Evolutionary Psychology

One of the many books I have been concurrently reading is called The Moral Animal by Robert Wright. And I have to say that out of all the books I've read recently, this one is by far the best. And by the best I mean that my mind is blown every few pages. I've spent a couple hours actually reading it, and several days contemplating the implications the author asserts. I'm only half way done, but it's so compelling that I thought I'd write about the subject now, and maybe post some thoughts about the content again later.
The book is a summary of the history of, and current research being conducted, in the rather adolescent field of evolutionary psychology.
This new branch of science is, in and of itself, a fascinating concept. Where psychology is the study of human thought and emotion, evolutionary psychology is the inquiry into why we have thoughts and feelings in the first place, and how hundreds of thousands of years of evolution has shaped our interpretation of a moral self.
The biggest insight to me has been the kinds of questions that evolutionary psychology asks. It addresses questions that most of us have probably never even considered. For example. Pornography (I just finished reading the section on this so I'll use it as an example since it's freshest in my mind). Everyone knows it's more of a "guy" thing than a girl thing. (I'm not stereotyping, it's been documented.)  But evolutionary psychology asks why don't women feel the same way about it? It asks why does it take an entire romance novel to convince a woman of the same feelings that a Playboy centerfold can produce in a guy in two seconds? The end result is the same (sex) but the road to get there is totally different. It goes further to ask the question why do men  become physically...agitated by a two dimensional image of a naked woman, but not compelled into fatherhood by a similar image of a baby? Likewise a woman can see a naked man on paper and not be impressed at all, but will resort to making kissy faces at an ad for diapers with a cute baby smiling on the page (again, not stereotyping, it's documented).
Aren't those interesting questions?  I mean there has to be something to it, because you don't see pubescent boys locking themselves in their bedrooms and fantasizing about being dad's, or teenage girls aspiring to be porn stars.
It's amazing to me to realize that I've overlooked so many weird things we humans to because they are "normal" for us. But when you step back, and approach our humanity with a more critical eye, you begin to notice disparities in our actions that our own intellect can detect once properly focused. Like I said before, mind blowing!
OK, that's all for now but stay tuned for more!