Cosmides, Leda, Tooby, John, Fiddick, Laurence, and Bryant, Gregory A. (2005) Detecting cheaters. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9 (11). pp. 505-506.

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Abstract

Successful scientific theories are those that have survived repeated attempts to falsify them, make detailed and novel predictions about previously unobserved phenomena that are subsequently confirmed, predict new observations that falsify rival theories, fit coherently and even deductively with other established theories, and economically account for large bodies of known phenomena. A number of evolutionary psychological hypotheses have met all the criteria of successful scientific theories, including our proposal that the human mind contains (1) an evolved neurocognitive system that is functionally specialized for reasoning about social exchange, with a subroutine for detecting cheaters (social contract theory (SCT) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8), and (2) an evolved neurocognitive system that is specialized for reasoning about precautions in hazardous situations (hazard management theory (HMT) [8]). By contrast, the Buller–Fodor counterhypothesis, constructed post hoc to retrodict a small subset of our results, has been repeatedly and decisively falsified by many researchers over the past fifteen years. These diverse experimental falsifications (which Buller fails to disclose 9 D.J. Buller, Evolutionary psychology: the emperor's new paradigm, Trends Cogn. Sci. 9 (2005), pp. 277–283. Article | PDF (139 K) | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (11)[9]) are not hidden in obscure sources, but are prominently featured in publications that Buller cites on other points. Specifically:

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