I can't help it, I am a man

[Che -Guevara]

I thought this piece might generate a debate between the sexes. It is basically about why males cheat. Is nature to blame?

 

He's a stud: Are genes to blame?

By SHANKAR VEDANTAM

WASHINGTON POST

 

A FIERCE debate about whether jealousy, lust and sexual attraction are hardwired in the brain or are the products of culture has recently been ignited by the growing influence of a school of psychology that sees the hidden hand of evolution in everyday life.

 

Fresh sparks flew last month when a study of more than 16,000 people worldwide found that men everywhere - single, married or gay - want more sexual partners than women do.

 

'This study provides the largest and most comprehensive test yet conducted on whether the sexes differ in the desire for sexual variety,' wrote lead researcher David P. Schmitt, an evolutionary psychologist at Bradley University, Illinois. 'The results are strong and conclusive. The sexes differ; these differences appear to be universal.'

 

The idea that male promiscuity is hardwired - and therefore 'normal' - drew swift and furious criticism. Scholars who assert the primacy of culture in shaping human behaviour charged Dr Schmitt with choosing his facts and making his conclusions on 'wishful thinking'.

 

The debate won't be settled soon. For the real arguments are about social mores, gender roles and sexual politics.

 

Ohio State University psychologist Terri Fisher said she knows the new study will be misused. Each year, when she teaches her college students about the research into sexual variety, the young men smile and nod and the young women look appalled.

 

'I bet a lot of males might leave class and tell their girlfriends, 'You know what I learnt in class? It's natural that I don't want to commit to you and that I feel attracted to other women',' she said.

 

The idea of evolutionary psychology is that human behaviour is the product of evolution. However, there is no fossil record of behaviour, so psychologists draw inferences from current behaviour.

 

There is little controversy that evolution played some role in sculpting behaviour. Neuroscientists have studied emotions such as fear and found that many species freeze when panicked, meaning that this is probably an evolved behaviour. But when they use the same argument about complex behaviours such as sexual attraction, the debate becomes heated.

 

For if men and women naturally have different desires for sexual variety, this easily becomes a justification of male promiscuity. Thus, a man with multiple partners is a 'stud' while a woman with multiple partners is a 'slut'.

 

Using genetics to bolster such beliefs, these critics say, gives gender inequality the imprimatur of biology.

 

Dr Schmitt's study involved 16,288 volunteers from 50 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Asked how many partners they desired over the next month, men on average said 1.87, while women said 0.78. Men said that over the next 10 years they wanted 5.95 partners; women wanted 2.17.

 

The researcher thinks the roots of the differences his study found lie in ancient hunter-gatherer societies. Men who sought sexual variety had a greater chance of passing on their genes - and their promiscuous proclivities. Women who kept their mates improved the chances of raising children and were more likely to pass on their genes - and their monogamous proclivities.

 

Many evolutionary psychologists say these divergent sexual strategies also explain two corollary findings of modern studies. One says men seem more disturbed by sexual infidelity and women seem more disturbed by emotional infidelity. The other says heterosexual men seek women who are young and beautiful - signs of fertility - while heterosexual women seek men who are rich because that helps in raising children.

 

But many psychologists aren't convinced, and other studies have contradicted these findings.

 

Because of society's double standards, Dr Fisher said, women are hesitant to report their true sexual desires. For example, she found that when anonymity was guaranteed in surveys, women reported having sex for the first time at a younger age and men raised the age when they first had sex.

 

'No parent in any culture ever tells a daughter, 'By all means, go have sex',' said Dr Pamela Regan, an evolutionary psychologist at California State University in Los Angeles who disagrees with Dr Schmitt. By contrast, she said, 'many expect their sons to 'be men', which implies sexual experience'.

 

Men and women's sexual choices and desires grow more similar in societies with greater gender equality - a contention supported by Dr Schmitt's data.

 

Dr Regan said that other evolutionary theories are just as plausible as the male promiscuity argument: Men in hunter-gatherer societies who stuck with a single mate and helped raise children might have been more genetically successful - because ensuring their children's survival means passing on genes.

 

If there's one thing almost everyone agrees on, it is that genes do not decide what people ultimately do.

 

Indeed, the interests of individuals often conflict with the interests of their genes: In most industrialised societies, birth rates are falling.

 

'I have heard people say, 'I can't help it, I am a man - I have to spill my seed',' said Dr Regan. 'That's using science to justify bad behaviour.'

[LuCkY]

Che i wouLd have to say that nature is not to bLame for maLes infideLity. I agree that a persons genes does not determine the persons behaviour uLtimateLy.

 

'I have heard people say, 'I can't help it, I am a man - I have to spill my seed',' said Dr Regan. 'That's using science to justify bad behaviour.' I agree with Dr.Regan here.

 

These sorts of studies are just going to give some men an excuse to be unfaithfuL and use the study to justify their iLL-witted actions.