Evolution Expert: ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ Doesn’t Explain Sexual Harassment

As an anthropologist who studies the evolutionary biology of men, I have followed with distress the recent spate of reports on the sexual harassment and abuse of women by high-profile men, and the inevitable question that follows: Are men simply prewired to behave badly towards women? When this rationalization is implied — and it commonly is — the conversation often leads to one explanation: evolution.