Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Does Evolution play a role in Finding a Mate?

Arquist, S. 2009. Testing Evolutions Role in Finding a Mate. New York Times. pg. D.6.

Scientists have long observed that women are usually pickier than men. This is because women have a bigger investment in the role of reproduction; they are the ones enduring pregnancy. An experiment looked at speed-dating sessions to determine whether men or women were choosier. The answer, it turned out, was neither. Regardless of gender, people who were instructed to approach other daters were less selective -- that is, they were more likely to ask to meet later for a date. In recent years, the emergence of speed dating has given psychologists and scientists new ways to test evolution and other hypotheses about mating. Because participants can be randomly assigned to groups and have no prior information about other participants, three-minute speed-dating sessions are about as close to a controlled experiment as researchers are likely to get. All in all, the research found that evolution did not play a huge role, but rather finding a mate like oneself was more prominent.

Cheyenne Inglis

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