Randolph M. Nesse
Why didn't natural selection make humans healthier and nicer?
Randolph M. Nesse*, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, where he directs the Evolution and Human Adaptation Program. His early work on the neuroendocrinology of anxiety and the origins of senescence led to a deep commitment to evolutionary biology. Nesse collaborated with George Williams on several early works in Darwinian medicine, including "The dawn of Darwinian medicine" (1991) and the accessible book Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine (1995). More recently he edited Evolution and the Capacity for Commitment (2001) about how gene-culture co-evolution shapes capacities for moral commitment.
Dr. Nesse's primary current research focus is on how selection shapes mechanisms that regulate defenses such as pain, fever, anxiety and low mood. His work emphasizes the utility of negative emotions, and how a signal detection analysis (the "smoke detector principle") explains why defense expression so often seems excessive. He notes that low mood is useful to disengage effort from unreachable goals, and failure to disengage often leads to depression. Closely related is his work on how social selection for relationship partners can shape human capacities for altruism, empathy, and complex sociality.
Dr. Nesse's work demonstrates that evolutionary biology is a crucial basic science for medicine whose full contributions are just now being recognized. He has devoted himself to encouraging doctors and researchers to apply evolutionary insights in diverse areas of medicine. This has involved extensive writing, lecturing and helping to organize the growing Evolution and Medicine community. He has just finished editing a DVD series of 32 lectures on evolution and medicine for the Henry Stewart Talks. (HSTalks.com) His website at nesse.us has many useful materials, including a link to EvolutionAndMedicine.org. He is especially eager to make contact with physicians who share these interests.