Same about evolutionary psychology -- 90 percent of it is what real scientists call Just So stories. I think there's something to the stuff about chronic stress, though. As I understand it, the difference isn't that people back then didn't experience daily stress, but that our emergency-response system (the HPA axis in our brains, the sabre-tooth tiger alert feature) is constantly being activated so we spend more time on high key, with concomitant changes in our neurophysiology. (I used to work with behaviorally troubled dogs, so I did a certain amount of research on the effects of maternal stress and chronic anxiety. The effects are horrible -- there's solid research on the health damage from being Black in a racist society, e.g.)
Oh, and I see that gaudior makes a related, better case below. Cosigned.
Unpaid ad coming: I listen to a podcast called Ologies, which is hosted by a progressive woman who makes it her business to interview women scientists and scientists of color. IT'S SO GREAT.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2020-10-13 04:25 pm (UTC)Oh, and I see that
Unpaid ad coming: I listen to a podcast called Ologies, which is hosted by a progressive woman who makes it her business to interview women scientists and scientists of color. IT'S SO GREAT.