Synthesizing Proximate and Distal Levels of Explanation: Toward an Evolution-Informed Sociology

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that despite the growing acceptance of psychological research by mainstream sociologists, the discipline of sociology remains largely averse to biology. This is because the kind of psychological research that sociologists now utilize tends to rely on the same assumptions of thought, action, and human behavior-broadly construed-that sociologists have on the whole tacitly endorsed since Durkheim's seminal criticism of Kantian categories in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life: Namely, that fundamental categories of perception, though naturally experienced, are socially constructed. This assumption is present in both psychological work on schemas and the dual-process model, which continue to be incorporated into sociological analysis at a growing pace. We further demonstrate how sociologists' overall positive reception of this kind of psychological research was facilitated by two factors: the rejection of biological explanations of human behavior and the tacit commitment to social causes by many sociologists in the field throughout the twentieth century. We demonstrate how synthesizing biological research with sociological research can extend existing sociological work by focusing on the study of parenting and crime and deviance. In these subfields, we believe sociologists can gain better understanding of their topics by moving from relatively proximate concerns to more distal ones. We conclude by asserting that seeing individuals' decision-making styles and capacities as a product of both evolved and social processes can lead to the development of more robust and yet parsimonious models of action in the discipline. Doing so need not make sociologists blindly endorse evolutionary approaches to human behavior, but start our theories with a view to both long and short history.

Scaling the Security Staircase

“…While a human‐security perspective foregrounds subjective experience, it does not rule out the influence of social and political structures on people's everyday behavior (Hopner et al, 2020). Just as society can be changed through “understanding up” from grass roots to societal levels of change (MacLachlan, 2014, p. 85), so too, “proximate causes of behavior can be triggered by more distal social causes” (Williams & Montgomery, 2018). The point of a human security perspective, and a possibility that we would like to explore, is that human security includes distal as well as proximal stimuli.…”

More than a Game: Racecraft and the Adaptation of “Race” in Live Action Role Play

“…Demographic studies expose the correlation between impoverished areas, crime, and race without considering how the social practice of racism explains this inequality (Knight et al 2004;Marotta 2017). The reemergence of "evolution-informed" sociology has argued that criminal behavior is lodged in our genetic makeup and that a neglect of biology has curtailed effective explanations (Rebellon et al 2014;Walsh and Yun n.d.;Williams and Montgomery 2018). This racecraft beckons us to dig deeper and deeper into "race", as if it were some new frontier promising a bounty of equitable solutions.…”