Is Our Online Behavior Based On Evolutionary Psychology?
Our behavior online is now a primary focus of researchers. One group of researchers believes that, our online behavior is no different to evolutionary behavior, as explained by evolutionary psychology.
Internet behavior is one of the most researched fields in the recent times. However most of the studies have based their research on traditional psychology models, which are good in determining the proximal causes of our online behavior. Researchers from UK are now proposing that our internet behavior is modeled upon evolutionary psychology and suggesting that, such a model would help learn the distal causes of our internet behavior.
Despite the major differences between face to face communication and computer mediated communication, there exist a lot of similarities. To further their claim and motivate fellow researchers, the researchers have made some interesting similarities between typical online behaviors and evolutionary psychology theories. Given below are few of those observations/suggestions. Further research into each of the following, would help us learn, whether we are following our evolutionary psychological behavior, online as well.
Evolutionary psychology suggests that men posses adaptations that orient them towards short-term mating than women. This is explained by men’s preference towards greater number of sexual partners over time, requiring less time to consent to sex and more likely dropping their standards of attractiveness when considering a one-night stand, compared to women. These and many similar theories correlate with the following observed behaviors in online chatting: i. Men more than women will enter chat rooms in pursuit of one-time sexual encounters (e.g., cybersex) ii. Women more than men will enter chat rooms to seek flirtatious interactions with the same partners, with the ultimate goal of building trust and intimacy. iii. Men will lower their standards of attractiveness more than women when pursing online sexual encounters or when arranging to meet offline to have sex. iv. Men more than women will report using chat rooms simply as an outlet for sexual variation. v. women more than men will report sharing personal information to their online partners, as a sign of commitment to the relationship.
Intrasexual competition under an evolutionary psychology perspective suggests that, men compete with other men to show their higher status, in order to attract younger and attractive sexual partners, while women compete with other women by enhancing their physical attractiveness. Researchers have drawn similarities between this phenomenon and personal blogging, suggesting that i. Young men more than women will stress their skills and resources in their blogs (e.g., talking about their achievements or expertise), while young women stress more on their physical appearance and reputation (e.g., including a flattering photo or talk about their community involvement). ii. Young men more than women will derogate other men’s abilities and intelligence in their blogs (aggressive action), while young women more than young men will derogate other women’s appearance or sexual reputation (gossiping).
Infidelity has been treated by men and women differently, in evolutionary psychology. Men get more distressed and refuse to forgive when the infidelity involves sexual acts, while women treat emotional exchanges more serious. In contrast to in-person infidelity, measure of online infidelity is tough. Based on these, researchers suggest that i. Men more than women will experience jealousy over a partner conducting online sexual acts, while women would experience jealousy over the partner exchanging emotional secrets ii. Factors such as anonymity, geographical distance and whether the relationship is recurrent or one-time, will moderate men and women’s reaction to infidelity.
Parental investment has evolutionarily found to be high in women than in men, due to the fact of certainty in paternity. Based on this theory, it is suggested that i. Women would take more active role than men, in monitoring their kid’s online activities and ii. Men in high-trust relationships with their kids will play a more active role in monitoring as compared to dads in low-trust relationships.
Humans have evolved psychological adaptations for assessing the veracity of gossip in order to counteract deceptive communication. More specifically, people are more skeptical of negative social information that is disseminated by single and interdependent sources. Based on this it is suggested that i. eBay users reject repeated negative feedback from same buyer, just one buyer or a buyer who has any form of interdependence with the seller.
Given above is just a small subset of possible similarities between our online behavior and the evolutionary psychology we posses. Further research into each of these suggestions, would shed more light on this.
Journal Reference: doi:10.1016/j.chb.2009.07.002
