Evolutionary Psychology 101

[differenceblog]

David Schmitt (2003) claims to have found a universal sex difference: the desire for sexual variety. Schmitt's data from the International Sexuality Description Project (ISDP), a project for which he is the Founding Director, collected surveys from over 16,000 people in 52 nations (largely college students). Schmitt concludes that men in all

Comments

[detonate_for_me]

Trivers hypothesis. Hrm. When I took animal behavior, the professor stressed more that it meant the sex that expended the most parental investment was the scarce resource for which the other sex would compete. ("Flashiness" in males of most species, bucks fighting over a doe, etc.) He didn't talk so much about being more or less discriminating in mate selection. In retrospect, I'm glad. I'm sure I would have gotten into heated arguments with frat boys had it turned into a discussion that even hinted at nature's justification for women not being "sluts".

[beowabbit]

[...] I was raised from a child hearing about how appalling evolutionary psychology was.
I wasn’t raised from a child hearing that, but I’ve always taken evolutionary explanations for human behaviour with a large grain of salt. It’s certainly true that our biology defines our minds and our behaviours in some pretty fundamental ways, but I think those fundamental ways aren’t really noticed by anybody but neurologists. As the cliché goes, fish don’t have a word for water

On a related note

[detonate_for_me]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/05/30/cheetah.infidelity.reut/index.html