Definition
As ethanol provides cues to fruit ripeness, the human penchant for consuming alcohol may be a by-product of adaptive fondness for ripe fruit.
Introduction
Alcohol pervades most, if not all, human cultures, and its consumption is regarded as a desired accompaniment to a wide variety of activities. From serving as a social lubricant to playing a role in addiction, many researchers have taken an interest in studying how alcohol is consumed and the consequences of that consumption, resulting in an impressive literature on alcohol. More elusive, however, are explanations for why humans as a species consume alcohol at all despite its significant toxicity (Brooks 1997). The current entry describes the hypothesis put forth by Dudley (2000) that alcohol (ethanol) tolerance and consumption may have emerged as a by-product of our ancestors’ adaptive penchant for ripe fruit.
The Evolution of Frugivory...
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Yong, C.F., Yong, J.C. (2019). Frugivory By-Product Hypothesis. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2955-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2955-1
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