An ‘evolutionary psychology’ explanation

Diti was one of the wives of Sage Kashyapa. Unlike his other wives, Diti did not have children. Bhagavata Purana says that one evening, Diti was overcome with lust and wanted to lie down with Sage Kashyapa. Even though Sage Kashyapa insisted that it was the wrong time of day since it was dusk and the time for prayers, she was persistent. A reluctant Sage Kashyapa performed the act and went to have a bath at the river. On his return he saw Diti in a repentant mood. Sage Kashyapa realised that since they had the union at the wrong time, their progeny would not have good character. Diti pleaded with Sage Kashyapa that her wicked children be slayed by none other than Lord Narayana himself, thereby giving them salvation. Sage Kashyapa granted her the wish and as a boon he told Diti that she would have a grandson who would constantly chant the name of the Lord and would be remembered for time immemorial (Srimad Bhagavatam).

The story raises a question: Why did Diti insist on having a union with Sage Kashyapa on that day, at that time?

While reading an article on evolutionary psychology (“Applications of Evolutionary Psychology in Marketing” in Psychology&marketing, December 2000) I discovered a potential answer.

First you may want to know what evolutionary psychology is and how it affects human behaviour.

Human beings are supposed to be rational and the theory of the Economic Man spoke about how we are always trying to balance what we pay with the utility we derive from any product. Adam Smith, often called the “Father of Economics” and “Father of Capitalism”, defined the Economic Man as a person characterised by “self-interested goals and rational choice of means”. Behavioural economists question this “rational man” theory. They believe that man is anything but rational; we make mistakes, we act impulsively, we take short cuts etc. Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman proposed the two-system way of decision making: System 1 is where we take decisions quickly without much thought; and System 2 is when we apply all our resources and understanding before making a decision. Behavioural economists tell us that the only way to decode human behaviour is through experiments; if you ask a person, he or she will give you a “rational” answer. But when you subject them to experiments, you will discover the real behaviour pattern. Behavioural economists have created multiple new paradigms to explain human behaviour and these include paradox of choice effect, nudge theory, loss aversion, prospect theory, opt-in versus opt-out etc.

What may be lying under all this could be something that is even more hardwired. Something that has stayed with us over the millennia. While we Homo sapiens emerged from the Savannah plains some 200,000 years ago, according to evolutionary psychologists, we still exhibit traits that we perfected during our life as hunter-gatherers. Characteristics like fight furiously when threatened, or take flight, drive to trade information, share secrets etc are things we have carried with us for generations. Why then is there a universal preference for sweet or fatty foods? Evolutionary psychologists tell us these are adaptive mechanisms that we perfected due to food scarcity. Studies have shown that across cultures, males tend to value physical attractiveness and youth in their mates, while females value financial prospects, ambition and industriousness. Researchers say that in the light of the evolutionary predilections, women probably have a greater concern for appearance in order to increase their mate-value in the eyes of men. Culture and media based social forces accentuate these dispositions and should not be held solely responsible, is another argument. Multi-culture studies have also shown that the most important dimension used by subjects to judge physical attractiveness of females is, hold your breath, waistto-hip ratio. Across cultures it was found that waist-tohip ratio of 0.7 was judged to be the most appealing (Singh D, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1993, 65]. Given the fact that some of the societies covered in this study did not have any form of media, the only explanation, they say, is something that is hardwired in our brain. An article in the Harvard Business Review (Nigel Nicholson, July-august, 1998) pointed out how organisations need to keep evolutionary psychology in mind while formulating organisational behaviour interventions. For example, how do you tap into the “fight or flight” orientation, or how do you capitalise the need to gossip.

Coming to our first question: Why did Diti want to have a union at that time on that day? Multiple researches have said that women who are near their ovulation period tend to dress more provocatively, wear more makeup and jewellery. Research has also said that women are more likely to cheat during those periods and may not insist that men use contraceptives during those times.

Diti’s desires were fulfilled by Sage Kashyapa and, as they say, the rest is history. We continue to remember her grandson Prahlada. Her intense desires were triggered not by an instant desire for satisfaction but by something that had been imprinted in her brain many millennia before. She is not to be blamed, and she was anything but rational at that time.