3.
Crespi, B. J. (2000). The evolution of maladaptation. Heredity, 84(6), 623.
Darwin, Charles (1859). On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray.
Eaton, S. B. (2006). The ancestral human diet: What was it and should it be a paradigm for contemporary nutrition? Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 65(1), 1.
Galle, O. R., Gove, W. R., & McPherson, J. M. (1972). Population density and pathology: What are the relations for man? Science, 176(4030), 23–30.
Gill, A. (2009). Honor killings and the quest for justice in black and minority ethnic communities in the United Kingdom. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 20(4), 475–494.
Gluckman, P. D., & Hanson, M. A. (2004). Living with the past: Evolution, development, and patterns of disease. Science, 305(5691), 1733–1736.
Gould, S. J., & Lewontin, R. C. (1979). The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: A critique of the adaptationist programme. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 205(1161), 581–598.
Gould, M. S., Greenberg, T. E. D., Velting, D. M., & Shaffer, D. (2003). Youth suicide risk and preventive interventions: A review of the past 10 years. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 42(4), 386–405.
Gyllenberg, M., & Parvinen, K. (2001). Necessary and sufficient conditions for evolutionary suicide. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 63(5), 981–993.
Henrich, J. (2009). The evolution of costly displays, cooperation and religion: Credibility enhancing displays and their implications for cultural evolution. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30(4), 244–260.
Jew, S., AbuMweis, S. S., & Jones, P. J. (2009). Evolution of the human diet: Linking our ancestral diet to modern functional foods as a means of chronic disease prevention. Journal of Medicinal Food, 12(5), 925–934.
Juurlink, D. N., Herrmann, N., Szalai, J. P., Kopp, A., & Redelmeier, D. A. (2004). Medical illness and the risk of suicide in the elderly. Archives of Internal Medicine, 164(11), 1179–1184.
Kimura, M. (1983). The neutral theory of molecular evolution. Cambridge University Press.
Kovacs, M., & Garrison, B. (1985). Hopelessness and eventual suicide: A 10-year prospective study of patients hospitalized with suicidal ideation. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1(42), 559–563.
Lande, R. (1980). Sexual dimorphism, sexual selection, and adaptation in polygenic characters. Evolution, 34(2), 292–305.
Leighton, A. H., & Hughes, C. C. (1955). Notes on Eskimo patterns of suicide. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 11(4), 327–338.
Levy, L., & Herzog, A. N. (1974). Effects of population density and crowding on health and social adaptation in the Netherlands. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 15, 228–240.
McAndrew, F. T. (2002). New evolutionary perspectives on altruism: Multilevel-selection and costly-signaling theories. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(2), 79–82.
Morris, D. (1994). The naked ape: A zoologist’s study of the human animal. Random House.
Oquendo, M. A., Ellis, S. P., Greenwald, S., Malone, K. M., Weissman, M. M., & Mann, J. J. (2001). Ethnic and sex differences in suicide rates relative to major depression in the United States. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158(10), 1652–1658.
Pomiankowski, A. (1987). The costs of choice in sexual selection. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 128(2), 195–218.
Rogers, A., Iltis, D., & Wooding, S. (2004). Genetic variation at the MC1R locus and the time since loss of human body hair. Current Anthropology, 45(1), 105–108.
Rushton, J. P., Russell, R. J., & Wells, P. A. (1984). Genetic similarity theory: Beyond kin selection. Behavior Genetics, 14(3), 179–193.
Sahlins, M. D. (1976). The use and abuse of biology: An anthropological critique of sociobiology. University of Michigan Press.
Trivers, R. (2018a). The evolutionary genetics of honor killing. Retrieved October 20, 2018, from https://www.researchgate.net/project/The-evolutionary-genetics-of-honor-killing
Trivers, R (2018b). The evolutionary genetics of honour killing. Manuscript in preparation.
Voracek, M., & Loibl, L. M. (2007). Genetics of suicide: A systematic review of twin studies. Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, 119(15–16), 463–475.
Yamasaki, A., Araki, S., Sakai, R., Yokoyama, K., & Voorhees, A. S. (2008). Suicide mortality of young, middle-aged and elderly males and females in Japan for the years 1953–96: Time series analysis for the effects of unemployment, female labour force, young and aged population, primary industry and population density. Industrial Health, 46(6), 541–549.
Zihlman, A. L., & Cohn, B. A. (1988). The adaptive response of human skin to the savanna. Human Evolution, 3(5), 397–409.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Lents, N.H. (2019). Maladaptive By-Product Hypothesis. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3020-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3020-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences