How might an evolutionary psychologist explain the fact that people tend to enjoy high-fat food?
A)When food was scarce in our ancestral past,people who ate high-fat food tended to obtain the calories that they needed to survive and,ultimately,reproduce.
B)High-fat food activates areas in the brain corresponding to reward.
C)Over one's lifetime,many interpersonal relationships revolve around eating these "comfort" food items.
D)Although eating high-fat food resulted in great mortality rates among our ancestors,the availability of medication today allows people to consume larger amounts of high-fat food.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Evolutionary psychologists would argue that during times of food scarcity, human ancestors who were able to efficiently extract and store fat from food had a survival advantage. These individuals would have been more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on their fat-extraction genes to future generations. Therefore, humans have evolved to have a natural preference for high-fat foods, as this preference would have been adaptive in the past.

How Might an Evolutionary Psychologist Explain the Fact That People