Infidelity/mate retention Flashcards
why was aggression adaptive for males?
it helped them with hunting, controlling territory/food and having first choice of mate.
what is the root of human male vs human male aggressive behaviour?
fighting for a mate
what was a major concern for our male ancestors?
to find a mate and continue to hold on to her
which gender is infidelity not adaptive for?
both. if they are the ones who are being cheated on.
why is infidelity not adaptive for females?
because the males resources are shared between her family and someone else’s family.
why is infidelity not adaptive for males?
because they are wasting their resources on passing on someone else’s genes.
Give examples of mate retention tactics
knowing where partner is at all times and controlling their movements
verbal or physical aggression to the partner
threats to harm the competing male or female
isolating the partner from people of the opposite sex
what is uxoricide
where someone kills their partner usually because of infidelity
why is uxoricide not adaptive?
because passing on your genes is much harder to do when your partner is dead. Also this will make you an undesirable mate for other potential partners.
what did buss and shackleford study?
they examined mate retention tactics in married couples.
what did buss and shackleford find?
they found that compared to women, men reported a significantly higher use of threats. e.g threatening to beat up the other man.
Women reported a greater use of verbal possession signals. indicating that there man was taken.
they also found that males with younger female partners put more effort into mate retention tactics.
The findings of buss and shackleford say that males with younger female partners devote more effort into mate retention tactics. this supports the evolutionary theory, why?
Younger women are more desirable and more fertile. This means that they are more likely to become pregnant and therefore the risk of cuckoldry is higher. So to account for this the male must put more effort into mate retention tactics.
what is cuckoldry?
cuckoldry is where the female tricks her partner into thinking the baby they are raising is theirs.
why is cuckoldry not adaptive for the male?
The male is devoting resources to passing on someone else’s genes.
why is cuckoldry adaptive for the female?
The female is using both partners resources to help pass on genes that are hers
