Summary
Contents
Subject index
Evolutionary psychology is an important and rapidly expanding area in the life, social, and behavioral sciences, and this Handbook represents the most comprehensive and up-to-date reference text in the field today. Chapters in this Handbook address theory and research that integrates evolutionary psychology with other life, social, and behavioral sciences, as well as with the humanities. The SAGE Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology is an essential resource for researchers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students in all areas of psychology, and in related disciplines across the life, social, and behavioral sciences. Part 1: Integration within Psychology; Part 2: Integration with other Life, Social, and Behavioral Sciences; and Part 3: Integration with the Humanities.
Evolutionary Psychology and Economics
Evolutionary Psychology and Economics
Introduction
How does evolution shape behavior? Economists believe that individuals have well defined preferences over actions and consumption that they can rank. For example, an individual who enjoys wine should be able to say if she likes red wine more than white wine and if she likes white wine more than beer. Such ranking or ordering of preferences follows certain intuitive properties that allow economists to represent preferences by means of a utility function.1
A utility function stipulates a relationship between an action and a value. Indeed, if an individual prefers red wine to white wine, then presumably the value she derives from drinking ...
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