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Question 1

Humans can achieve status in several ways. Define status, then describe how humans can achieve status through dominance-based strategies and through prestige-based strategies, being careful to differentiate between these two alternatives.

Answer 1

• Status: a person’s position in society
• Dominance-based strategy: is the achievement of status through force or threat of force.
• Prestige-based strategy: based on deference of others. somebody someone else can learn from to be successful. People defer to you. Humans are uniquely reliant on cultural systems/information

Question 2

Snyder et al. argue that, for a woman, selecting a male partner who is formidable (scary and dominant—a worthy opponent) entails both costs and benefits. Describe these costs and benefits. In your description, be sure to explain (from an ultimate perspective) why male physical formidability is associated with particular male behavioral propensities.

Answer 2

• For protection. But someone who protects you can also hurt you.
• If dominance is mating strategy, then male would need to be physically formidable to act dominant. In a society where dominance is the prominent mating strategy, physically formidable men would be the more successful.

Question 3

Given the trade-off that you identified in (b), provide an ultimate explanation for Snyder et al.’s finding that a woman’s fear of crime predicts her degree of preference for men who pursue dominance-based status strategies and have large muscles.

Answer 3

• If a woman is more fearful of crime, she’d want to invest in a partner that would protect her. She’d have a higher degree of preference for this.

Question 4

Snyder et al. argue that the findings described in (c) constitute evidence of an adaptation. Would the existence of such an adaptation shed light on the degree to which ancestral societies varied in regard to the prevailing level of violence? Explain why or why not

Answer 4

• Yes, if societies were more prone to dominance strategy mating then more fights would break out, there’d be more physical competition rather than prestige based. Violence would be… the answer. Dundundun

Question 5

There is evidence that women are more likely to be attracted to men who have morphological features associated with dominance-based strategies when selecting short-term sexual partners than when selecting long-term partners. In light of your responses to (b), provide an ultimate explanation for this pattern.

Answer 5

• Short term partners are looked at for the best genes, so physical attractiveness comes into play. Basically, if I just want a good looking baby, then I’ll go for a more dominant looking male, because they’re usually more attractive than a male with prestige strategies.