Men's Long-Term Mating Strategies - PDF

5 MEN’S LONG-TERM MATiNG STRATEGiES 5.1 Homosexual Orientation: An Evolutionary Puzzle Heterosexual orientation is a prime example of a psychological adaptation—roughly 94 to 98 percent of men and 98 to 99 percent of women have a primary orientation toward heterosexuality. Any orientation that low...

5 MEN’S LONG-TERM MATiNG STRATEGiES 5.1 Homosexual Orientation: An Evolutionary Puzzle Heterosexual orientation is a prime example of a psychological adaptation—roughly 94 to 98 percent of men and 98 to 99 percent of women have a primary orientation toward heterosexuality. Any orientation that lowered the likelihood of successful reproduction would be selected against. The persistence of a small percentage of primarily or exclusively lesbian women and homosexual men poses a genuine evolutionary puzzle, as noted in Chapter 4. Sexual orientation has a modest heritable component (Bailey et al., 1999). Homosexual men have lower rates of reproduction than heterosexuals (Bobrow & Bailey, 2001; McKnight, 1997; Muscarella, 2000). One evolutionary explanation of male homosexuality is the kin altruism theory (Wilson, 1975). According to this theory, genes for homosexual orientation could have evolved if they led homosexuals to invest heavily enough in their genetic relatives to ofset the costs of forgoing direct reproduction. Early tests of the kin altruism theory, however, received no empirical support from studies of gay and heterosexual men. Gay men did not difer from heterosexual men in their likelihood of funneling resources toward kin (Bobrow & Bailey, 2001; Rahman & Hull, 2005). In fact, gay men reported being slightly more estranged from their genetic relatives, contrary to the kin altruism theory. In contrast, several studies in Samoa did fnd greater avuncular tendencies among male homosexuals (fa’afafne)— specifcally, compared to their heterosexual counterparts, fa’afafne did invest more in nieces and nephews (Vasey & VanderLaan, 2010). They reported babysitting more for them, buying them toys, and investing money in their education. Moreover, cross-cultural studies of male androphilia expressed in a transgendered form do fnd elevated levels of kin altruism (VanderLaan, Ren, & Vasey, 2013). Although no work has yet examined whether these behaviors increase reproductive ftness of genetic relatives enough to ofset the costs of not reproducing directly, the kin altruism theory may still be in the running as an explanation, awaiting more extensive research. A second evolutionary theory is called the female fertility hypothesis, which suggests that genes for male homosexuality can evolve if they produce an increased reproductive rate in the female relatives of male homosexuals—a reproductive advantage that more than compensates for the lower rates of reproduction of gay males (Iemmola & Camperio, 2009). This could occur in resource-stratifed societies in which women with highly attractive feminine and fertile qualities “marry up” in social status, which is known to occur (Barthes, Godelle, & Raymond, 2013). One test of the female fertility hypothesis involves examining the reproductive rates of female kin of homosexuals compared to the female kin of heterosexuals. Evidence has steadily been accumulating that, although male homosexuals produce about a ffh of the number of ofspring as heterosexual men, the maternal female relatives of gay males (e.g., their mothers, maternal aunts) indeed produce signifcantly more ofspring than the maternal female relatives of heterosexual men (Iemmola et al., 2009). These results have been found by other researchers (e.g., Rahman et al., 2008). Mathematical models and anthropological data also support the female fertility hypothesis, coupled with upward mobility of attractive feminine women (Barthes et al., 2013). If future research continues to confrm the female fertility hypothesis, it would partially resolve the Darwinian paradox of male homosexuality—that genes transmitted through the maternal line simultaneously increase the likelihood of producing homosexual males while increasing the reproductive rates of females. Another theory proposes that we should focus on the functions of homoerotic behavior per se, rather than sexual orientation (Muscarella, 2000). Evolutionary psychologist Frank Muscarella proposes a specifc function for homoerotic behavior: alliance formation. According to this theory, homoerotic behavior by young men with older men provides a strategy for gaining allies, boosting themselves up the status hierarchy, and ultimately gaining greater sexual access to women. The alliance formation theory has several virtues, such as focusing on the functions of homosexual behavior and an emphasis on cross-species comparative framework (same-sex sexual contact has also been documented in other primate species such as bonobos). Nonetheless, the theory encounters several empirical difculties. Although it might explain practices in a minority of cultures, such as ancient Greece or certain New Guinean tribes, there is no evidence that the majority of young men in most cultures use homoerotic behavior as a strategy of alliance formation. Indeed, non-sexual same-sex alliances appear to be the norm and are commonly not accompanied with any sexual activity. Furthermore, there is no evidence that men who engage in homoerotic behavior succeed more than those who do not in forming alliances or ascending in status. In sum, of the three evolutionary theories of homosexuality thus far advanced, the kin altruism theory has received mixed empirical support, while the female fertility hypothesis has accrued the strongest empirical support. More extensive cross-cultural tests of these theories are needed, although scientists are now making some progress in explaining what has long been considered an evolutionary paradox. 147 ChALLENGES OF SEx AND MATiNG 148 Context Efects on Men’s Mating Behavior Social, ecological, and personal contexts infuence men’s mating strategies. First, we consider the fact that desires rarely show a one-to-one correspondence with actual mating behavior. Men who are high in mate value should have better odds of getting what they want in a mate. Second, there is a notable discrepancy between modern environments and the ancestral environments in which we evolved. Over the course of evolutionary history, humans most likely evolved in small groups containing perhaps 50 to 200 individuals (Dunbar, 1993). In these small groups, a particular man would have encountered at most a few dozen attractive women. In modern environments, humans are bombarded with literally thousands of images of attractive models from billboards, magazines, television, internet, and movies. How do novel features of the modern environment infuence human mating strategies? Men in Positions of Power Although most men place a premium on youth and beauty in a mate, not all men succeed in achieving their desires. Men lacking the status and resources that women want may have the most difcult time attracting such women and may have to settle for less than their ideal. Evidence for this possibility comes from men historically in a position to get exactly what they prefer—kings, emperors, and other men of high status. In the 1700s and 1800s, for example, wealthier men from the Krummerhörn population of Germany married younger brides than did men lacking wealth (Voland & Engel, 1990). Similarly, high-status men from the Norwegian farmers of 1700s to 1900s to the Kipsigis in contemporary Kenya consistently married younger brides than did their lower-status counterparts (Borgerhof Mulder, 1988; Røskaf, Wara, & Viken, 1992). Kings and despots routinely stocked their harems with young, attractive, nubile women and had sex with them frequently (Betzig, 1992). The Moroccan emperor Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty, for example, acknowledged siring 888 children. His harem included 500 women. When a woman reached the age of 30, she was removed from the emperor’s harem, sent to a lower-level leader’s harem, and replaced by a younger woman. Roman, Babylonian, Egyptian, Incan, Indian, and Chinese emperors all shared the tastes of Emperor Ismail and enjoined their trustees to scour the land for young, pretty women. This is morally questionable behavior according to most modern standards and occurs in unusual cultural contexts in which some men are able to wield absolute power in cruel and oppressive ways. Marriage patterns in the United States today confrm the fact that men with resources are most able to actualize their preferences. High-status older males, such as rock stars Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger and movie stars Johnny Depp and George Clooney, frequently select women two or three decades younger. Several sociological studies have examined the impact of a man’s occupational status on the physical attractiveness of the woman he marries (Elder, 1969; Taylor & Glenn, 1976; Udry & Eckland, 1984). Men high in occupational status tend to marry women considerably more physically attractive than men low in occupational status. Men who enjoy high status and income are aware of their ability to attract more desirable women. In a study of a computer dating service involving 1,048 German men and 1,590 German women, ethologist Karl Grammer found that as men’s income goes up, they seek younger partners (Grammer, 1992). Each increment in income is accompanied by a decrease in the age of the woman sought. Moreover, men who are high in mate value express a stronger preference for facially feminine women compared with men who are less attractive (Burriss, Welling, & Puts, 5 MEN’S LONG-TERM MATiNG STRATEGiES 2011). Finally, an experiment showed that men who won a video-game competition expressed stronger preferences for women’s facial femininity than men who lost the competition (Welling et al., 2013). Contrast Efects From Viewing Attractive Models Advertisers exploit the universal appeal of beautiful, youthful women. Madison Avenue is sometimes charged with advancing a single arbitrary standard of beauty that everyone else must live up to. This accusation is at least partially false. Many standards of beauty are not arbitrary; they embody reliable cues to fertility and reproductive value. Advertisers that more closely exploit existing mate preferences are almost sure to be more successful than those that do not. Advertisers perch a clear-skinned, regularfeatured young woman on the hood of the latest car because the image exploits men’s evolved psychological mechanisms and therefore sells cars.. Men with status and resources—qualities that women desire in a long-term mate—are better able than men without status and resources to translate their preferences for young attractive women into actual mating behaviors 149 ChALLENGES OF SEx AND MATiNG 150 The media images we are bombarded with daily, however, have a potentially negative consequence. In one study, after groups of men looked at photographs of either highly attractive women or women of average attractiveness, they were asked to evaluate their commitment to their current romantic partners (Kenrick, Neuberg, Zierk, & Krones, 1994). Men viewing pictures of attractive women subsequently judged their actual partners to be less attractive than did the men who had viewed pictures of women who were average in attractiveness. They also felt less committed to, less satisfed with, less serious about, and less close to their actual partners. Parallel results were obtained in another study in which men viewed physically attractive nude centerfolds: They rated themselves as less attracted to their partners (Kenrick, Gutierres, & Goldberg, 1989). A similar contrast efect has been documented in an experiment in which participants watched a mock videotaped interview with an opposite-sex stranger (Mishra, Clark, & Daly, 2007). Men who viewed videos of women who smiled and acted warmly, key cues to receptivity, subsequently rated their own partners as less attractive than did men watching the same women who did not smile or act warmly. No such efect was found for women viewing analogous videos of men. The authors conclude that men shift the allocation of their mating efort not just in response to a woman’s physical attractiveness but also in response to cues to female receptivity. The reasons for these changes are found in the unrealistic nature of the images and in the psychological mechanisms of men. The few attractive women selected for advertisements are chosen from thousands. Playboy, for example, is reputed to shoot roughly 6,000 pictures for each monthly magazine. From these thousands of pictures, a few are selected for publication, and these are often photoshopped. So what men see are the most attractive women in the most attractive pose in the most attractive photoshopped image. It is doubtful that in ancestral environments, men would have seen even a dozen women considered attractive by today’s measure. The seeming abundance of attractive women, however, might reasonably induce a man to consider switching mates, and hence decrease his commitment to his existing mate. Consider modern times. We carry with us the same evaluative mechanisms that evolved in ancient times. Now, however, these mechanisms are artifcially activated by the dozens of attractive women we witness daily in our advertisement-saturated culture, on websites, in magazines, on billboards, on TV, and in movies. Most of these images do not represent real women in our actual social environment, with the exception of women on internet dating sites. Most of these images exploit men’s mating psychology that evolved in a very diferent mating environment. The potential damage inficted by these images afects women as well because they create a spiraling and unhealthy competition with other women. Women fnd themselves competing with other women to embody the images they see daily—images they believe are desired by men. The unprecedented rates of eating disorders and cosmetic surgery may stem in part from these media images. The images work by exploiting men’s existing evolved standards of beauty and women’s competitive mating mechanisms on an unprecedented scale. Testosterone and Men’s Mating Strategies The hormone testosterone (T) plays a key role in male mating efort, the time and energy devoted to pursuing mates and besting same-sex competitors (Ellison, 2001). Higher T levels facilitate male pursuit of females, and T levels increase afer interacting with an attractive woman (Roney, Mahler, & Maestripieri, 2003). Maintaining high levels of T, though, can be costly for men. T can compromise immune functioning, and because it is linked with mating efort, it may interfere with parenting efort (it’s difcult for a man to be a good parent if he’s always pursuing other women). Consequently, evolutionists have hypothesized that T levels should drop afer a man succeeds in attracting a long-term mate, and studies have found precisely that efect (Burnham et al., 2003; Gray et al., 2004). One study found that 5 MEN’S LONG-TERM MATiNG STRATEGiES 151 men in committed relationships had 21 percent lower T levels than unpaired men (see Figure 5.6). Another found that men in long-term relationships (more than 12 months) had substantially lower T levels than single men or men in newly formed relationships (less than 12 months) (Farrelly, Owens, Elliott, Walden, & Wetherell, 2015). Married men who had children had even lower levels of T. There could be at least two diferent reasons for the link between T and relationship status. One is that T levels drop after becoming involved in a committed relationship. Alternatively, perhaps men with low T levels are more likely to get into committed relationships, whereas high-T men prefer to remain free to pursue short-term mating. What is the evidence? First, men in the later stages of a relationship have lower T levels than men in the early stages of a relationship (Gray et al., 2004). Second, a longitudinal study found that divorced men who remarry experience a subsequent drop in T levels (Mazur & Michalek, 1998). These fndings suggest that T levels drop after forming a committed relationship. Men in committed relationships, however, do not always refrain from additional mating attempts. According to the mating efort hypothesis, men in relationships who pursue additional matings should have higher T levels than men who remain monogamous. That is precisely what McIntyre and colleagues discovered (McIntyre et al., 2006). They asked men in relationships: “Would you ever consider having an ‘afair’ (sex with someone else) behind the back of your relationship partner?” Men who said “yes” had higher T levels than men who said “no.” T is linked with allocating time and energy to seeking and competing for mates; T levels drop after the successful formation of a relationship and the production of children in order to facilitate pair-bonding and parental efort, but only if the man is not pursuing extra-pair sex. Exposure to potential mates triggers rapid rises in T levels in many non-human species, and similar efects occur in humans. One study found that merely having a brief conversation with a young woman increased men’s T levels (Roney, Simmons, & Lukaszewski, 2010). Field experiments of skateboarders found that the mere presence of an attractive woman produced an increase in risk taking by young men (including more crashes), as well as elevated T levels (Ronay & von Hippel, 2010). Figure 5.6 Relationship between Testosterone (T) and Relationship Status Source: Adapted and modifed from Burnham et al. (2003). Men in committed, romantic relationships have lower testosterone levels. Hormones and Behavior, 44, 120 (fgure 5.1). Men in committed relationships have lower T levels than men not in relationships. Men with children have especially low T levels.