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Evolutionary Psychology Long-Term Mating (Women) Part 1!
LZ
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Lena Zawawi
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Updated Feb 5, 2024
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Evolutionary Behavior ! YAY
#evolutionarypsychology
#psychology
#evolution
#longtermmating
Audio Transcript
Auto-generated
00:01 - 00:04
So today I'm gonna I'm so annoyed because my previous
00:04 - 00:07
video was deleted because I accidentally closed the top.
00:07 - 00:10
So I'm so freaking irritated because I recorded about 10 minutes of it.
00:10 - 00:12
But I'll go through it again.
00:12 - 00:14
And I guess you could say I have a more. Um
00:15 - 00:17
Like knowledge about what I discussed,
00:17 - 00:21
like uh I'll articulate it better because I just kind of went through it.
00:21 - 00:23
So I'm gonna be discussing uh week three and this
00:23 - 00:26
is all about long term mating strategies and women.
00:27 - 00:30
So I'm gonna go through the information with you.
00:32 - 00:33
about it.
00:33 - 00:36
And I end it off and then I'm gonna
00:36 - 00:40
I'm only gonna do part one and then I'm gonna make a second video because it's
00:40 - 00:43
um pretty dense information that I'm discussing and
00:43 - 00:46
I wanna make it as fascinating as possible.
00:47 - 00:48
So
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um
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so let's begin
00:50 - 00:53
so long term mating,
00:53 - 00:54
the strategies of women.
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So here we're gonna discuss some uh potential hypothesis about what women
00:58 - 01:02
look for when it comes to selecting for long term mates.
01:03 - 01:06
So Trevor's 1972.
01:06 - 01:08
He suggests that the sex that invest more in
01:08 - 01:11
offspring will be more discriminating or selective about mating.
01:11 - 01:14
He also proposes that the sex that invest less in offspring
01:14 - 01:18
will compete more for sexual access to the high investing sex.
01:18 - 01:21
So when we um view these um
01:21 - 01:24
propositions we can um
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we can
01:26 - 01:32
Assume that he's referring like in human human primates, we can assume that he's um
01:32 - 01:36
uh referring to women when he um
01:36 - 01:39
proposes that uh the sex that invests more because
01:40 - 01:44
um in terms of reproduction, women have um a higher cost.
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Um It's more it takes more of a toll on their body.
01:47 - 01:51
It takes nine months um to carry a fetus up to full term.
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And within that time uh she's very vulnerable to
01:55 - 01:57
uh disease and uh
01:58 - 02:00
and losing the baby losing their child.
02:00 - 02:03
And also during uh when she gives childbirth,
02:03 - 02:07
there's always that um inherent risk that she has of losing her life.
02:07 - 02:13
Uh Also women only have um like a certain amount of eggs. So they can only
02:13 - 02:18
um have uh like give birth to uh a limited amount of Children.
02:19 - 02:23
And in addition uh men have like unlimited sperm, they can just continuously.
02:24 - 02:27
Um impregnate uh women and
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they don't have to invest um
02:31 - 02:37
as much when it comes to child rearing and child care as well afterwards.
02:37 - 02:40
So because of high but then he also suggests
02:40 - 02:43
that because of high offspring dependency in humans.
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Males also tend to invest substantially more.
02:46 - 02:50
Um So there is a there is the fact that men actually
02:50 - 02:54
have to invest more when it comes to long term uh relationships.
02:55 - 02:58
So because of this they tend to be more choosy about long term potential needs.
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So that's also
03:01 - 03:03
Uh Another factor
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So first let's look at the adaptive problems faced by ancestral human females.
03:11 - 03:13
So this is where we um
03:14 - 03:15
we propose some
03:16 - 03:22
uh potential factors that might have guided um ancestral humans.
03:22 - 03:27
Human females um mate choices when it comes to long term males. Male selection.
03:28 - 03:31
So firstly the first is able to invest resources.
03:31 - 03:35
So prediction here would be good finance, high social status, older age, ambit,
03:35 - 03:39
ambition and industriousness, body size and strength.
03:39 - 03:41
The second is willing to invest resources.
03:41 - 03:45
So these provide cues for dependability, stability, love and commitment.
03:46 - 03:50
The third is the being physically able to provide protection.
03:51 - 03:56
to both. Um the female and as well as her child.
03:56 - 04:01
So here we should see a preference for body size, masculine features, bravery,
04:01 - 04:02
athletic ability.
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If this is true,
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we also um propose that um she's looking for someone
04:08 - 04:11
who's able to provide good parenting skills for her offspring.
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So these predictive traits include dependability, emotional stability,
04:16 - 04:19
kindness, positive interactions with Children.
04:21 - 04:23
Then um there's also
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the prediction
04:26 - 04:32
that maybe it like another thing that um these ancestral women were looking for was
04:33 - 04:33
um
04:34 - 04:35
is compatible to them.
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So such as similar values, similar ages,
04:38 - 04:41
similar personalities and lastly is healthy.
04:41 - 04:42
So are they healthy?
04:42 - 04:46
The prediction here is symmetry and other cues of physical health, such as
04:46 - 04:47
um
04:47 - 04:50
like body size. Like being in good shape.
04:51 - 04:52
I'm not but it's ok
04:53 - 04:56
Ok so first cross cultural study.
04:56 - 04:58
So there was a questionnaire to
04:58 - 05:03
10,047 participants across 37 different cultures and
05:03 - 05:07
they rated potential uh characteristics on a four point scale of importance.
05:07 - 05:11
So zero was not important at all. And three was very important.
05:11 - 05:13
Then in a second data set,
05:14 - 05:17
There was a within Usa across generation study
05:17 - 05:19
and this was um from college students,
05:19 - 05:22
only college students across different regions in the Usa.
05:22 - 05:29
But the time points were uh from first in 1939 and then the second order was 1956.
05:29 - 05:35
So not so recent. And the total um number of participants were 3795.
05:35 - 05:40
You can suggest that it's not a large enough sample, but that's besides the point
05:41 - 05:46
Anyways they um they rated same and similar 18 characteristics on
05:46 - 05:48
um importance
05:49 - 05:50
So firstly
05:50 - 05:54
they looked at a preference for resources. So
05:54 - 05:57
the proposition here was for selection to occur.
05:57 - 06:02
Resources must be procurable, defensible and controllable for men.
06:02 - 06:06
And there also must be a variation among men and their resources
06:06 - 06:08
and ability to gain them and their willingness to invest in.
06:08 - 06:09
Women. And Children
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they suggested that if there was indeed a preference for resources,
06:15 - 06:18
it predicts that women should select for a partner with
06:18 - 06:22
good financial prospects and other signifiers signifiers of resource ability.
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So when they looked at the ranking um it was in the middle
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or actually fairly low for what women placed importance on in a relationship.
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So this was rated middle to fairly low and it
06:33 - 06:35
was actually the lower half of the rating system.
06:36 - 06:38
However, in the big cross cultural study,
06:38 - 06:41
women place more value on average on
06:41 - 06:44
good financial prospects than men did regardless.
06:45 - 06:51
So in terms of like in its entirety this was rated um fairly low to middle,
06:51 - 06:55
but women did um place a higher importance than men did on average.
06:57 - 07:00
even in the regions where women rate ranked it less important,
07:00 - 07:03
they still tended to place more emphasis on it than men did.
07:03 - 07:04
So like
07:04 - 07:08
in westernized um in industrial developed nations.
07:08 - 07:12
For example where where women have like equal access to career success,
07:13 - 07:17
and um can can make the same or even more than men.
07:17 - 07:21
They did tend to place a lower emphasis than those in poorer regions,
07:21 - 07:25
but still it tended to be higher than uh than men rated it for women.
07:25 - 07:28
In terms of long term mate importance.
07:29 - 07:33
The second thing they analyzed was a preference for high social status
07:33 - 07:39
So the across generation study only indicated this as a favorable social status.
07:39 - 07:43
There was ambiguity to keep it consistent with the previous study study
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and consistency was again found amongst generations.
07:46 - 07:51
So women, they rated this aspect as fairly low on the list of important qualities.
07:51 - 07:54
There were also sex differences. So women cross culturally.
07:54 - 07:59
Again, they rated the high social status aspect as more important than men did
07:59 - 07:59
Uh
07:59 - 08:03
There was also a regional and cultural difference that was found.
08:03 - 08:07
So us women they tended to rate high social status as more important than men did,
08:07 - 08:11
but it was still not the highest rated quality.
08:12 - 08:16
amongst other characteristics in comparison to other characteristics.
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Then the third one was ambitious and industriousness.
08:20 - 08:26
So this is basically like one's drive to succeed and obtain their goals.
08:26 - 08:30
So this um characteristic was pretty highly rated for women.
08:30 - 08:33
But it was a generational difference. Once again
08:33 - 08:38
earlier generations ranked this higher in importance than later generations,
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but they still ranked in the top half.
08:39 - 08:41
So it was still fairly high.
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It may also change between long term and short term partners in the
08:46 - 08:50
long term women do rate these traits as important because a promising career,
08:50 - 08:53
good financial prospects likely to gain.
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So basically women tend to high to rate this highly
08:56 - 09:02
because being ambitious and having industriousness or conscientiousness is um
09:02 - 09:07
are predictive factors uh subconsciously for a promising career,
09:07 - 09:11
good financial prospects, likely to gain money and have a re reliable career
09:12 - 09:12
in the future.
09:13 - 09:16
the next um trade study in man
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Uh was
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older. We or in women was whether they had an a preference for older men.
09:25 - 09:31
So they found that women, they prefer men who are slightly older in all 37 cultures.
09:31 - 09:35
And when average cross culturally women have a preference for
09:35 - 09:37
a male that is 3.5 years older than them.
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But what does this have to do with
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resources and social status and health and compatibility.
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So it makes more sense that um
09:46 - 09:48
an older man
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Uh Like subconsciously you would think that older
09:51 - 09:54
men have a higher likelihood of achieving success and
09:55 - 09:59
um being more reliable, both emotionally and financially.
10:00 - 10:03
Then they looked at the preference for dependability and stability.
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So this was very high, highly rated undesirable characteristics for women.
10:08 - 10:13
So it was actually in the top three most desirable traits across generations.
10:13 - 10:17
But all men also rated it pretty high as well
10:18 - 10:22
In cross cultural um studies of 37 cultures,
10:22 - 10:28
it was found that 21 out of 37 showed no sex difference and desire for dependability,
10:29 - 10:32
15 out of 37 countries
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um ranked women ranked um dependability higher than men.
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And in one out of 37 countries, men ranked dependability higher than women.
10:42 - 10:48
Women ranked at 2.69 out of three, while men ranked at 2.50 out of three.
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So why is it important?
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It's because um there are costs associated
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with partners who lack dependability and stability.
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So traits such as being erratic, self-centered, monopolizing resources,
10:59 - 11:04
uh being too dependent, being inconsiderate, be being possessive, being jealous,
11:04 - 11:06
being abusive and
11:06 - 11:06
uh
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having a higher likelihood of engaging in infidelity.
11:10 - 11:13
So these are very unattractive traits cross culturally.
11:14 - 11:16
the last thing that was examined for women
11:16 - 11:18
was the preference for love and commitment.
11:19 - 11:21
So this is the mutual attraction and desire for
11:21 - 11:24
home and Children and it's variable across generations.
11:26 - 11:31
So it shows up as being ranked important in all 37 cultures for both sexes.
11:31 - 11:33
But what is love? It's commitment.
11:33 - 11:36
It's giving up other sexual partners discussing marriages,
11:36 - 11:38
expressing the desire to have Children with that partner.
11:39 - 11:41
OK, I'm gonna upload a part two.
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