Critics often label evolutionary psychology “just so stories”– fanciful storytelling. This has become a popular criticism. “Just so stories” is a fantastic phrase. It is so evocative and damning. Serious scholars even use it to justify not reading evolutionary psychology. The critics sometimes have a point. I agree that some research relies on dubious arguments. Still there is bad work in all fields. The trick is to spot the good work. Of course, evolutionary psychology isn’t the only discipline that uses stories. Storytelling pervades social science. This is positive. Having a good story isn’t a criticism. I argue ‘storytelling: not an insult’. Good products perform better with good packaging. Successful ideas have good stories with them.
Storytelling: Not An Insult. That Said Don’t Use Stereotypes
Sometimes the flights of fancy can be too much however. I’ll turn to cultural work. This is occasionally seen as the antithesis of evolutionary thinking. (Though this contrast doesn’t really make sense. Culture and evolution are inescapably intertwined). Yet no one I know describes cultural stories as “just so stories”. Despite this when scholars describe culture their work is packed with ripping yarns. Sadly, these stories often play on stereotypes. They describe what Asians or Westerners do. At their worst, they sound like an unfunny 1970’s comedian. I expect mother-in-law jokes and “how white guys dance”.
Ancient Greeks Loved Liberty (Sometimes, Only For Some People)
Richard Nisbett and his colleagues in a 2001 review tell elaborate stories. They note how the Ancient Greeks prized the freedom to do their own thing. The authors ignore, a) slavery, b) the close to chattel status of women, and c) the idea behind ostracism. This involved exiling a high profile citizen for the benefit of the group. Furthermore, classical Greek military power came from the phalanx. This military formation relied on astonishing discipline. A story might link the collective action a phalanx required to the rise of democracy. A theme of ancient Greek history might be collective military power replacing more individualistic aristocratic power. (Think drill sergeant replacing Achilles).
In Nisbett’s work tales illustrate that the Ancient Chinese loved working together. After this, the authors draw sweeping conclusions about modern Westerners and East Asians. The abstract, which summaries the work, talks about the differences between “East Asians” and “Westerners” and says:
“The authors speculate that the origin of these differences is traceable to markedly different social systems.”
Nisbett et. al 2001, page 291
The key word is speculate. I argue that if Nesbitt’s article were an evolutionary psychology paper it would be labeled a just so story. Many people who reject evolutionary stories buy into other stories. Intellectually loose just so stories aren’t labelled as such for some reason.
Stories Are Good
My thought: every useful academic paper has a story. Don’t condemn stories. Storytelling is a great thing. Let us commend stories. The challenge is to determine which stories are worth telling. Does your work contain weak history and dodgy stereotypes? If so maybe that story isn’t worth telling. Still another story will be.
For more on culture see here.
Read: Richard E. Nisbett, Kaiping Peng, Incheol Choi, and Ara Norenzayan, 2001, Culture and Systems of Thought: Holistic Versus Analytic Cognition, Psychological Review, April, 108(2) page 291-310.