Evobiopsychosocial Medicine

The biopsychosocial model remains the de facto framework of current healthcare, but lacks causational depth, scientific rigour, or any recognition of the importance of evolutionary theory for understanding health and disease. In this article it is updated to integrate Tinbergen’s four questions with the three biopsychosocial levels. This ‘evobiopsychosocial’ schema provides a more complete framework for understanding causation of medical conditions. Its application is exemplified by tabulating depression, rheumatoid arthritis and COVID-19 within its format, which highlights the direct research and practical applications uniquely offered by evolutionary medicine. An evobiopsychosocial framework can serve as a useful tool to introduce evolutionary concepts into mainstream medicine by highlighting the broad and specific contributions of evolutionary analysis to researching, treating and preventing health conditions, providing a suitable next step for the mainstream model of medicine

Asymmetric effect and dynamic relationships between oil prices shocks and exchange rate volatility: Evidence from some selected MENA countries

The aim of this paper is to investigate the exchange rate consequences of oil-price fluctuations across selected MENA countries (including both commodity importers and exporters) and to examine the dynamic relationship between such shocks. We employed the asymmetry of volatility through the GJR-GARCH model using daily time series data covering the period between 2001 and mi-2015. We refer to impulse responses functions in order to test the dynamic relationships. Empirical results reveal that foreign exchange market and crude oil exhibit asymmetric and no asymmetric in the return series. Additionally, the findings show asymmetric response of volatilities to positive and negative shocks. Furthermore, the results suggest that there is a dynamic relationship among oil price shocks and exchange rate volatility. Indeed, in the short run, oil prices shocks had a significant impact on exchange rate changes. Finally, we found that in the case of oil-exporting country, the oil prices rise may experience exchange rate appreciation, while, the decrease of oil price leads to appreciation of the currency of oil importing countries. This implies that oil prices are a key variable in determining the strength of the currency and its volatility. Therefore, policy makers of most MENA countries should consider exchange rate and oil price fluctuations on their macroeconomic policies and diversify more their economics

Eating Disorders and Intrasexual Competition: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis among Young Women

The sexual competition hypothesis (SCH) contends that intense female intrasexual competition (ISC) is the ultimate cause of eating disorders. The SCH explains the phenomenon of the pursuit of thinness as an adaptation to ISC in the modern environment. It argues that eating disorders are pathological phenomena that arise from the mismatch between the modern environment and the inherited female adaptations for ISC. The present study has two aims. The first is to examine the relationship between disordered eating behavior (DEB) and ISC in a sample of female undergraduates. The second is to establish whether there is any relationship between disordered eating behavior and life history (LH) strategy. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires examining eating-related attitudes and behaviors, ISC, and LH strategy. A group of 206 female undergraduates were recruited. A structural equation model was constructed to analyze the data. ISC for mates was significantly associated with DEB, as predicted by the SCH. DEB was found to be predicted by fast LH strategy, which was only partially mediated by the SCH. The results of this study are supportive of the SCH and justify research on a clinical sample

How evolutionary science can help us understand vaccine refusal in the COVID-19 pandemic

Unvaccinated people have a mortality rate from COVID-19 that is 32-fold that of fully vaccinated people. Yet, in the UK, more than 4% of adults have not accepted a vaccine to protect them against COVID-19 and at the time of writing only 73% of people were fully vaccinated. Psychological and societal factors underlying vaccine hesitation or refusal are complex. In this paper, we use evolutionary science to help explain how vaccine refusal can be the result of an historic adaptation to protect against the repetition of past trauma, including, for many, that of systemic racism and/or deprivation, and misguided attempt to preserve fertility. We discuss some resulting cognitive biases and conclude with recommendations for practice

A new approach to 3,14-dihydroxyhexahelicene: Resolution and attribution of the absolute configuration

International audienc

Evolutionary Psychology of Eating Disorders: An Explorative Study in Patients With Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa

Prior research on non-clinical samples has lent support to the sexual competition hypothesis for eating disorders (SCH) where the drive for thinness can be seen as an originally adaptive strategy for women to preserve a nubile female shape, which, when driven to an extreme, may cause eating disorders. Restrictive versus impulsive eating behavior may also be relevant for individual differences in allocation of resources to either mating effort or somatic growth, reflected in an evolutionary concept called “Life History Theory” (LHT). In this study, we aimed to test the SCH and predictions from LHT in female patients with clinically manifest eating disorders. Accordingly, 20 women diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (AN), 20 with bulimia nervosa (BN), and 29 age-matched controls completed a package of questionnaires comprising measures for behavioral features and attitudes related to eating behavior, intrasexual competition, life history strategy, executive functioning and mating effort. In line with predictions, we found that relatively faster life history strategies were associated with poorer executive functioning, lower perceived own mate value, greater intrasexual competition for mates but not for status, and, in part, with greater disordered eating behavior. Comparisons between AN and BN revealed that individuals with BN tended to pursue a “fast” life history strategy, whereas people with AN were more similar to controls in pursuing a “slow” life history strategy. Moreover, intrasexual competition for mates was significantly predicted by the severity of disordered eating behavior. Together, our findings lend partial support to the SCH for eating disorders. We discuss the implications and limitations of our study findings

The sexual competition hypothesis for eating disorders

A hypothesis is presented for eating disorders that contends that these syndromes together with the phenomenon of the pursuit of thinness are manifestations of female intra-sexual competition. It is argued that the present-day environment of Western coutries presnts a range of conditions that have led to the overactivation or disruption of the archaic female sexual strategy of maximising 'mate value'. The hypothesis deals with the ultimate level of causation and is therefore compatible with a range of theories dealing with the proximate level of causation