I am not the only one who likes to narrowly interpret creative works through my scientific lens

Literature, Evolution, & the Brain “The Evolution of Cooperation & ‘They Cage the Animals at Night‘”

It is fascinating that this blog represents the work of many people, all of whom are looking at literature through the lens of evolution. I encourage this approach — I had better, as I take it myself — but this particular example needs to scratch a little bit deeper. I have not read this particular book and I do not doubt that much of literature works themes related to kin selection, cooperation versus defection, and how to foster reciprocity. But to make meaningful evolutionary analyses of literature, we need to go beyond simply identifying where themes of a particular book overlap with themes in biological theory: we need to be really specific about what the work has to say about the mechanisms behind human social behavior and how these mechanisms affect our ability to cooperate.