the man on the street and what he thinks
Today I read that while in 1993 Buss and Schmitt published a survey of college students that has been cited extensively to bolster the idea in evolutionary psychology that males compared to females would rather focus on breadth versus depth on their reproductive efforts. The article noted that Lynn Miller of USC et al are about to publish a study using a similar survey (sigh, I know, one should just stop reading at the word "survey") in which they asked for more objective quantification of how much time and money the males and females invested into short, medium, or long term relationships and found that it matched far more closely. The article wasn't that good, though, so I haven't bothered linking it.
I had an idea on this, which is that there are many unexplored factors that make one strategy or another not as much better might sound--a point of contention no doubt--but that the more important idea that goes unnoticed is to distinguish an independent variable of how an organism portrays oneself. The thing I like about this latter point is that in the general accusatory war of "your gender is about X, and mine is about Y" it gives the male this counterargument "yours is about having the appearance of Y" for which there is no quick and effective reply....
I had an idea on this, which is that there are many unexplored factors that make one strategy or another not as much better might sound--a point of contention no doubt--but that the more important idea that goes unnoticed is to distinguish an independent variable of how an organism portrays oneself. The thing I like about this latter point is that in the general accusatory war of "your gender is about X, and mine is about Y" it gives the male this counterargument "yours is about having the appearance of Y" for which there is no quick and effective reply....