naa a22 4500 510780512 CHVBK 20180411083245.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180411e20131201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11692-013-9239-2 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11692-013-9239-2 The Comparative Method in Cross-Cultural and Cross-Species Research [Elektronische Daten] [Randy Thornhill, Corey Fincher] Comparative methodology is controversial in biology and the related field of research on behavioral and psychological traits across human cultures. We critically examine this controversy. We argue that the widely held opinion of non-independence among historically-related cultures and species errs by not recognizing and incorporating into research the two distinct and complementary categories of causation that account for an extant trait—the phylogenetic origin of the trait (cultural or otherwise) and the maintenance of the trait after its phylogenetic origin. Phylogenetic correction for non-independence is required in the comparative study of a trait's phylogenetic origin, but is irrelevant for the comparative study of the causation of a trait's maintenance after its phylogenetic origin. Across cultures, even closely related cultures, causes that are specific to each culture act to maintain cultural similarities, which makes such similarities independent. Among species, even closely related species, similarities are maintained by lineage-specific, and hence independent, evolutionary causal processes. Comparative methodology has been criticized as being inferior to other types of scientific methodology (e.g., experimentation), because it is based on correlational data. This criticism is erroneous because, all scientific findings are correlational, and in hypothesis testing, the ability of an empirical finding to address causation depends solely upon the control of confounding variables, not the type of scientific method itself. Springer Science+Business Media New York, 2013 Adaptationism nationallicence By-product nationallicence Cross-cultural psychology nationallicence Galton's problem nationallicence Phylogenetic correction nationallicence Thornhill Randy Department of Biology, The University of New Mexico, 87131-0001, Albuquerque, NM, USA aut Fincher Corey Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK aut Evolutionary Biology Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 40/4(2013-12-01), 480-493 0071-3260 40:4<480 2013 40 11692 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-013-9239-2 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-013-9239-2 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Thornhill Randy Department of Biology, The University of New Mexico, 87131-0001, Albuquerque, NM, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Fincher Corey Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Evolutionary Biology Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 40/4(2013-12-01), 480-493 0071-3260 40:4<480 2013 40 11692 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer