Sexual Selection Theory: The Evolution Of Human Mating Behavior

Human mating is observed in almost every culture, leading us to the diverse world we live in today. This signifies our existence and should be important to us. To better understand this behavior, we can take a look at different explanations which shape human mating behavior. Researching this topic we can find evolutionary perspectives, which delve into topics, such as parental investment, survival, and sexual selection. There is also an opposition to these evolutionary ideas which suggest that evolution may not have to do much with our mating behavior, but is influenced but social norms and libidinous desires. This paper will try to look into these ideas and try to find a conclusive winner, or maybe we will find out that these theories all …show more content…
Thus, I find it a good idea to list these evolutionary concepts and an explanation of these theories. The first one is called sexual selection, which essentially states that species have developed certain tastes and characteristics when choosing a mate in the opposite gender. Sexual selection theory focuses on two aspects of these characteristics, first, is competition between same sex individuals over a specific mate. An example of this would be if Jack and Sam both like Mary, but Mary can only be in a relationship with one of them. Thus, Jack and Sam will compete with each other to be in a relationship with Mary, this type of competition is essentially what is known as intrasexual selection. The other part of this theory discusses the display of behaviors and traits which seem attractive to the opposing gender. This idea breaks down into a more detailed scale and the characteristics that are preferred vary by individual and …show more content…
These strategies are very flexible, and change varying on the condition. The research on this suggests that we choose mates very similarly to an opportunity cost analysis. This type of mating strategy is much more common today, as extra pair mating becomes more prevalent. Going back to my theoretical example of Jack, Sam and Mary; if Mary wanted to copulate with both Jack and Sam, she would be more likely to pick the one with better benefits, for this example it will be Jack. But if she had a chance to copulate with Sam with no negative outcome to the relationship with Jack, there will be a higher possibility for Mary to engage in extra pair mating. These type of cost-benefit analysis will occur many times throughout an individual 's mating