Evolutionary Psychology Long-Term Mating (Women) Part 1!

LZ
by Lena Zawawi6 views·Updated Feb 5, 2024

Evolutionary Behavior ! YAY

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated

  1. So today I'm gonna I'm so annoyed because my previous
  2. video was deleted because I accidentally closed the top.
  3. So I'm so freaking irritated because I recorded about 10 minutes of it.
  4. But I'll go through it again.
  5. And I guess you could say I have a more. Um
  6. Like knowledge about what I discussed,
  7. like uh I'll articulate it better because I just kind of went through it.
  8. So I'm gonna be discussing uh week three and this
  9. is all about long term mating strategies and women.
  10. So I'm gonna go through the information with you.
  11. about it.
  12. And I end it off and then I'm gonna
  13. I'm only gonna do part one and then I'm gonna make a second video because it's
  14. um pretty dense information that I'm discussing and
  15. I wanna make it as fascinating as possible.
  16. So
  17. um
  18. so let's begin
  19. so long term mating,
  20. the strategies of women.
  21. So here we're gonna discuss some uh potential hypothesis about what women
  22. look for when it comes to selecting for long term mates.
  23. So Trevor's 1972.
  24. He suggests that the sex that invest more in
  25. offspring will be more discriminating or selective about mating.
  26. He also proposes that the sex that invest less in offspring
  27. will compete more for sexual access to the high investing sex.
  28. So when we um view these um
  29. propositions we can um
  30. we can
  31. Assume that he's referring like in human human primates, we can assume that he's um
  32. uh referring to women when he um
  33. proposes that uh the sex that invests more because
  34. um in terms of reproduction, women have um a higher cost.
  35. Um It's more it takes more of a toll on their body.
  36. It takes nine months um to carry a fetus up to full term.
  37. And within that time uh she's very vulnerable to
  38. uh disease and uh
  39. and losing the baby losing their child.
  40. And also during uh when she gives childbirth,
  41. there's always that um inherent risk that she has of losing her life.
  42. Uh Also women only have um like a certain amount of eggs. So they can only
  43. um have uh like give birth to uh a limited amount of Children.
  44. And in addition uh men have like unlimited sperm, they can just continuously.
  45. Um impregnate uh women and
  46. they don't have to invest um
  47. as much when it comes to child rearing and child care as well afterwards.
  48. So because of high but then he also suggests
  49. that because of high offspring dependency in humans.
  50. Males also tend to invest substantially more.
  51. Um So there is a there is the fact that men actually
  52. have to invest more when it comes to long term uh relationships.
  53. So because of this they tend to be more choosy about long term potential needs.
  54. So that's also
  55. Uh Another factor
  56. So first let's look at the adaptive problems faced by ancestral human females.
  57. So this is where we um
  58. we propose some
  59. uh potential factors that might have guided um ancestral humans.
  60. Human females um mate choices when it comes to long term males. Male selection.
  61. So firstly the first is able to invest resources.
  62. So prediction here would be good finance, high social status, older age, ambit,
  63. ambition and industriousness, body size and strength.
  64. The second is willing to invest resources.
  65. So these provide cues for dependability, stability, love and commitment.
  66. The third is the being physically able to provide protection.
  67. to both. Um the female and as well as her child.
  68. So here we should see a preference for body size, masculine features, bravery,
  69. athletic ability.
  70. If this is true,
  71. we also um propose that um she's looking for someone
  72. who's able to provide good parenting skills for her offspring.
  73. So these predictive traits include dependability, emotional stability,
  74. kindness, positive interactions with Children.
  75. Then um there's also
  76. the prediction
  77. that maybe it like another thing that um these ancestral women were looking for was
  78. um
  79. is compatible to them.
  80. So such as similar values, similar ages,
  81. similar personalities and lastly is healthy.
  82. So are they healthy?
  83. The prediction here is symmetry and other cues of physical health, such as
  84. um
  85. like body size. Like being in good shape.
  86. I'm not but it's ok
  87. Ok so first cross cultural study.
  88. So there was a questionnaire to
  89. 10,047 participants across 37 different cultures and
  90. they rated potential uh characteristics on a four point scale of importance.
  91. So zero was not important at all. And three was very important.
  92. Then in a second data set,
  93. There was a within Usa across generation study
  94. and this was um from college students,
  95. only college students across different regions in the Usa.
  96. But the time points were uh from first in 1939 and then the second order was 1956.
  97. So not so recent. And the total um number of participants were 3795.
  98. You can suggest that it's not a large enough sample, but that's besides the point
  99. Anyways they um they rated same and similar 18 characteristics on
  100. um importance
  101. So firstly
  102. they looked at a preference for resources. So
  103. the proposition here was for selection to occur.
  104. Resources must be procurable, defensible and controllable for men.
  105. And there also must be a variation among men and their resources
  106. and ability to gain them and their willingness to invest in.
  107. Women. And Children
  108. they suggested that if there was indeed a preference for resources,
  109. it predicts that women should select for a partner with
  110. good financial prospects and other signifiers signifiers of resource ability.
  111. So when they looked at the ranking um it was in the middle
  112. or actually fairly low for what women placed importance on in a relationship.
  113. So this was rated middle to fairly low and it
  114. was actually the lower half of the rating system.
  115. However, in the big cross cultural study,
  116. women place more value on average on
  117. good financial prospects than men did regardless.
  118. So in terms of like in its entirety this was rated um fairly low to middle,
  119. but women did um place a higher importance than men did on average.
  120. even in the regions where women rate ranked it less important,
  121. they still tended to place more emphasis on it than men did.
  122. So like
  123. in westernized um in industrial developed nations.
  124. For example where where women have like equal access to career success,
  125. and um can can make the same or even more than men.
  126. They did tend to place a lower emphasis than those in poorer regions,
  127. but still it tended to be higher than uh than men rated it for women.
  128. In terms of long term mate importance.
  129. The second thing they analyzed was a preference for high social status
  130. So the across generation study only indicated this as a favorable social status.
  131. There was ambiguity to keep it consistent with the previous study study
  132. and consistency was again found amongst generations.
  133. So women, they rated this aspect as fairly low on the list of important qualities.
  134. There were also sex differences. So women cross culturally.
  135. Again, they rated the high social status aspect as more important than men did
  136. Uh
  137. There was also a regional and cultural difference that was found.
  138. So us women they tended to rate high social status as more important than men did,
  139. but it was still not the highest rated quality.
  140. amongst other characteristics in comparison to other characteristics.
  141. Then the third one was ambitious and industriousness.
  142. So this is basically like one's drive to succeed and obtain their goals.
  143. So this um characteristic was pretty highly rated for women.
  144. But it was a generational difference. Once again
  145. earlier generations ranked this higher in importance than later generations,
  146. but they still ranked in the top half.
  147. So it was still fairly high.
  148. It may also change between long term and short term partners in the
  149. long term women do rate these traits as important because a promising career,
  150. good financial prospects likely to gain.
  151. So basically women tend to high to rate this highly
  152. because being ambitious and having industriousness or conscientiousness is um
  153. are predictive factors uh subconsciously for a promising career,
  154. good financial prospects, likely to gain money and have a re reliable career
  155. in the future.
  156. the next um trade study in man
  157. Uh was
  158. older. We or in women was whether they had an a preference for older men.
  159. So they found that women, they prefer men who are slightly older in all 37 cultures.
  160. And when average cross culturally women have a preference for
  161. a male that is 3.5 years older than them.
  162. But what does this have to do with
  163. resources and social status and health and compatibility.
  164. So it makes more sense that um
  165. an older man
  166. Uh Like subconsciously you would think that older
  167. men have a higher likelihood of achieving success and
  168. um being more reliable, both emotionally and financially.
  169. Then they looked at the preference for dependability and stability.
  170. So this was very high, highly rated undesirable characteristics for women.
  171. So it was actually in the top three most desirable traits across generations.
  172. But all men also rated it pretty high as well
  173. In cross cultural um studies of 37 cultures,
  174. it was found that 21 out of 37 showed no sex difference and desire for dependability,
  175. 15 out of 37 countries
  176. um ranked women ranked um dependability higher than men.
  177. And in one out of 37 countries, men ranked dependability higher than women.
  178. Women ranked at 2.69 out of three, while men ranked at 2.50 out of three.
  179. So why is it important?
  180. It's because um there are costs associated
  181. with partners who lack dependability and stability.
  182. So traits such as being erratic, self-centered, monopolizing resources,
  183. uh being too dependent, being inconsiderate, be being possessive, being jealous,
  184. being abusive and
  185. uh
  186. having a higher likelihood of engaging in infidelity.
  187. So these are very unattractive traits cross culturally.
  188. the last thing that was examined for women
  189. was the preference for love and commitment.
  190. So this is the mutual attraction and desire for
  191. home and Children and it's variable across generations.
  192. So it shows up as being ranked important in all 37 cultures for both sexes.
  193. But what is love? It's commitment.
  194. It's giving up other sexual partners discussing marriages,
  195. expressing the desire to have Children with that partner.
  196. OK, I'm gonna upload a part two.