Psychologist and writer’s appearance on Aporia condemned for helping to normalise ‘dangerous, discredited ideas’

Psychologist and writer’s appearance on Aporia condemned for helping to normalise ‘dangerous, discredited ideas’

The Harvard psychologist and bestselling author Steven Pinker appeared on the podcast of Aporia, an outlet whose owners advocate for a revival of race science and have spoken of seeking “legitimation by association” by platforming more mainstream figures.

The appearance underlines past incidents in which Pinker has encountered criticism for his association with advocates of so-called “human biodiversity”, which other academics have called a “rebranding” of racial genetic essentialism and scientific racism.

Pinker’s appearance marks another milestone in the efforts of many in Silicon Valley and rightwing media and at the fringes of science to rehabilitate previously discredited models of a biologically determined racial hierarchy.

  • jwigglerEnglish
    0•13 days ago

    Idk, I mean I’m not a fan of Pinker (his whole book on why violence has declined seems to ignore structural violence all around us, especially lower classes, and heavily supports capitalism) but evolutionary psychology seems pretty legit to me?

    Geographically isolated groups of a single species will show variations of behavior and psychology that is affected by their environment and genetic predispositions – that seems like a pretty reasonable take.

    Yeah, when people take that to racist extremes, its problematic. You can’t assume a person’s quality because, when it comes to individuals in a particular, geographically originated group, you don’t know where they landed on the spectrum re: genetic predisposition, and then you don’t know their current environment either. It all comes out in the wash. I don’t really think that means evolutionary psychology is total bunk, though. Its useful to put humans along with other animals when we think about their how their behavior and psychology are affected by evolution.

    • @[email protected]English
      0•13 days ago

      Geographically isolated groups of a single species will show variations of behavior and psychology that is affected by their environment and genetic predispositions – that seems like a pretty reasonable take.

      call it reasonable or plausible or whatever you want, but for it to be science it needs empirical evidence and predictive value. Failing that you just have “reasonable” hypotheses, and one person’s “reasonable” is another person’s racist/sexist/transphobic/whatever, especially when the hypotheses emphasize nature over nurture. That’s the problem with evolutionary psychology.