IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jinsec/v8y2012i04p537-550_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reflections on the implications of evolutionary psychology for the theory of institutions

Author

Listed:
  • EASTWOOD, JONATHAN

Abstract

In this paper I consider the implications of work in evolutionary psychology for institutional analysis. I respond to Pascal Boyer and Michael Bang Petersen (‘The Naturalness of (Many) Social Institutions: Evolved Cognition as their Foundation’; 2012), who put forward a programmatic statement in this connection. I argue that their discussion overstates the explanatory power of evolutionary psychology and does not take sufficient account of what we already know about institutions. At the same time, I suggest that they, and the empirical work upon which they draw, make an important contribution by helping us to establish more clearly the boundary conditions of institutional analysis. I call for ongoing cooperation and for the establishment of a unified research tradition that brings together both evolutionary psychology and institutionalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Eastwood, Jonathan, 2012. "Reflections on the implications of evolutionary psychology for the theory of institutions," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(4), pages 537-550, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jinsec:v:8:y:2012:i:04:p:537-550_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1744137412000094/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jinsec:v:8:y:2012:i:04:p:537-550_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/joi .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.