Robert King

Hamilton's rule is that an altruistic behavior can 9 be selected for in a population under the circum-10 stances that 11 1. The behavior is heritable (variance explained 12 by genetic difference). 13 2. The gene underlying it provides a benefit to 14 those who share that gene by common descent 15 that is higher than the cost exerted, multiplied 16 by the coefficient of relatedness.

In attempt to identify and validate different types of orgasms which females have during sex with a partner, data collected by Mah and Binik (2002) on the dimensional phenomenology of female orgasm were subjected to a typological analysis. A total of 503 women provided adjectival descriptions of orgasms experienced either with a partner (n = 276) or while alone (n = 227). Latent-class analysis revealed four orgasm types which varied systematically in terms of pleasure and sensations engendered. Two types, collectively labelled ''good-sex orgasms,'' received higher pleasure and sensation ratings than solitary-masturbatory ones, whereas two other types, collectively labelled''not-asgood-sex orgasms,'' received lower ratings. These two higher-order groupings differed on a number of psychological, physical and relationship factors examined for purposes of validating the typology. Evolutionary thinking regarding the function of female orgasm informed discussion of the findings. Future research directions were outlined, especially the need to examine whether the same individual experiences different types of orgasms with partners with different characteristics, as evolutionary theorizing predicts should be the case.

Background: Human female orgasm is avexed question in the field while there is credible evidence of cryptic female choice that has many hallmarks of orgasm in other species. Our initial goal was to produce a proof of concept for allowing females to study an aspect of infertility in a home setting, specifically by aligning the study of human infertility and increased fertility with the study of other mammalian fertility. In the latter case-the realm of oxytocin-mediated sperm retention mechanisms seems to be at work in terms of ultimate function (differential sperm retention) while the proximate function (rapid transport or cervical tenting) remains unresolved. Method: A repeated measures design using an easily taught technique in a natural setting was used. Participants were a small (n=6), non-representative sample of females. The introduction of a sperm-simulant combined with an orgasm-producing technique using a vibrator/home massager and other easily supplied materials. Results: The sperm flowback (simulated) was measured using a technique that can be used in a home setting. There was a significant difference in simulant retention between the orgasm (M = 4.08, SD = 0.17) and nonorgasm (M = 3.30, SD = 0.22) conditions; t (5) = 7.02, p = 0.001. Cohen's d = 3.97, effect size r = 0.89. This indicates a medium to small effect size. Conclusions: This method could allow females to test an aspect of sexual response that has been linked to lowered fertility in a home setting with minimal training. It needs to be replicated with a larger sample size.

Due to its importance in political, cultural, and clinical spheres, adult mindreading needs to be investigated (and understood) in depth. This chapter introduces the various meanings of "mindreading" in neurotypical adults. We highlight philosophical and psychological implications of this construct for a wide variety of specifically human social interactions, such as play, acting, and manipulation. As a general rule, humans see one another as centres of intentional gravity and are very good folk psychologists (i.e., predictors of others' behaviors). These predictive powers rest in no small part on our various abilities to mindread. A centre of intentional gravity can be decomposed into concepts such as beliefs, desires, motives, and can have multiple orders of understanding (e.g., "he believes that she desires him to wish for…"). Such multi-layered abilities underwrite a vast range of human cognitive and affective domains such as mimicry, altruism, empathy, psychopathy and learning. Our ability to attribute independent mental states and processes to others, as well as to animals and inanimate objects, is an integral part of human social behavior, but mindreading alone has no necessary internal moral compass, as seen in the behavior of altruists and psychopaths. Rather, mindreading is presented here as an all-encompassing toolkit that enables us to navigate our Umwelt as effectively as possible.

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Building on previous work that identified different types of orgasm in women (King, Belsky, Mah, & Binik, 2011), the goal of the present study was to extend such typological work and determine whether female orgasmic variability tracked potentially evolutionarily salient sexual partner characteristics (e.g., those displaying possible immune-system compatibility). A total of 265 females completed an Internet survey about their orgasmic experience-achieved either with partners or alone. For partnered orgasms, they also provided details of partner characteristics and sexual behaviors. Latent class analysis revealed two orgasm types which were meaningfully distinguishable in terms of sensations and locationeither centered on the surface of genitalia or deep inside. Deep orgasms were associated with internal sensations consistent with proposed functions of female orgasm in terms of differential sperm insuck. Such orgasms were associated with partners who were perceived as considerate, dominant, with a noticeably attractive smell, and as providing firm penetration. However, some hypothesized reproductively significant partner characteristics were not differentially associated with deep orgasms (i.e., muscularity, aggression, masculinity). Results were discussed and future research directions outlined. In particular, it is suggested that sexual passion between partners is a non-accidental component of sexual functioning and that this has too frequently been missing in sex research involving humans. Direct physiological measures of the results of female orgasm need to be undertaken. Additionally, the intriguing phenomenon of female ejaculation deserves scientific attention.

Irish Travellers constitute a pre-demographic-shift population living among a postdemographic-shift one. Their socio-medico profile identifies them as largely on fast lifehistory trajectories. In addition, they are strongly religious (typically using no contraception), highly sexually behaviorally dimorphic, with strong traditions of male-male competition (bare-knuckle fighting) and quasi-symbolic bride capture ("grabbing"). Their male-male competitions thus allow for the comparative testing of a number of interesting theories pertaining to the nature and function of types of violence in society. As a pilot study, we used expert raters (some naive to the hypotheses) to analyze a number of real-life bare-knuckle competitions in terms of the support said spectacles offered to theories of this sort of violence as reinforcing ideas of antisociality, hierarchical promotion, intersexual signaling, or maintenance of within-group equality. We found good evidence to support theories of within-group, prosocial hierarchical functions for these contests. Limitations and implications for future research, such as direct measurement of fitness, are discussed.

Technology offers new opportunities, and challenges of as yet undreamed. Ethical intuitions honed over millions of years of small-group, competitive obligate sexual reproduction may mislead us in relation to new technologies. Between 1999 and 2008 the number of ART treatment cycles increased by 265% in Ireland. Some of the implications of such technologies are profound-challenging existing reproductive understanding. Ireland offers unique opportunities for study as a small country, emerging from a traditional religious past, with almost unregulated access to Assistive Reproductive Technology (ART). Method: Data from an Irish population of varied ages and both sexes (N = 606) were collected through an online survey which included demographics and attitudes and knowledge of ART. Results: While interest in ART was high, accurate knowledge was patchy. Latent class analysis revealed a typology of five groups of responders to ART, distinguished by their attitudes and knowledge of this technology. These groups were tentatively labelled as 'Worried Yet Willing', 'Live and Let Live', 'Disengaged', 'Judgemental' and 'Conflicted'. This is a large, demographically representative sample from a country-Ireland-that is actively considering reproductive challenges in the twenty first century. This is therefore a valuable opportunity to access the processes underlining attitudes to these new opportunities and threats. However, even though the sample was reasonably large, women were-perhaps unsurprisingly-over represented. They outnumbered men by 4:1. Follow up research might specifically focus on males, and especially males in certain key demographic sectors. Conclusion: Responses to the introduction of ART in Ireland fell into five distinct groups. These groups had some predicative value in highlighting attitudes to ART provision in prospective groups, though not always in expected ways. Attitudes were generally positive. Understanding the distinguishing features of these types of responders is important for health care professionals regarding service development and delivery. Implications for the direction of future related research is discussed.

Objective: New technologies present new ethical dilemmas. Our ethical intuitions may mislead us in relation to new technologies such as nuclear power, vaccines, GMOs and assistive reproductive technologies (ART). Between 1999 and 2008 the number of ART treatment cycles increased by 265% in Ireland. The implications and potentials of such technologies are profound-challenging existing understanding of humans' relationships to reproduction. Because such technologies are comparatively unregulated, and their use has only been occurring for a single generation, detailed investigation of how awareness of ART influences understanding of personal fertility is needed. Method: Data from an Irish population of varied ages and both sexes (N = 611) were collected through an on-line survey which included demographics, knowledge of fertility, knowledge of ART and personal fertility. Results: Latent class analysis revealed a typology of five groups of responders to ART distinguished by their attitudes and knowledge of this technology. These groups are labelled as 'Worried Yet Willing', 'Live and Let Live', 'Disengaged', 'Judgemental' and 'Conflicted'. Conclusion: Responses to the introduction of ART in Ireland fall into at least five distinct groups. Understanding of the distinguishing features of these types of responders is important for fertility health care professionals in terms of service development and delivery. Implications for the direction of future related research is discussed.

The study of kinship lies at the heart of anthropology. Anthropology is a human science. The titles and subtitles of Sahlins's latest book (What Kinship Is-And Is Not, henceforth WKIAIN) therefore make some very strong claims. If, as Sahlins states, kinship is all culture, and, furthermore-culture has nothing to do with biology-then the study of humanity is not the science of biology. Indeed, the attempt to see humans through biological lenses can only systematically mislead. If this were true then we are very curious creatures indeed: Organisms whose alleged essence-culture-has no connection to the rest of nature. Does Sahlins have the evidence to back such strong claims? He does not. Where does culture come from? According to Sahlins, from nowhere. Certainly not from biology. Presumably, it "just growed". Topsy, the orphaned slave girl from Uncle Tom's Cabin is asked about her origins. She replies, "I spect I grow'd. Don't think nobody never made me" (STOWE 1998). Cut off from family, origins, and any context poor Topsy "just growed". Her contrived lack of understanding is a key feature in her enslavement. Since Steven Jay Gould, a lot of innocent, and sometimes not-so-innocent, fun has been made of biological "just so stories". However, "just so" stories can actually serve to guide and inform research. Some just so accounts deserve to be abandoned-and many have. But a "just growed" story can offer no grounds for either acceptance or rejection. It is just meaningless. Saying of a phenomenon, "It's culture" is a hand waving "just growed" story that makes no predictions, offers no explanations, and, like Topsy is adrift. Where did this or that practice come from? It just growed. Does the fact that all cultures use the vocabulary of folk biology-geneology and body-to delineate kinship suggest a biological grounding? (FISKE 1992) Not according to WKIAIN. These practices "just growed". Examples like, band of brothers, Motherland, sisterhood, land of my fathers, the body politic and other metaphors of family that enjoin and enshrine groupishness are apparently just accidental. In WKIAIN these things "just growed". At times one wonders whether Sahlins wants his readers to follow him at all.

Dans les pires des cas-ceux relevant des rapports ou des orgasmes sous pression-, l'expérience de mauvais orgasme s'apparente à une expérience de dissociation. Sara Chadwick les nomme « orgasmes coercitifs » ou « forcés ». Dans l'une de ses études coécrites avec la neuroendocrinologue Sari van Anders, 43 % des participant•es avaient déjà connu ce type d'orgasmes (allant de 58 % pour les femmes issues de minorités à 35 % pour les hommes blancs et cisgenres). L'une des témoins de Sara Chadwick (anonymisée en tant que « femme hétérosexuelle de 24 ans ») raconte avoir eu un orgasme dans un contexte où elle s'est sentie « forcée par un ex abusif à faire un plan à trois avec une autre femme ». Elle s'en dit « dégoûtée ». « Je pense que mon corps s'est mis en mode autopilote et a voulu mimer de précédentes expériences [d'orgasmes] avec ce mec. » Comme elle, Ellye, artiste peintre pansexuelle de 51 ans, a connu la « sensation d'être en dehors de soi, comme si votre corps réagissait de manière chimique, mais que ces sensations ne vous appartenaient pas, comme si ça n'était pas vous qui aviez un orgasme ». C'était avec son ex-mari. Une relation longue de dix-huit ans. Si elle consentait à avoir des rapports avec lui, elle regrette de n'avoir pas forcément consenti à chacun des gestes engagés. Ni au timing, au déroulé de leurs relations. Et donc, au fait d'avoir certains orgasmes.

I am a researcher, with a special interest in the use of life history theory, and evolutionary psychology, to illuminate human behavioural science. Also interested in the philosophies of mind, science, and mathematics. I have an Erdős number of five.

New technologies present new ethical dilemmas. Our ethical intuitions may mislead us in relation to new technologies such as nuclear power, vaccines, GMOs and assistive reproductive technologies (ART). Between 1999 and 2008 the number of ART treatment cycles increased by 265% in Ireland. The implications and potentials of such technologies are profound - challenging existing understanding of humans' relationships to reproduction. Because such technologies are comparatively unregulated, and their use has only been occurring for a single generation, detailed investigation of how awareness of ART influences understanding of personal fertility is needed. Data from a general Irish population of varied ages and both sexes (N = 611) were collected through an online survey which included demographics, knowledge of fertility, knowledge of ART and personal fertility. Latent class analysis revealed a typology of five groups of responders to ART distinguished by their attitudes and knowledg...

Objective: Technology offers new opportunities, and challenges of as yet undreamed. Ethical intuitions honed over millions of years of small-group, competitive obligate sexual reproduction may mislead us in relation to new technologies. Between 1999 and 2008 the number of ART treatment cycles increased by 265% in Ireland. Some of the implications of such technologies are profound—challenging existing reproductive understanding. Ireland offers unique opportunities for study as a small country, emerging from a traditional religious past, with almost unregulated access to Assistive Reproductive Technology (ART). Method: Data from an Irish population of varied ages and both sexes (N=606) were collected through an online survey which included demographics and attitudes and knowledge of ART. Results: While interest in ART was high, accurate knowledge was patchy. Latent class analysis revealed a typology of five groups of responders to ART, distinguished by their attitudes and knowledge of this technology. These groups were tentatively labelled as ‘Worried Yet Willing’, ‘Live and Let Live’, ‘Disengaged’, ‘Judgemental’ and ‘Conflicted’. This is a large, demographically representative sample from a country—Ireland—that is actively considering reproductive challenges in the twenty first century. This is therefore a valuable opportunity to access the processes underlining attitudes to these new opportunities and threats. However, even though the sample was reasonably large, women were—perhaps unsurprisingly—over represented. They outnumbered men by 4:1. Follow up research might specifically focus on males, and especially males in certain key demographic sectors. Conclusion: Responses to the introduction of ART in Ireland fell into five distinct groups. These groups had some predicative value in highlighting attitudes to ART provision in prospective groups, though not always in expected ways. Attitudes were generally positive. Understanding the distinguishing features of these types of responders is important for health care professionals regarding service development and delivery. Implications for the direction of future related research is discussed.

“If you can’t take pain you can’t be a real fighter”
(Bartley Gorman. Bare-Knuckle Fighter. Once known as “The King of the Gypsies” )
The ability to give and take pain is intrinsic to hierarchical male-male aggression across taxa. This insight more or less defines pain tolerance as commitment to investment in hierarchical conflict. This sort of conflict is importantly distinct from the sorts of violent activity required in predator-prey interactions (such as pursuit, ambush, flight, and killing) where nothing short of death or escape indicate success. The basic logic of non-lethal violence was first laid out by Maynard-Smith and Price in their seminal (1973) paper. However, this insight has yet to find universal acceptance. For instance, it is a cliché of social psychology textbooks (e.g. Hogg & Vaughan, 2011) to lump all human violence together in the category of so-called anti-social behavior. While it remains true that we condemn violence and seek its reduction, to frame it in this way is to mischaracterize it and, thus, make reduction less likely.  As Maynard-Smith and Price (1973) point out, genes that give to rise to suites of dispositions that underlie the following interactive behavioral logic will be likely selected: If I can convince you that a protracted fight would eventually result in my victory, and thus hierarchical promotion, then there is no need to kill you (thereby risking injury to myself in the process) to prove it. Across taxa we see multiple examples of sub-lethal aggressive behaviors, sometimes accompanied by specialised morphology (such as antlers) that are not typically used to produce deadly force. Viewed through this lens, much aggression and attendant violence is therefore highly social, in that it helps to create and maintain social structure. Such a judgement is, of course, utterly distinct from morally valuing, or defending such behavior.

Abstract Faces are one of the most socially significant visual stimuli encountered in the environment, whereas pareidolias are illusions of faces arising from ambiguous stimuli in the environment. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterised by deficits in response to social stimuli. We found that children with ASD (n = 60) identify significantly fewer pareidolic faces in a sequence of ambiguous stimuli than typically developing peers. The two groups did not differ in the number of objects identified, indicating that the children with ASD had a specific lack of attention to faces. Pareidolia have considerable potential as naturalistic and easy-to-create materials for the investigation of spontaneous attention to social stimuli in children with ASD.

Objective: New technologies present new ethical dilemmas. Our ethical intuitions may mislead us in relation to new technologies such as nuclear power, vaccines, GMOs and assistive reproductive technologies (ART). Between 1999 and 2008 the number of ART treatment cycles increased by 265% in Ireland. The implications and potentials of such technologies are profound – challenging existing understanding of humans’ relationships to reproduction. Because such technologies are comparatively unregulated, and their use has only been occurring for a single generation, detailed investigation of how awareness of ART influences understanding of personal fertility is needed. Method: Data from a general Irish population of varied ages and both sexes (N = 611) were collected through an online survey which included demographics, knowledge of fertility, knowledge of ART and personal fertility. Results: Latent class analysis revealed a typology of five groups of responders to ART distinguished by their attitudes and knowledge of this technology. These groups are labelled as ‘Worried Yet Willing’, ‘Live and Let Live’, ‘Disengaged’, ‘Judgemental’ and ‘Conflicted’. Conclusion: Responses to the introduction of ART in Ireland fall into at least five distinct groups. Understanding of the distinguishing features of these types of responders is important for fertility healthcare professionals in terms of service development and delivery. Implications for the direction of future related research is discussed.

Background: Human female orgasm is a vexed question in the field, while there is credible evidence of cryptic female choice that has many hallmarks of orgasm in other species. Our initial goal was to produce a proof of concept for
allowing females to study an aspect of infertility in a home setting, specifically by aligning the study of human infertility and increased fertility with the study of other mammalian fertility. In the latter case - the realm of oxytocin-mediated sperm retention mechanisms seems to be at work in terms of ultimate function (differential
sperm retention) while the proximate function (rapid transport or cervical tenting) remains unresolved.
Method: A repeated measures design using an easily taught technique in a natural setting was used. Participants were a small (n=6), non-representative sample of females. The introduction of a sperm-simulant combined with an orgasm-producing technique using a vibrator/home massager and other easily supplied materials.
Results: The sperm flowback (simulated) was measured using a technique that can be used in a home setting. There was a significant difference in simulant retention between the orgasm (M = 4.08, SD = 0.17) and non-
20 orgasm (M = 3.30, SD = 0.22) conditions; t (5) = 7.02, p = 0.001. Cohen’s d = 3.97, effect size r = 0.89. This
indicates a medium to small effect size.
Conclusions: This method could allow females to test an aspect of sexual response that has been linked to
lowered fertility in a home setting with minimal training. It needs to be replicated with a larger sample size.

UCC Cork Sometimes history can be philosophically interesting. Barrett (2011) and colleagues (e.g. Barrett, Pollett & Stulp, 2015) are to be congratulated on widening the scope of our understanding of animal cognition to include its ecological elements. However, in their eagerness to overturn a narrow model of computation, she and her colleagues have glossed over some rather interesting and salient historical facts. This is poignant, as these facts strengthen their case, and sharpen the focus on the more complete picture of ethologically valid cognition that they are drawing. The key figure missing from the usual historical narrative is George Boole, whose bi-centenary has just passed and (it just so happens) is the luminary whose soon-to-be-restored home is visible from the office where I type this, in the University he led, and on the machine that his insights made possible. Barrett (2011) wants to draw a distinction between computation—in a narrow sense-abstracted from any particular setting, and the highly embodied—especially ecologically rooted-cognition that she sees in the animals she studies. In support of this distinction, she cites Searle's (1990) claim that, as a matter of history, humans tend to use their most impressive piece of technology as a mental metaphor. As exemplars, the ancient Greeks used models of torque-powered siege devices, La Mettrie's (1748) L'Homme Machine used images of clockwork brains, Freud's libidinous mind was powered by hydraulic instincts, and so on (see Duagman, 2001 for a more extended discussion). But, as an important historical fact the order of technology-then-metaphor is the other way round in respect of the computational model. Thinking about thinking—specifically Boole's thinking about thinking-came long before the technology did. The technology grew out of it. Thus, it's less true to say that computers are a metaphor for thinking, than that thinking is a metaphor for computation. One important difference that modern computers have from the " technology as metaphor " pattern is that in none of the other cases have advances been made in the technology as a result of the comparison. Fountains, hydraulics, and clockwork did not become more sophisticated by reflecting on their mind-like properties. On the other hand, artificial intelligence has advanced considerably—to the point where it might be said, without hyperbole, that AI is in many cases the proof that psychology as a science is advancing. When we can formalise an information processing subsystem we can mechanise it. The fact is that we now live in a world

The Venus figurines are among the most mysterious products of Upper Palaeolithic art in Europe. While pointing to aesthetic tastes in the Palaeolithic, they pose questions about their purpose and the minds of their creators. We do not know and most likely will never know with certainty whether they are
depictions of real women or stylized ideals of feminine beauty or feminine virtues, whether they represent objects of desire or veneration. The present article points to some rarely noticed features of some of the figurines which suggest new
interpretations of their nature and the minds of their creators.

Recently, psychologists have started to extend evolutionary behavioral analysis to art and literature. The question of whether story telling has an adaptive function—such as aiding social information-processing in the manner of the AI frame problem—or is a pleasurable by-product is still debated. Across human cultures through time and space, both sexes share and consume stories. Given that much of the patterns of human mating show antagonistic and competitive elements it is thus unlikely that an adaptive function for story-telling is the answer—or else key tactics, stratagems, and patterns would be handed to the opposition. However, human social adaptations evolved in an adaptively relevant environment of small groups of close kin. In this ancestral environment, story-telling could have had adaptive functionality and the pleasure that we have in them now could be as a by-product of our being keyed to this system. Patterns of human expression are not random or arbitrary, and a biological understanding can illuminate eternal themes and concerns. Viewed in this way, stories were ways to make sense of past experience, integrating them into the biography of an organism that lives in a world of social meaning. In pursuit of furthering study in this area, I present a thematic analysis of specifically female characters in horror and myth. Female characters at puberty, mate selection, motherhood, and menopause show themes and concerns consistent with the critical life history decisions to be made at these stages. These patterns show signs of being both long-lived and cross-cultural. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)

Venus figurines—such as the famous Willendorf Venus--provide a possible window into the reproductive preferences of ancestral humans. These figurines cover a period of about 20000 years of human history and have been found across ice-age Europe. There are a number of unknowns about such figurines. For example, they may be votive offerings, idealisations, or have some as-yet, unguessed-at function. Ancient figurines typically display body types typically considered obese by modern standards of medicine and aesthetics. While some have averred that such figurines show a marked change in human body preferences over thousands of years it is possible that this has been an artefact of particular approaches to measuring such figurines. Measuring a fuller extent of the markers of fat deposition seems to support a case for arguing that male preferences have broadly tracked fertility markers over ancestral time. The waist-to-hip ratio is arguably a more important fertility marker than obesity per se—and a 0.7 ratio has been found cross-culturally and in this sample. It is likely that such preferences have been further calibrated by local ecological variations—for example as regards food supply—but these calibrations would not have a great impact on proportionality preferences. Great caution must be taken in reading too much into such a limited sample.

"Recent advances in neuroscience have convinced some that conscious free choice is illusory. However, nature is not in the habit of giving out free lunches and consciousness is no exception. Consciousness is not just deliberative--a global access model of consciousness is empirically demonstrable to have functional properties. For example, the artificial removal of conscious access to environmental phenomena by subliminal or hypnotic suggestion has measurable effects on choice mechanisms. Examples such as the ability to excel at Stroop confusion tests or fail at prime-ignoring tasks are explored.
http://www.ucc.ie/en/philosophy/events/fullstory-456457-en.html

"

Sensitive topics present special challenges in design. However, playing safe also has ethical implications. Given that the history of behavioral science has been in part the history of over-turning human self-deception and delusion some degree of offence is unavoidable--perhaps even desirable--when it is offence to humanity at large. However, vulnerable populations deserve protection.

Building on previous work that identified different types of orgasm in human females (King, Belsky, Mah, & Binik, 2011), the goal of the present study was to extend such typological work and determine whether female orgasmic variability tracked potentially evolutionarily salient sexual partner characteristics (e.g. those displaying possible immune-system compatibility). Two-hundred and sixty-five females completed an Internet survey about their orgasmic experience -- achieved either with partners or alone. For partnered orgasms, they also provided details of partner characteristics and sexual behaviors. Latent class analysis revealed two orgasm types which were meaningfully distinguishable in terms of sensations and location—either centered on the surface of genitalia or deep inside. Deep orgasms were associated with internal sensations consistent with proposed functions of female orgasm in terms of differential sperm insuck. Such orgasms were associated with partners who were perceived as considerate, dominant, with a noticeably attractive smell, and as providing firm penetration. However, some hypothesized reproductively significant partner characteristics were not differentially associated with deep orgasms (i.e., muscularity, aggression, masculinity). Results are discussed and future research directions outlined.

Why are scholars at loggerheads over the nature and function of female orgasm? Briefly--because female orgasm is not a unitary phenomenon but a complex and variable one. Teasing apart the various components reveals interesting and surprising things.

Sexual signaling refers to the ways that members of one sex signal their mate quality to members of the opposite sex.
Introduction
Distinguished Professor, Evolutionary-Developmental Area Head University of New Mexico
Steve Gangestad is a psychologist at UNM, where he is best known for his work on evolution and development using quantitative methods. For many years he has been working with collaborators—notably Randy Thornhill—on the question of whether, in humans, female estrus is (as some scholars aver) truly lost.

Pareidolia is the over-interpretation of stimuli in the external world to impose patterns where none exist. This can apply to any sensory modality but is most commonly applied to visual stimuli. Within this realm the term is often used to refer to the common human tendency to see faces where no faces are present. Familiar instances would include faces in the clouds, images of saviours in burnt toast, and the Man in the Moon (Liu, Li, Feng, Li, Tian & Lee, 2014).

Due to its importance in political, cultural, and clinical spheres, adult mindreading needs to be investigated (and understood) in depth. This chapter introduces the various meanings of " mindreading " in neurotypical adults. We highlight philosophical and psychological implications of this construct for a wide variety of specifically human social interactions, such as play, acting, and manipulation. As a general rule, humans see one another as centres of intentional gravity and are very good folk psychologists (i.e., predictors of others' behaviors). These predictive powers rest in no small part on our various abilities to mind-read. A centre of intentional gravity can be decomposed into concepts such as beliefs, desires, motives, and can have multiple orders of understanding (e.g., " he believes that she desires him to wish for… "). Such multi-layered abilities underwrite a vast range of human cognitive and affective domains such as mimicry, altruism, empathy, psychopathy and learning. Our ability to attribute independent mental states and processes to others, as well as to animals and inanimate objects, is an integral part of human social behavior, but mindreading alone has no necessary internal moral compass, as seen in the behavior of altruists and psychopaths. Rather, mindreading is presented here as an all-encompassing toolkit that enables us to navigate our Umwelt as effectively as possible.

Daniel Dennett is the co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. He is a philosopher in the analytic tradition but, unlike many of his contemporaries, has taken the trouble to familiarize himself with the nuts and bolts of empirical work. This has meant that, over a six-decade career, he has made consistent and useful contributions to evolutionary scholarship, clarifying issues, generating research programs, and inspiring the next generation of scholars.

Jay Belsky had a breakthrough moment – in his own words “the best idea I would ever have”–early in his career while teaching a graduate seminar. Having been trained in traditional developmental psychological theories (Freudian, attachment theory, and social learning theory) he was familiar with the idea that good developmental trajectories followed naturally from positive parental involvement. Parents who were responsive, financially and emotionally secure, and possessed of an acceptable level of intellectual and social skills would produce children who were
similarly capable of love and social interaction in later life. A paper by colleague Pat Draper (Draper and Harpending 1988) changed all that. Viewed from the perspective of life history theory, human notions of good and bad parenting take a back seat to effectiveness of passing genes on to the next generation – and this is true whether you are a human or a haddock. Viewed through this radical lens, violent and abusive human parents are preparing their offspring for a world where trust and love will not be rewarded. The fact of this being a social and moral evil says nothing about its being a reproductive dead end. This perspective, life history theory, has informed most of Belsky ’s subsequent work

Definition
Hamilton’s rule is that an altruistic behavior can be selected for in a population under the circumstances that
1) The behavior is heritable (variance explained by genetic difference) and that
2) The gene underlying it provides a benefit to those who share that gene by common descent that is higher than the cost exerted, multiplied by the coefficient of relatedness.
This is usually simplified to r B – C > 0. In this formulation r is the relatedness co-efficient between actor and beneficiary of behavior; B is the reproductive benefit provided to the recipient; and C is the cost to the actor in terms of direct reproduction.
Introduction
The term “paradigm shift” should come with a health warning. Hamilton’s rule, formalizing inclusive fitness, is one of those very few developments in science that genuinely deserves the accolade. Inclusive fitness is a central, axiomatic concept in evolutionary biology. Darwin’s discoveries, concerning descent with modification from common ancestry directed by natural selection, were the result of years of painstaking observation and the synthesis of vast amounts of empirical data. Hamilton’s rule is an extension of Darwin’s insight, based on pure deductive reasoning as laid out in (Hamilton, 1964) and further developed in papers of equal mathematical sophistication (e.g. Price, 1972).
While the complexities of these original papers are rarely directly engaged with, the take home message seems simple: Namely, that altruistic behavior can be selected for just in case that the benefit bestowed on the recipient (B) multiplied by the coefficient of relatedness between actor and recipient (r) minus the cost to actor (C) is greater than zero.
This is typically expressed as r B –C < 0.
Rarely has such a deceptively simple formulation had such profound consequences, or provoked such large misconceptions and fights over interpretation. It has been argued that the rule as it stands is too simple to permit simple predictions on the basis of it (Frank, 1998). Whether or not this is true, it has been tempting for scholars to rush to predictions based on it, perhaps in a version of physics envy. The upshot of this haste can then be that, following a supposed failure of Hamilton’s rule to apply, scholars seek for other explanations for the source of a social behavior. In this vein it is worth emphasizing that there are a large number of things that Hamilton’s rule does not imply and does not apply to—much though it may appear to.
Why does all this matter? It is not hyperbole to say that Hamilton’s rule explains the otherwise miraculous. Miracles are, strictly speaking, things that cannot be explained by appeal to natural laws. Darwin’s insight explains how the world appears to be designed but without needing a designer. Hamilton’s extension of Darwin’s insight is no less momentous. It explains how moral behavior—which at its bedrock requires the capacity to benefit others at a net cost to oneself (in other words, true altruism) can come into the world without a divinity to underwrite it.
Throughout history, humans have typically sought for supernatural explanations for the way that the universe contains both beauty and goodness. As Kant famously put it “Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.” Darwin’s discoveries showed us that no designer was needed to create functionality—and in the process reminded us that not all functionality was beautiful. Hamilton’s rule unites all of nature in terms of how genuine altruism—a crucial social behavior--can exist at all without supernatural interference. In the process he similarly showed us that our intuitions about what is truly good cannot be relied on. Of course, this mathematical extension of evolution by natural selection has far more implications than simply that, it is the most general formulation of natural selection yet devised.

Sexual signaling refers to the ways that members of one sex signal their mate quality to members of the opposite sex.
Introduction
Distinguished Professor, Evolutionary-Developmental Area Head University of New Mexico
Steve Gangestad is a psychologist at UNM, where he is best known for his work on evolution and development using quantitative methods. For many years he has been working with collaborators—notably Randy Thornhill—on the question of whether, in humans, female estrus is (as some scholars aver) truly lost. Typically, primates advertise their fertile phase through conspicuous displays. Humans do not do this. However, Gangestad has argued that a raft of behaviors indicate that estrus is concealed in humans rather than lost. This implies that there are two distinct types of sexual behavior in women. The first, during the fertile phase, and the second—extended sexuality—during the non-fertile phase. Humans are not unique in having sex outside of fertile phases (bonobos and cetaceans also do this) and Gangestad’s work aims to root the study of human sexuality within the general phylogeny of vertebrates

Hamilton's rule is that an altruistic behavior can be selected for in a population under the circumstances that 1. The behavior is heritable (variance explained by genetic difference). 2. The gene underlying it provides a benefit to those who share that gene by common descent that is higher than the cost exerted, multiplied by the coefficient of relatedness.