Any evolutionary psychologists in the house?

[Tero]

I think berries evolved mostly for birds. They see color and are really good at spreading seeds, all fertilized and ready.

[JimC]

I was reading in Dan Dennett's Breaking The Spell that humans have a taste for sugar, if only due to our ancestors' consumption of fruit and what-not for high sources of energy. We acquired the ability to taste 'sweetness' because of this 'liking'. Fruit co-evolved with us, as our senses were enhanced to enjoy the 'sweetness' and fruit aesthetically developed to appear more seducing to animals, and us. If this is the case, as Dennett purports, does it explain why we decorate confectionery with bright, tantalizing packaging? Sweets are marketed in such a way because it works at a fundamental level, particularly with children. But is this why?


We must naturally associate sugar-content with colours, surely?

Nope, because you'd also have to explain why so many other things are advertised with bright colours. Advertisers use bright colours/lights to try and make their products stand out from the background and be more noticed. The problem is now that there is so much advertising, and thus so many bright colours, that the advertising has become the very background they're trying to contrast with.

What's the alternative? Advertise things with bland and forgettable colours?

As a general rule of thumb, if Dan Dennett believes in it, then it's probably either wrong or an exaggeration of the actual facts. In addition, most evo psych claims are bullshit, so ask for a reference to the research when somebody says something like this is true (I doubt Dennett references his claim because he prefers to deal with fantastical speculation, not facts).

Some of it is exaggerated, and/or without substantial evidence ("just-so stories"), but not all.

Our evolutionary history is written on our physical structures, there is no reason to suppose that this cannot apply to cognitive structures as well, given a reasonable allowance for plasticity and the impact of a given culture...

The sweet craving is a well-reasoned suggestion. Linking it to the bright colours of fruit is a stretch, although our colour vision itself most probably derives from a primate fruitivore past...

[Mr.Samsa]

Some of it is exaggerated, and/or without substantial evidence ("just-so stories"), but not all.

Indeed, not all of it is bullshit (and some of it is truly brilliant research), but like I said, most of it is bullshit.

Our evolutionary history is written on our physical structures, there is no reason to suppose that this cannot apply to cognitive structures as well, given a reasonable allowance for plasticity and the impact of a given culture...

Certainly - the main premise behind evo psych is plausible. Undeniably, our brain controls our behavior, some of the structures in our brain are formed through evolutionary processes, therefore some of our behaviors (or aspects of them) are a product of evolutionary processes. The problem with evo psych comes in demonstrating that a certain behavior is evolved, and instead of doing the research, most of the people in the field just rely on speculation, adaptationist claims, and a fundamental ignorance of learning theory. For example, many researchers will claim that a universal characteristic must be evolved, when obviously this isn't true.

The sweet craving is a well-reasoned suggestion. Linking it to the bright colours of fruit is a stretch, although our colour vision itself most probably derives from a primate fruitivore past...

It is a fair suggestion to make. I wasn't suggesting that 'since most of evo psych is bullshit then this claim must be bullshit', but rather pointing out that we should be careful to check whether these claims are actually backed by evidence and well-conducted research. If not, we'll fall into the trap of accepting all the other bullshit claims in evo psych; that we're attracted to symmetry or women with specific waist-to-hip ratios, that women are attracted to the colour red because they used to be gatherers, that people have developed 'cheater-detection' modules, etc.