Xref: utzoo sci.bio:3724 soc.men:23564
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From: gazit@duke.cs.duke.edu (Hillel Gazit)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,soc.men
Subject: Re: Are Humans Naturally Monogamous?
Message-ID: <656965752@lear.cs.duke.edu>
Date: 26 Oct 90 18:29:13 GMT
References: odin.corp.sgi.com> <17086@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <26937@cs.yale.edu>
Followup-To: sci.bio
Organization: Nefolet shel nemushot (Fallout of Wimps)
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In article <26937@cs.yale.edu> bloom-debbie@cs.yale.edu (Debbie Bloom) writes:
>I learned in a psych class once that biologically men want to mate with many
>women to maximize the # offspring they can pass their genes to.  But women
>want to mate with one man because they want support *after* they have the
>baby (so they want him to stick around).  At least, I think it was that.

That's a fine strategy under the *assumption* that the quantity of offsprings
in more important than the quality of offsprings.  If you want at least
one offspring of top quality then having a different father to each child
increases the probability of at least one lucky combination of genes.