Evolutionary psychologists seek to understand psychological traits and behaviours by understanding the survival and reproductive functions they might have served over the course of evolutionary history, and the advantages that they may have conferred on the species. These ‘adaptations’ might include abilities to infer others' emotions (empathy), identify, prefer and establish relationships with partners, cooperate with others, act morally etc. Evolutionary psychology recognizes the role of natural selection and cultural evolution in developing prosocial traits such as altruism, large scale cooperation and community mindedness. Like chimps and bonobos, humans have subtle and flexible social instincts, allowing them to form extended families, lifelong friendships, and political alliances.

Psychological adaptations are hypothesized to be innate or relatively easy to learn, and these universal predispositions manifest in all cultures worldwide. For example, the ability of toddlers to learn a language with virtually no formal training is likely to be a psychological adaptation, as is our predisposition to feel anxious in anticipating possible future threats to our well-being. The role of the fore brain in generating complex autobiographical identity, subtle regulation of the emotions and strategic forward planning of behaviour is of particular interest as these are the traits that most distinguish us as a species.

Within Evolutionary Psychology, I have become particularly interested in the field of Cultural evolution, where researchers are widening the scope of what are considered to have been the main influences on our evolutionary pathway. Thus Genetic modification is no longer the only way that adaptations change our behaviour as so many of our genes are for controlling other processes other than just our physical characteristics. Other epigenetic factors that are also considered important are the co-evolution of language, fire, tool use(technology), sexual selection and domestication, all of which are more influenced by the environment, and act over shorter time spans that genetic modification.