I have been reading up on evolutionary psychology recently and I must say that its a very interesting branch of science. Basically, evolutionary psychology deals with how the way we view the world today, as well as our culture and thinking have been shaped via evolution. For example, normally, when one thinks of evolution one thinks of how fitter genes are selected for and thus passed down from one generation to the next thus making the species evolve, and all those cool stuff you read in your bio notes. Well, an aspect of evolutionary psychology deals with how culture and traditions can also 'evolve'. Each aspect is called a meme, the counterpart of a gene in traditional psychology. What happens is that cultural tendencies that enhance the fitness of the group are promoted by two methods, vertical translation, like your dad teaching you to be kind to others, and also another which name escapes me but is basically like your CME teacher telling you to be kind to others. In this manner, 'positive' traits are propogated and negative traits reduced.

However, this causes a problem: why are there still negative traits then. Well, this ties in also to another problem of classical evolution. Group selection theory. Normally, selection pressures act on the individual and hence the individual posessing the fittest qualities will survive at the expense of others. However, consider a pride of lions. The mother lionesses suckle the offspring of other lionesses even though in doing this, firstly, her offspring gets less milk, secondly, the fitness of competing genes(other's offspring) are enhances, and thirdly, the mother has to make more milk, using up more energy and hence reducing her fitness. Why then would evolution select for this type of lioness. Well, several theories have been proposed, among which involves kin selection, group selection as well as repriocal altruism among others. Basically it involves explaining how even as an individual's fitness is decreased, the fitness of the group as a whole or those which share similar genes are increased, making it more likely to survive.

Well, cultural memes are also under pressure too. On one hand are the practices that make them successful in the first place, e.g. honesty, trust, yadda yadda. And on the other hand, is the impulse to 'cheat'. By cheating, the individual's direct fitness is increased, increasing its chances of propogating its memes. If not caught, he can stand to gain alot. But if the meme for cheating spreads too much, people will tend to be less trusting and more suspicious, decreasing the opportunities that one will get to cheat and hence reducing the meme for cheating. What this does is create a balance between the cheaters and the honest players and it is why so called negative traits still exist in society: It is a product of trying to be the fittest.

Of course the number of 'honest' people outweigh the 'dishonest' and its not just due to the decreased trust alone. It seems that in the evolution of the memes, certain behavioral memes have evolved to help the 'honest'. Among this reciprocity, ethics and other such instincts. These values, imprinted in us since birth, tip the scales in favour of obeying the mutually consented law that is our culture.

Another aspect of evolutionary psychology is mate selection. It seems that in evolving to carry the baby inside the woman's womb has caused the way males and females select their partners to differ. For instance, while a female is pregnant, she cannot get impregnated again no matter how many mates she has. Additional mates may even cause her fitness to decrease. Hence her focus is on rearing her offspring. The best strategy for males, on the other hand, is to spread his genes far and wide, thus inproving the odds that his genes will be passed down and thus increasing his fitness. Thus males are more 'shui bian' in their choice of mates as the most he has to loose is a few drops of sperm and a couple million sperms, where as the female is more choosy as each pregnancy takes up quite abit of time and mistakes are far costlier. However, with both memes and genes interacting, the male can choose only one mate. Thus to best his chances, the foremost a male looks out for in a female is fertility.

Women on the other hand, look out for two aspects. First of all is quality of genes, so that the offspring will be fitter, and the second is the man's ability to contribute to the nurturing and development of any potential offspring. The book explains alot but I can summarize it here: Women want someone rich and handsome. Men wants chio bu.

Apparantly this explains alot, including why men prefer younger women( more years of fertility left hence more fertile) while women prefer older men( wiser, most likely more money, more status, better able to provide). The book also goes on about how women's choice of mate is dependant upon a compromise between her two factors, while men looks for physical attactiveness as it is a reliable index of fertility, and how the ideal waist to hip raio for women is 0.7, indicating optimal fertility. Further more, research has shown how female's preference for guys change according to the menstural cycle, with the desire for best genes(good looking) during her fertile phase and more feminine features(less testosterone, more caring) during the luetal phase. Basically they want to fuck someone good looking and have a rich sissy care for the kids. Men's preference is based mainly on youth and looks, including symmetry, as indicators of fitness and good genes. Also, it seems the ratio between the length of your second and fourth fingure is indicative of your testosterone level and hence your masculinity. The lower the ratio, the more testosterone.

Ok, the books really interesting but I have come a long way just for this part. This is where I get these ideas of my own that are not in the book. Basically, I believe that not only is general fertility something the males look out for in a female, I believe that gene compatibility (im making these terms up) also influences both male and female selection preferences. Basically gene compatibility is how well a someone feels that his(or her but I'll just say everything from the male perspective here) genes will combine with another. In doing so, he will place certain indicatiors of fertility higher on the ranking than others and in doing so, will have a different 'taste' than other men. So say a man feel that he (not that he knows it, but these genes stuff have a way of playing themselves subtly so you won't know what it is exactly) has inferior genes for 'legs'. So when looking at women, he will tend to emphasize a nice set of legs as an important mate quality. This makes sense on the gene level. He already has good genes for other parts, why not select someone with good genes for legs so that his offspring has a chance of becoming one step closer to 'perfection'? Perfection referring to the optimal gene combination for whatever the selection pressure is looking for at that time. So he becomes a 'leg' man. This gives rise to the 'opposites attract' theorem as being opposites, they will have a chance to select for the best combination.

Oh my, I just thought of something else! Selecting for opposites will allow for a greater number of combinations of genes to take place, thus leading to 'hybrid vigour' (however it applies to animals) and hence improving one's chance of their genes being passed down! Awesome!

Ok, I've been writing this bloody 'paper' for almost an hour now. Anyone who finds that this oddly turns you on? well, now you know why.