Title

Sex, drugs and moral goals: reproductive strategies and views about recreational drugs

Authors

Authors

R. Kurzban; A. Dukes;J. Weeden

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Proc. R. Soc. B-Biol. Sci.

Keywords

reproductive strategies; humans; mortality; drugs; INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES; ATTITUDES; PERSONALITY; BEHAVIOR; INCEST; Biology; Ecology; Evolutionary Biology

Abstract

Humans, unlike most other species, show intense interest in the activities of conspecifics, even when the activities in question pose no obvious fitness threat or opportunity. Here, we investigate one content domain in which people show substantial interest, the use of drugs for non-medical purposes. Drawing from two subject populations-one undergraduate and one Internet-based-we look at the relationships among (i) abstract political commitments; (ii) attitudes about sexuality; and (iii) views surrounding recreational drugs. Whereas some theories suggest that drug views are best understood as the result of abstract political ideology, we suggest that these views can be better understood in the context of reproductive strategy. We show that, as predicted by a strategic construal, drug attitudes are best predicted by sexual items rather than abstract political commitments and, further, that the relationship between factors such as political ideology and drugs, while positive, are reduced to zero or nearly zero when items assessing sexuality are controlled for. We conclude that considering morality from the standpoint of strategic interests is a potentially useful way to understand why humans care about third party behaviour.

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences

Volume

277

Issue/Number

1699

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

3501

Last Page

3508

WOS Identifier

WOS:000283448800016

ISSN

0962-8452

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