I ask you not to vote this unless you actually read the post. After reading you can decide what direction vote it should receive.
One study on here has been getting a lot of attention. And it’s the study about ‘thugs’ having more partners, and it brings up a flaw many of these studies have.
“Number of partners” is a terrible marker of mating success. Okay quick thought experiment…You have Jason and Billy Bob Bodean. Jason is happily married with a beautiful wife. Everywhere she goes people comment on how stunning ad classy she is, but no one ever hits on her because everyone knows that’s Jason’s wife They have 3 amazing children and couldn’t be happier. Jason has only been with 3 women in his entire life… one he dated for 4 years in high school, and one he dated for a year before meeting his beautiful wife, with whom he’s been married to for 12 years now.
Billy Bob Bodean on the other hand has had many partners. his count is around 28. He drinks a lot and has a number of one night stands. A few relationships. His relationships ended for various reasons. Some because he was caught cheating, some because he caught his partner cheating. The women he dates often swear a lot, they sometimes have children from previous relationships an ‘baby momma drama’ When a researcher goes and interviews them both and asks them how many partners each has been with. BBB has been with 28 and Jason only had 3.
Now who is more romantically successful? Billy Bob or Jason?
Who is considered more romantically successful when you use 'number of partners' as a marker of mating success?
High class / High income people just have fewer partners. They prefer to meet one person they really like and stick with them for life. Basing ‘mating success’ off ‘number of partners’ is almost like basing career success oh how many different jobs a person has had. Someone who has held 40 different jobs isn't more successful than someone who's only had 3. It really just means they're less stable.
Take Barack Obama (let’s leave politic out of this and just focus on the person.) Barack Obama has probably only been with 3 or 4 women in his life. Is he romantically unsuccessful? Is he a ‘Beta’? Having been the president of the US he is by definition NOT a beta. Women Swoon over Barack Obama. Most think he’s very attractive. He has more options than even someone who’s been with many different women.
Men mat across and down dominance hierarchies, and women date across and up dominance hierarchies. In other words, a man with a SMV of 9 generally has access to females who have a SMV of 1-9. A man with a SMV of 4 has access to women 1-4. A woman who has a SMV of 7 will try to mate UP from that.. in other words they’ll try to go for men who are 7, 8, 9, 10.. the higher the better. A guy with a SMV of 10 MAY sleep with her.. but he’s doubtful to get in a relationship with her, because he can get a better deal elsewhere. But for her, that’s a great deal.
So what does that have to do with numbers of partners? We know of a trait called Conscientiousness. Conscientiousness is defined as: Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being careful, or diligent. Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well, and to take obligations to others seriously. Conscientious people tend to be efficient and organized as opposed to easy-going and disorderly. They exhibit a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; they display planned rather than spontaneous behavior; and they are generally dependable. It is manifested in characteristic behaviors such as being neat, and systematic; also including such elements as carefulness, thoroughness, and deliberation (the tendency to think carefully before acting.)
We know that everything else being equal… Conscientious people simply have less sex partners. Men and women. They just don’t sleep around. They date in their league and prefer it that way. Conscientious people also tend to make more money, and the BIG THING is that Conscientious people are significantly less impulsive. They care about tomorrow, where less conscientious people are impulsive risk takers who pay less attention to the consequences of their actions. So how does this relate to ‘mating success’? There was a study on here that illustrates that nicely: Testosterone levels correlate with the number of children in human males, but the direction of the relationship depends on paternal education The study found found that LOW education women prefer High T men and HIGH education women prefer somewhat low T men! This corroborates findings that say that women find a “dad bod” (low t) body sexy. Why? Higher income women are more conscientious and less impulsive. Lower income women are less conscientious and care less about the future. Conscientiousness correlates to martial rates. They want immediate pleasure, whereas high conscientious women are thinking “okay i might have kids with this guy… is he really going to love me and take care of our children?” While an un-conscientious woman is thinking ‘lemme just f— this guy with the hot abs’ and not worried about the fact that she might get pregnant from it and the guy is suck a player that he’s never going to take care of that kid. So that’s a lot of why you see these ‘thug’ guys having higher numbers. It’s largely promiscuity and they’re sleeping with promiscuous women. So is a guy who has 28 partners necessarily ‘more successful’ than a man who has had three partners? It’s a question I suggest thinking deeply about.
Thoughts? Counter-arguments? Things I've missed?
[–]avoidantcel 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - (1 child)
[–]FailedSpecies[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)