Developing explanations of physical phenomena that violate Einstein's theory of relativity is risky, as is developing explanations about behavior that violate Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Hence, it is likely that any good explanation of behavior will be compatible with an evolutionary explanation, even if it were not explicitly developed from an evolutionary perspective. Although a good explanation of behavior need not have been explicitly constructed from an evolutionary perspective, the contributors to this volume are committed to the proposition that an explicit consideration of evolutionary theory will improve the quality of explanations of human behavior. For example, it has been seen that explanations that implicitly assume organisms have evolved to act for the good of their group or species should be treated with considerable skepticism. Consider some examples.
Stepparents ought to treat their natural and stepchildren equally.
A rigorous application of evolutionary theory may help us identify and deal with other oughts that contradict reality. Second, because the theory of evolution explains the evolution of all life forms, concepts developed when using it are likely to be very general. Third, and most important, the theory of evolution can be used to help scholars and scientists develop substantive testable predictions about human behavior. Several chapters in Part III of this book discuss recent research in which various aspects of evolutionary theory were used to derive testable predictions about human behavior.