HC 3

Question 1

Gametes male vs female

Answer 1

Mature reproductive cells
• Males = small, mobile, large quantity
• Females = large, stationary, small quantity

Question 2

Amount of Investment Per Offspring

Answer 2

Females
• Fertilization and gestation occur internally
• Energy-consuming: 9 months
• Lactation
• Once impregnated, cannot become pregnant for at least another 9 months
Males
• Minimal in all respects

Question 3

Parental Investment theory

Answer 3

• The sex that invests more in offspring (typically, but not always, the female) will be more discriminating or selective about mating
• The sex that invests less in offspring will be more competitive for sexual access to the high-investing sex
• In humans, women tend to be more selective about potential mates
• Evolution would have favored women who were highly selective

Question 4

In general, women will seek men who display characteristics of value and resources as a potential mate, why?

Answer 4

We would expect men to develop counter-strategies to deceive women:
• Pretending greater status (or potential status)
• Feigning greater commitment than truly willing to provide

Question 5

Adaptive Problems in Long-Term Mating
• Problem: Selecting a mate who is ‘able’ to invest.
Solution?

Answer 5

– Good financial prospects (Income)
– Social status
– Older age
– Intelligence/Ambition/industriousness 
– Size, strength, athletic ability

Question 6

Adaptive Problems in Long-Term Mating
• Problem: Selecting a mate who is ‘willing’ to invest
Solution?

Answer 6

– Dependability and stability
– Love and commitment cues
– Kindness
– Positive interactions with children

Question 7

Adaptive Problems in Long-Term Mating
• Problem: Selecting a mate who is able to physically
protect her and children
Solution?

Answer 7

– Size (height)
– Strength
– Bravery
– Dominance

Question 8

Adaptive Problems in Long-Term Mating
• Problem: Selecting a mate who is healthy
Solution?

Answer 8

– Physical attractiveness
– Symmetry
– Healthy

Question 9

Why preference for Good Health and Physical Appearance

• Selecting an unhealthy mate is bad from an evolutionary perspective, because:

Answer 9

• High risk of becoming debilitated
• Increased risk of dying
• May transfer communicable diseases
• Might infect the children
• A person who chooses an unhealthy mate would risk passing on genes for poor health to children
• Symmetry reflects an individual’s ability to withstand environmental and genetic stressors
>This should be equally important for both males and females (which it is!)

Question 10

Preference for Athletic Prowess, why?

Answer 10

• Indicators of ability to protect her and children
• Women prefer tall
> Short men undesirable for either short- or long-term mates
> Ads placed by taller men receive more responses.
• Muscular and lean (“V-shaped” torso)

Question 11

2 Acts of commitment

Answer 11

• Talk of marriage

* Expressing a desire to have children

Question 12

Behaviors of commitment

Answer 12

• Fidelity
• Channel resources
> Time
> Energy

Question 13

Kindness, Humor, and Voice:

• Women prefer?
• Men prefer?
• 3 reasons women prefer deep male voices?

Answer 13

• Women prefer men who produce humor
• Men prefer women who are receptive to their humor
• Female preference for deep male voices
1. Sexual maturity
2. Larger body size
3. Good gene quality

Question 14

Women’s personal resources

• Successful women?

Answer 14

Successful women place a greater emphasis on resources than less successful women!

Question 15

Women’s mate value

Answer 15

• Physical attractiveness and youth
> Indicators of desirability to men
• Women with higher mate value prefer men who are higher in mate value

Question 16

Why a Long-Term Strategy for Men? (3)

Answer 16

1. Women prefer men who are willing to commit:
   • Men who failed or are unwilling to commit might fail to attract a mate
2. Increase in odds that he is the father
   • Increased paternity certainty
3. Increase in odds that his offspring survive

Question 17

Adaptive Problems in Long-Term Mating for Men
• Problem: Selecting a mate who has the capacity to
bear children
Solution?

Answer 17

Preferences for qualities that are correlated with reproductive value
• Youth
• Health

Question 18

Cues to Attractiveness

• Our ancestors had access to two types of observable evidence of a woman’s reproductive value (2)

Answer 18

(1) features of physical appearance, such as full lips, clear skin, smooth skin, clear eyes, lustrous hair, good muscle tone, and body fat distribution;
and
(2) features of behavior, such as a bouncy youthful gait, an animated facial expression, and a high energy level

Question 19

the lipstick effect

Answer 19

When women are primed by cues of economic hardship, they actually ramp up their spending on beauty- enhancement products—a phenomenon called “the lipstick effect”
• These beauty-enhancement products are specifically designed to attract men with resources

Question 20

Evidence in Support of Evolutionary Explanation of Beauty

Answer 20

• Standards of beauty emerge early in life
> Not learned gradually through cultural transmission
• Standards of beauty are consistent across cultures
• Viewing “attractive females” activates nucleus accumbens (reward pathway)

Question 21

Chasity

Answer 21

Worldwide sex difference.
• Men prefer virgins more than women
• High value: India-Arabian countries

Low value: France-Holland- US
Buss (1989) 
• Scores:
• 0 (irrelevant
• 3 (indispensable)

Question 22

Homosexual Orientation: An Evolutionary Puzzle

Evolutionary explanation?

Answer 22

Heterosexual orientation is a prime example of a psychological adaptation— roughly 94 to 98 percent of men and 98 to 99 percent of women have a primary orientation toward heterosexuality

Evolutionary explanations for male homosexuality:
• Adaptation: kin altruism
• Byproduct: genes that increase chance of homosexuality in sons, increase number of children in daughters.