True, but if you simply follow the evolutionary logic of it, given that males of the species have a higher risk of ending up not having their genes passed on if their partner does things that results in pregnancy by someone else, then cheating with someone that can get them pregnant is a far worse crime than cheating with someone that can't.
Given that the main battle for the female of the species is finding a partner that will stick around and use resources to raise their children, I guess having someone that might not even fancy your gender is possibly a higher risk proposition than someone that merely goes and impregnates someone else. That's an interesting statistic for me (presuming that the percentages vaguely relate to the benefits of keeping the cheating partner from an evolutionary perspective, which I suspect they will, even if only very vaguely).
I guess it's the fact that the article headline could be re-written to "men less jealous of cheating that doesn't result in raising someone else's kids" is what got me :) (I'm not saying it's not worth doing, just in case the results are not in line with expectation)
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
Yes, but you are aware that you can find an evolutionary explanation for just about anything, right?
You could equally well argue (if it had turned out the other way) that men were more willing to put up with partners who were likely to stay with them as they were sexually interested in their gender, but not with a woman who might leave with another one.
A lot of "evolutionary explanations" turn out to be incredibly culturally biased, because they assume that whatever behaviour is true in the researcher's culture is natural.
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
Even better if they leave once you've got them pregnant. Two women raising your children for you? EVOLUTIONARY WIN!
But a man that might get you pregnant then leave you for another man so you have to bring up the child yourself: EVOLUTIONARY LOSE!
Given the gender roles in terms of who can and can't get pregnant there's no way I would have thought it could go the other way (not to say that's not worth testing, but I'd have bet the house on it)
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
You could talk about it in terms of sociology or psychology or whatever you like. I'm merely thinking about it in terms of the benefits it passes onto your genes to have that strategy when dealing with those sorts of situations (and obviously humans can rise above that, as evolution is far from everything there is, especially when you know about it).
It strikes me that when you consider the other finding in the article (women dump men who sleep with men more often than men who sleep with women), the evolutionary argument starts to gain strength here.
Still not saying it's a slam-dunk or anything like, though.
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
Yeah, my main problem with evolutionary explanations is that they're presented as Science, when they're not really backed up by anything solid. It's all "this seems likely to me", when it's basically stories told after the fact.
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Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
Given that the main battle for the female of the species is finding a partner that will stick around and use resources to raise their children, I guess having someone that might not even fancy your gender is possibly a higher risk proposition than someone that merely goes and impregnates someone else. That's an interesting statistic for me (presuming that the percentages vaguely relate to the benefits of keeping the cheating partner from an evolutionary perspective, which I suspect they will, even if only very vaguely).
I guess it's the fact that the article headline could be re-written to "men less jealous of cheating that doesn't result in raising someone else's kids" is what got me :)
(I'm not saying it's not worth doing, just in case the results are not in line with expectation)
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
You could equally well argue (if it had turned out the other way) that men were more willing to put up with partners who were likely to stay with them as they were sexually interested in their gender, but not with a woman who might leave with another one.
A lot of "evolutionary explanations" turn out to be incredibly culturally biased, because they assume that whatever behaviour is true in the researcher's culture is natural.
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
But a man that might get you pregnant then leave you for another man so you have to bring up the child yourself: EVOLUTIONARY LOSE!
Given the gender roles in terms of who can and can't get pregnant there's no way I would have thought it could go the other way (not to say that's not worth testing, but I'd have bet the house on it)
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionarily_stable_strategy
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men
Still not saying it's a slam-dunk or anything like, though.
Re: •Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men