Why Mate Choice Matters
How sexual selection shapes human nature
This is the latest excerpt from my book, A Billion Years of Sex Differences. You can access the full collection here, or pick up a copy of the book here.
In this installment, we’ll see…
How mate choice shaped the evolution of men’s and women’s minds
Why women care more about their looks and men about their status and wealth
How sexual selection explains women’s greater proneness to body-image problems
The evolutionary roots of eating disorders and “bigorexia”
Why evolved mate preferences help explain the gender pay gap
Why Mate Choice Matters
Let’s now tiptoe into more controversial territory. Mate preferences not only help shape men’s and women’s bodies, they also help shape their minds. If people want a smart mate, a kind mate, or a funny mate, the species will inevitably evolve to be smarter, kinder, and funnier. Not only that, but we’ll evolve a motivation to hone and display the traits that potential mates desire.
You can probably see where I’m going with this. Because the sexes have somewhat different desires, each may have evolved somewhat different traits – and also somewhat different priorities about which traits to hone and display. How might this have played out in our species?