You’ve probably heard of the theory of preselection in terms of females and mating. This is a theory that states that females of a species are more attracted to males of a species that already have other females around them for copulation. This has been documented in mammals and small birds. In fact, scientists did a study where they put a fake female robin next to a male robin and then observed that other females would gather around him. This occurs in human populations as well.
Pick up artists have used this to their advantage, using wing girls and using the women that they meet in the bar to gain attention from other women. Now, a personal theory of mine is one, not of preselection but of deselection…meaning that If women (or females of a species) are to be more attracted to taken males, then perhaps males feel the opposite.
Personally, I have never found taken women to be too attractive. When a male sees a female with more than two males in fact, she can almost disappear and become invisible. I find my “checking out system” if there is such a thing, renders itself broken when I lay eyes upon a girl accompanied by another man.
Now both of these theories have roots in evolutionary psychology, so why would men evolve to want taken women less? Well, the idea behind preselection is that women are attracted to survival value, meaning they want a male who is of high social status and can offer the women resources and protection. The qualities that make a man more resourceful than the next, or even qualities about him that are good for protection are not always visible to the woman. Thus, a good visual indicator that he has value is to see him with another woman. So in terms of evolution, the women who took men from other women had a better chance to pass their genes on.
So why then would it be a bad idea for a male ancestor to have gone after a taken woman? Well, for starters, men are violent, and men thousands of years ago, when these emotions evolved, were particularly violent. They did not call the cops or settle things in public forums. They would have killed another man trying to take their woman, as women were scarce back then since everyone lived in tribes.
Not only that, but only one sperm out of millions can fertilize an egg. So if you have a man who doesn’t care that his woman sleeps around or is out with other guys (since guys know how other guys think) then chances were good he would be putting resources towards raising another man’s child. So not only did jealous men pass on their genes better, but men who were turned off by other men, men who did not chase after taken women passed their genes on to the next generation.
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