One of the most difficult challenges in applying evolutionary theory to the study of human behavior is determining the time frame in which to study human behavior as a form of adaptation. Evolution is a process that takes place over hundreds of thousands of years, and as such, evolutionary adaptations are often lagging far behind cultural and environmental changes. For example, the political climate of the United States might change every four years after an election, but babies born during a democratic presidency will not have adapted in an evolutionary sense such that their future offspring will be "more democratic" than republican. This time lag in evolution can create confusion when searching for evolutionary and adaptive explanations for human behavior and this problem arises mostly from the fact that our behavior we show today is likely a form of adaptation...
As an example, newborn babies are born with the instinct to clutch their tiny fists very tightly, demonstrating remarkable strength. Sociobiologists believe that this was once an adaptive trait to grab onto the fur of a mother (i.e. our primate ancestors), and although this behavior remains, its practical application has long since disappeared for human babies (Cartwright, 2003).
Despite the time lag and the often obscure explanations for adaptive human behaviors, there is still a great wealth of useful and informative information to be gleaned from the study of human behavior from the perspective of evolutionary psychology. An example of a human behavior that likely evolved over time due to its adaptive
