The evolution of human mating: Trade-offs and strategic pluralism

Abstract

During human evolutionary history, there were “trade-offs” between expending time and energy on child-rearing and mating, so both men and women evolved conditional mating strategies guided by cues signalling the circumstances. For some men, many short-term matings might be successful, whereas others might try to find and keep a single mate, investing effort in rearing her offspring. Recent evidence suggests that men with features signalling genetic benefits to offspring should be preferred by women as short-term mates, but there are trade-offs between a mates genetic fitness and his willingness to help in child-rearing. It is circumstances and the cues that signal them that underlie the variation in short and long-term mating strategies between and within the sexes.