Genoeconomics: promises and caveats for a new field

Since the publication 150 years ago of the Origin of Species, the scientific study of the evolution of human-specific traits has been the focus of many efforts from very different areas of science. Nowadays, after a century and a half of research, impressive results have accumulated, particularly about those traits that presumably would "make us human," setting us apart from the rest of primates, and about how these traits would have evolved. Over the last few years, a new area of research, genoeconomics, has started to make important contributions toward the study of hominization. Here, I review the foundations and promises of this new branch of science and discuss a few of the pitfalls that may hinder its advance.