Exploring the forces that shape the human psyche
To begin understanding parental favoritism, let’s look at these two hypothetical scenarios: Scenario 1 Jenny always felt that her parents favoured her younger sister over her. She knew it wasn’t due to the age factor since she was only a few months older than her sister. Also, she was more hardworking, studious, calm-tempered and helping than her …
Mike wanted to buy a new bike and was short of cash. He decided to ask his parents for money. He first thought of going to his father, but, on second thought, he dropped the idea. He went to his mother instead who happily complied with the request. Mike had always felt that his dad …
There are some who believe that monogamy is natural to humans and others who believe that humans are naturally polygynous. For a detailed discussion on monogamy vs. polygamy, see article Monogamy vs. Polygamy: What is natural for humans? Regardless of which of the two camps is right, it’s hard to deny that monogamy is prevalent …
To understand why women have affairs, we need to first understand the different types of mating strategies that humans adopt. Humans pursue two types of mating strategies- long term and short term, and sometimes a combination of both. Long-term mating strategy typically involves finding a long-term partner with whom one mates, has offspring and then …
To understand the biological and psychological reasons why men cheat, we need a brief overview of human mating strategies. Mating strategies in humans are essentially of two types- short term and long term. The long-term mating strategy involves finding a long-term partner with whom one mates, has offspring with, and then raises those offspring. Short-term …
Sexual infidelity in a long-term relationship, such as marriage, is undesirable to both men and women. Still, being cheated on affects a man slightly differently. The major goal of forming a long-term relationship is to have repeated sex to increase the odds of conception. Hence, if a person looks for sex outside the relationship he’s …
Our evolved psychological mechanisms are not only shaped by natural selection but also by sexual or intrasexual selection. While naturally selected traits are primarily those that help us to survive, sexually selected traits are those that help us to successfully reproduce. Imagine there’s a number floating above everyone’s head ranging from 0 to 10 that describes how …
What makes a man attractive to women?What are the traits that women look for in men? There are two major factors that shape our mate preferences. First is the millions of years of evolutionary programming and the second is our unique individual psychological make-up shaped by our past life experiences. There are traits that most …
Attraction can sometimes be a very complex thing. What one man finds attractive in a woman, another may not. This is especially true when we take into account the psychological make-up of a person, shaped by his past life experiences. But, for the most part, the attraction is mainly determined by certain evolved physical and mental …
Why are men more prone to engaging in risk-taking behaviour compared to women? I’m sure you’ve seen one of those clips on social media where people, predominantly men, injure themselves doing silly things. Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. In our ancestral times, hunting was a risky but potentially rewarding activity. A successful hunt provided …