Four Fs (evolution): Difference between revisions

In [[evolutionary psychology]], people often speak of the '''four Fs''' which are said to be the four basic and most primal drives ([[motivation]]s or [[instincts]]) that [[animal]]s (including humans) are [[evolutionarily]] [[adapted]] to have, follow, and achieve:<!-- for a citation that animals have these four drives see those that describe or use the term "four drives" or its four terms --> [[fight-or-flight response|''fighting'', ''fleeing'']], [[eating|''feeding'']] and [[reproduction|''fuckingmating'']] (sometimesthe replacedfinal word beginning with the lessletter profane"M" ''fornicating'',rather than "F" is a termreticent whichallusion bearsto itsthe owncruder legacysynonym of"[[fuck]]").<ref religiousname="Kurzban condescension2011">{{cite book | last=Kurzban | first=Robert| title=Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind | publisher=Princeton University Press | year=2011 | isbn=978-1-4008-3599-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JZVYEUb0Tq0C | access-date=April 24, 2022 | page=159}}</ref>

The list of the four activities appears to have been first introduced in the late 1950s and early 1960s in articles by psychologist [[Karl H. Pribram]], with the fourth entry in the list sometimes being replacedknown by other terms such as "sex"<ref name="Pribram60">{{cite journal|title=A Review of Theory in Physiological Psychology|journal=[[Annual Review of Psychology]]|date=January 1960|volume=60|issue=1|pages=1&ndash;40|last=Pribram|first=Karl H.|author-link=Karl H. Pribram|doi=10.1146/annurev.ps.11.020160.000245|url=https://saltworks.stanford.edu/assets/sw906gh1421.pdf}}</ref>{{rp|11,13}} or occasionally "mating and maternal behaviorfornicating",<ref name="Pribram58">{{cite book|last=Pribram|first=Karl H.|author-link=Karl H. Pribram|editor1-last=Roe|editor1-first=Anne|editor2-last=Simpson|editor2-first=George Gaylord|title=Behavior and Evolution|year=1958|publisher=Yale University Press|pages=140&ndash;164|chapter=Chapter 7: Comparative Neurology and the Evolution of Behavior|chapter-url=http://karlpribram.net/wp-content/uploads/pdf/theory/T-005.pdf}}</ref>{{rp|155}} although he himself did not use the term "four Fs".

In the case of [[vertebrate]]s, this list corresponds to the motivational behaviours that drive the activity in the [[hypothalamus]], namely: fighting, flightingfleeing, feeding and sexual functioning. The hypothalamus responds to these motivations by regulating activity in the [[endocrine system]] to [[releasing hormone|release hormone]]s to alter the [[ethology|behaviour]] of the animal.<ref name="Lambert11">{{cite journal|last=Lambert|first=Kelly|title=A Tale of Two Rodents|journal=Scientific American Mind|year=2011|volume=22|issue=4|pages=36&ndash;43|doi=10.1038/scientificamericanmind0911-36}}</ref> These hormones include [[epinephrine]] (adrenalinadrenaline) to increase blood flow and heart rate for a sufficient fight-or-flight response,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Marks' basic medical biochemistry : a clinical approach|last=Lieberman|first=Michael|date=2013|publisher=Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins|others=Marks, Allan D., Peet, Alisa.|isbn=9781608315727|edition=4th|location=Philadelphia|oclc=769803483}}</ref> and [[ghrelin]], which is commonly described as "the hunger hormone".<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sakata|first1=Ichiro|last2=Sakai|first2=Takafumi|date=2010|title=Ghrelin cells in the gastrointestinal tract|journal=International Journal of Peptides|volume=2010|pages=1–7|doi=10.1155/2010/945056|issn=1687-9775|pmc=2925405|pmid=20798855|doi-access=free }}</ref>