For Goof and Gearhead!

Ahhhhhhh! Memories of Vegas.

First, things are not like this today. People have come a long way. But, we evolved some 100,000 years ago and people back then were exactly the same as we are today. They just didn't have all this education and technology at their fingertips. But, we evolved to live in that environment of 100,000 years ago and really haven't changed much sense. What worked well back then often gets in our way today.

Both men and women evolved to cheat a little. We know this because of several features we have in common with more promiscuous species. It has to do with insuring the survival of offspring and acquiring the best genes in a mate.

Men cheat because by having sex with a number of different partners he can increase his number of offspring and therefore spread his genes farther and wider into the future. He doesn't think about this of course, it's just his evolutionary programming. So, no matter how good his woman's genes are, he will still feel a need to cheat. That doesn't mean he has no choice about his actions though.

For women it's different. No matter how many partners a woman has, she cannot increase the number of her offspring. So, she looks for quality. Maybe she's not of the best genes herself (in other words, she's not a 10), so she had to settle for a second rate male. But, her genes are good enough to attract a first rate male for a short romp. If she does conceive, she doesn't have to tell her second rate husband anything. She can cuckold him and he may think the child is his and bring it food and other resources.

A woman may also choose a man with vast resources, but then cheat with a good looking man, or an artistic man. Then her pretty, artistic offspring can enjoy the vast resources of her wealthy man.

Many people don't like these ideas, but they are well established notions in evolutionary psychology. If you'd like to learn more, a very good place to start is a book called "The Red Queen" by Matt Ridly.
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Whew - real glad you said all that and not me. Actually having read a fair old amount of the anthropological evolutionary psychology stuff myself I concur. One of my most frequently deployed arguments is that in many areas of human interaction our base instincts are dictated by genetic programming to some extent. Consequently, if we are to make informed choices about our actions, then it is useful to appreciate where some of these feelings come from. Another good example is racism: (one of my MAIN pet hates amongst the plethora of negative human tendencies) Our hunter gatherer ancestors lived in a world in which a particular area of land could only support a finite number of people. Consequently some degree of hostility towards strangers was advantageous as it ensured that a suitable distance was maintained between tribal groups - whilst at the same time, this was tempered somewhat by the contradictory imperative to widen the tribal gene pool. For similar reasons, an individual perceived to be 'different' (ie - socially awkward, weak, disabled) within a tribe might also find his or herself subjected to hostility: (one of the roots of bullying?)

Interesting stuff indeed - but many people in our modern world have lost touch with the inner being. We can and really should understand these inner motivating factors - because then we can make rational informed choices about how we act and by so doing - as a race of beings, we can finally begin to grow up.