Video summary
The podcast features Macken Murphy discussing a pivotal study on female penis size preferences, which reveals significant discrepancies between idealized desires and actual experiences. Using unlabeled 3D models to avoid reporting biases, researchers found that women preferred an erect length of approximately 6.3 inches for long-term relationships and slightly larger sizes for short-term ones; however, the average man is only about 5.16 inches. This means the ideal size falls around the 95th percentile, comparable in rarity to a six-foot-two height. Furthermore, women often preferred models they had never encountered before, suggesting that stated preferences may not reflect realistic expectations or dealbreakers. While roughly 27% of women cited penis size as at least partially contributing to breakups—mostly due to the partner being too small—the data indicates that these are ideal mate preferences rather than strict requirements for most relationships. The conversation then shifts to physical attractiveness and body composition, specifically analyzing a viral Twitter poll regarding Ollie M's transformation from a standard physique to an extremely lean one at 10% body fat. The results showed a stark sex difference: men overwhelmingly preferred the post-transformation look, while women strongly favored his pre-transformation appearance with higher body fat (around 13-14%). This suggests that while women state they prefer muscularity and leanness in surveys, their revealed preferences lean toward slightly heavier builds than gym culture dictates. The discussion also addresses the myth that men do not care about a woman's career or status; data indicates that successful men tend to pair with equally successful partners, debunking the idea of trading wealth for youth alone. Instead, high-status men often seek intellectual compatibility and shared interests, making personality traits like agreeableness more critical than socioeconomic metrics in revealed preferences. The speakers delve into evolutionary psychology concepts regarding infidelity and mate switching, noting that sexual cheating is generally a "disaster mode" threat to males due to the risk of cuckoldry and loss of investment, whereas females face less biological penalty but significant emotional stress from losing their partner. This dynamic complicates discussions on polyamory; while some men with high external mating motivation might theoretically benefit more from non-monogamy without severe jealousy costs, such arrangements often lead to relationship instability if desires do not match a partner's tolerance for infidelity. The dialogue touches upon the "rich gay uncle hypothesis," which posits that homosexuality persists through kin selection where homosexual males support their siblings' reproduction rather than having offspring themselves. While this theory holds some weight in specific cultural contexts like the Fa'afafine of Samoa, it lacks strong empirical support in Western societies and is likely not a primary driver for the persistence of homosexuality globally. Finally, the discussion explores biological mechanisms behind sexual orientation, specifically the birth order effect where men with older brothers are more likely to be homosexual. This phenomenon appears linked to an immune system response involving H-Y antigens from male fetuses, which may cause mothers to produce antibodies that affect subsequent pregnancies differently. The speakers debate whether this is an adaptation of the mother's reproductive strategy or a direct genetic mechanism in the son, concluding that while intriguing, it does not fully explain homosexuality writ large. Throughout the episode, Murphy emphasizes the importance of context over aggregate data when evaluating human behavior, cautioning listeners against simplistic "caveman" rules and encouraging them to consider individual motivations, such as whether past sexual experiences were part of long-term relationships or casual encounters, before making judgments about a person's character or future relationship success.
Read the full video transcript
your area of expertise, penis size
preferences.
What's happening?
>> Uh, are we talking about women's penis
size preferences?
>> Uh, yeah, sure.
>> Okay. So, slightly slightly far field of
my of my expertise. No. Yeah. Um, okay.
So women's penis size preferences are a
bit of an emotional roller coaster I
think um for the men listening because
when I have the the experience of
presenting on this topic uh what I see
is kind of a crescendo of oh that sounds
really good to realizing it it's not as
good as it sounds. Um so the best study
on this subject comes from Pruss and
colleagues
and what they looked at was um what they
looked at was women interacting with
real 3D models of various um you know
penis shaped objects um cylinders
essentially and had them pick and choose
which one they actually favored. And the
reason that this study design is more
powerful than just asking women, you
know, what size do you prefer? Um, the
reason that this is powerful is because
it gets around issues of misreporting
due to not knowing how big or small a
given size is.
>> How many times has someone said I think
that's about it's about 6 in from the
left, isn't it? You know, when you're
trying to put a picture up or something,
you have no idea how big inches are.
>> And and when we're dealing with things
that, you know, are all things
considered on the scale of like couches
and cars and things relatively small,
you know, an inch off that's 20 to 15%
off.
>> Also, they're not judging their penis
preference based on how big it is to
look at, which is what you would be
doing or in terms of memory. You would
be doing it based on feel.
>> Right. Exactly. So, that's that's a
really good point. So, in terms of you
can ask women on a pen and paper survey,
you know, like what size do you prefer?
Um, but even if you get like a really
consistent answer of like seven inches,
you still don't know that they know what
7 in actually is, right? And there's
actually good reason to suspect uh
because men, you know, over report their
own penis size and that likely causes
some kind of mass confusion as to what
got penis inflation effect.
>> Yeah, exactly. where it's like men are
saying that they're a certain size and
so women are maybe learning about sizes
through that in
>> Yeah, exactly. And then that's coded. Um
so unlabeled 3D models, I would say
that's the gold standard if you actually
want to learn um what size is preferred
>> and the size.
>> What are they doing with them?
>> Ju just interacting with them. uh just
going in and picking. And uh in terms of
length, it was uh 6.3 in for a long-term
relationship, 6.4 in for a short-term
relationship. So that's uh if I if I'm
correct, maybe 16 to 16.25
um cm. Uh and then in terms of
circumference, 4.8 in uh for long-term,
5 in around um for shortterm, which is
somewhere on the order of 12.2 to 12.7
cm. Uh, and so when men hear that, they
typically think, "Oh, that sounds pretty
good, right?" Like that doesn't sound
that big. Uh, that because of, you know,
what's socially said about size. And so
this is kind of the peak of the
emotional roller coaster where it's
like, "Oh, things are really good.
Things are really great. Uh, you know,
the view is fantastic from here." Um,
but then you look at uh men's p
perception or at least their statement
of their own size versus their actual
size and you see that men overestimate
their own size by about 20%. Right?
Which is a lot. Uh, so rule of thumb,
uh, men are usually about an inch
smaller than they think or at least an
inch smaller than they say.
>> Again, that that's quite a bit. 21% was
was the figure from the study I'm
quoting.
>> Um, so
where does that leave us? Well, in
actual fact, the average man's penis,
uh, according to a meta analysis of 17
studies, uh, is about 5.16 in when
erect, right? Um, and that would leave
6.3 in as about 95th percentile, right?
Um, now 95th percentile, what is that?
Uh, that's about as common as a man
being 6'2. So, it's not like really
really rare, right? If you walk into a
lecture hall or
an airplane
>> there's going [clears throat] to be
>> there's probably going to be at least
one guy
>> a few guys maybe. Yeah,
>> exactly. There's going to be at least
one guy who's at least that tall. So
it's not like we're talking about some
like freaky preference. But in terms of
the frequency with which it's
encountered um that that is that is big,
right? Like out of 100.
>> Yeah. A 6'2 man is is a big guy, right?
In the same way a 6.3 actually is quite
big. What about circumference?
>> Uh, so average circumference is in the
same meta analysis 4.59 in.
>> Um, so
>> what was the 4.59 and what was the but
the top was only 4 something.
>> Right. Okay. So you're much closer in
terms of
>> relatively close but each unit with
circumference it makes like more of a
difference. Like that's like a bigger
increase in total volume
>> squaring the net or whatever.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Like the volume is
getting is getting bigger for an inch of
circumference versus length. So, and
then it's 5 in for short term. So, the
difference between if I I wish id
measured this in Newtonics in advance,
but but the but the difference here is
is in fact pretty big.
>> Um, and more interesting and I think
this is actually the the most
interesting part of the study
>> uh
>> is that they also asked women to pick
out the biggest and smallest from the
array of models. So you can imagine that
they for the study design they have an
array of models that they can choose
from
>> that basically look like sex toys and
they say you know what's ideal what's
the biggest you'd seen ever and what's
the smallest you've seen ever.
>> And very interestingly most women had
never seen a penis that big and so they
were exhibiting a preference for a penis
size that was bigger than they had ever
experienced. Right? So that's the kind
of I would say that that's now the
trough of the roller coaster where where
things are as not fun as they could be.
>> I mean it's also not fun if you're a
woman too. You cursed to almost never
encounter the ideal penis that you want.
>> Well yeah I mean it's very similar to
women's height preferences where so the
6'2 analogy I think is very good. If you
asked women you know what's the ideal
height of a boyfriend maybe they'd say
6'2 right? A lot of them would say
somewhere between, you know, as we
discussed in the last episode, um
somewhere between, you know, maybe 6' 3
and 6'5 would come up a lot, but maybe
it would be 6'2. But then you ask them,
have you ever dated a guy that tall? And
most of them will say, no, never. Right?
It's the same thing with with penis
size. Now, these are ideal mate
preferences. And ideal mate preferences
can be a little silly, right? Like
like what's your ideal mate preference
for a woman's salary, right? It could it
could be a as rich as possible that
doesn't occasion security concerns,
right? Um but then in actual practice,
you might not mind if it was if it was
even, you know, 20 grand a year as long
as everything else was lined up. Um so
this is an ideal preference. And so
ideally, most women probably would like
to date a guy who's taller than 6 6'2,
who's, you know, 6.3 in. Uh but because
it's an ideal preference, they're likely
flexible as to their minimum preference
uh which was which was not collected in
this study.
>> Uh one insight though, they did ask a
very good behavioral outcome question. I
I really like behavioral outcomes as
opposed to just state statements um
right as to like hypotheticals. Uh they
said, "Have you ever broken up with a
man over his size?"
>> I think that's a very good question
because that's where it's like
behavioral deal.
>> Deal breaker.
>> Yeah. and they said at least partially
over his size. So there was no wiggle
room in the question for you know well
there was a list of five things and I'll
focus I'll I'll just focus on the most
socially appropriate one. It's like was
it an influence as to why you broke up?
And about 27% said they had. So most
women don't break up over this. Most
women this doesn't appear as a
dealbreaker. Um but about a third have
had the experience of saying you know
what I'm going to call it quits. Uh the
size is not working for me. Yeah. the
size was one of the contributing factors
and I'm willing to say that to a
researcher as well, right, which is
probably an underestimate. Um, and in
most cases of that 27% subset, um, the
vast majority of cases it was because
the guy was too small. There there were
some women who said that part of the
contributing factor was too big. Um, but
it wasn't common.
>> Couple of things come to mind. Uh I
would be interested to see the bell
curve of how satisfied would you be as
in I guess that the uh talking about fat
tails when we're discussing this is a
fraught. Um I'm going to guess that
being a little bit under
uh or even like a maybe a standard
deviation under versus a standard
deviation over there is an upper bound
like on one you're talking about less
pleasure on the other you're talking
about pain. M
>> uh any woman who's ever had her cervix
hit knows like that's not fun.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh and that I would imagine actually you
probably have more latitude on the small
side
>> than you do on the big side because
there's no hard and fast rule about
small
>> like being literally impractical or
dangerous.
>> There's no hard threshold whereas the
length of the cervix actually does.
>> Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. cuz if you've
got that hit then that's it. It's kind
of it's going to be very uncomfortable.
>> That's a really interesting point. I I
was I was imagining that it would be in
the abstract before you said that. I
would have assumed in the absence of
data that it would function similarly to
um women's height preferences where it's
you know tons and tons of benefit up to
some reasonable point
>> um like being way too short and then a
decline that doesn't ever really bottom
out. But given that fact that there's
there is
there there is a
>> there's only so much room at the end.
>> Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Um no, I know of
a friend of a friend who got who
actually did get rejected from a sexual
encounter for being too large like flat
out.
>> Um so
>> that's not going inside of me.
>> Yeah. Exactly. So that can happen and
maybe
>> maybe that's something that can't be
worked around, you know, in the in the
same way.
>> That's interesting. Yeah.
>> Uh the other thing that I think about is
presumably these women were handling it.
>> Yeah.
>> But the reason to have a penis of any
shape and size is not to handle it. It's
sometime partly to handle it, but mostly
for other things.
>> Uh I think if you were going to go full
whatever ethnographic with this, it
would have to be okay, away you go in a
quiet dark room, come back and tell us
which one you preferred.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, well, that's Well,
that's I mean, I don't know how you'd
get ethics approval, but it is
interesting. A lot of people did say
when I first made a video on this study,
a lot of people in the comments did make
that point like,
you know, it's it's it's
interesting that they picked bigger than
they'd seen on average
>> because maybe that actually isn't their
preference if they had experience. Like,
>> how do you say this is your preference
if you've never preferred it?
>> Yeah, exactly. Like it's it's with full
testing maybe you'd end up with a lower
or higher number.
>> Wow, that's [ __ ] actually a lot
bigger than I thought it was.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> Yeah. Well, interesting. Just to round
out the ideal thing. Um
not fantastic news for 95% of men,
>> right?
>> But on the flip side, I'm going to guess
that there are preferences men have for
women that 95% of women don't meet if
you to ask for ideal mate preferences.
>> Yeah. I mean, ideal mate preferences
always have this, I won't say
cartoonish, but kind of fanciful angle
to them where they often can't be met in
any reasonable way when you consider all
of them at once. Uh, like one really
good example of this is if you were to
ask men like a group of men, okay,
what's your ideal um BMI preference in a
m in western men? Then what's your ideal
bra size preference? Right? those are
are going to conflict with each other in
a way that is very unlikely to be
satisfied in a naturally varying
population. Um because one comes at the
the directionality of one comes at the
expense of another. Right. It's kind of
like um
>> girls with skinny waists don't have big
tits.
>> Yeah. In general, right? And then it's
also like if you looked at someone's
preferences for
>> good looks and loyalty, right? Or good
looks and attention from maybe loyalty
is a bad one. good looks and attention
from attractive alternatives. Like
attention from attractive alternatives,
surely your ideal would be zero, right?
I don't want to have to compete. And
then how attractive they are, your ideal
would probably be quite high, right? I
don't say you specifically, I just mean
a person in general.
>> Uh so ideal mate preferences, they're
often
they're often not they're often not as
informative as bare minimum mate
preferences. Uh which is where you
actually see rejection, where you
actually see cut offs. I would have
loved to see more data from the Prrow
study about you know like 20 yeah 27% uh
what what was the deal breaker right
what would be the dealbreaker going
forward I think it's interesting
>> cool study uh you mentioned there about
tall men good-looking men and infidelity
and stuff do tall men cheat more
>> well I thought in the abstract I
answered this question recently and at
the time I answered it I was thinking I
hadn't seen data on it and then some
online social scientist who does these
analyses kind of DIY style um replied
and basically said I checked this in a
large data set there wasn't an
association um I would have expected
that tall men would cheat more because
they'd have more opportunity not saying
that you know all men who can cheat
would but just definitionally men who
can't cheat don't and maybe it's very
difficult to cheat if you're 5'4 right
maybe maybe that maybe that's a real
challenge um not saying it's impossible
>> you have to assume that the pool is
smaller the pool is smaller most women
want a taller guy.
>> Yeah. So, I I I was surprised that there
was no that I I I take his word for it
that there was no association, but I was
I was surprised by that. I I would think
that there would be an association
between in the abstract. I would think
that any attractive trait in males would
be associated with infidelity to
>> someher
eyes, whiter teeth, better skin because
you're just opening up the pool of
opportunity.
>> Yeah. Exactly.
>> Yeah. Can we recap the fallout from the
Olly M transformation? It's a little old
now, but I I never talked about it at
the time. So, William Costello puts this
Twitter poll out that for some reason
goes absolutely [ __ ] ballistic. Goes
completely interstellar and there's
basically thousands of women
[snorts] kind of saying if you read the
study that they didn't like leanness and
muscularity. This guy did a big
transformation and went from kind of
standard dude physique with a tiny
little bit of definition to probably
around 10% body fat with a an okay
amount of muscularity. Uh, and women
were asked do they prefer the dadbod
version or the lean and rip version and
tons of them steaming in and saying no I
prefer that. So give me a postmortem on
Ollie Mos's body transformation. I
remember I remember as soon as William
posted it, I thought, "Oh, that's a
really good one." I think I replied at
the time and he like when it was like
really early days and he was like, "I
can spot a sex difference from you miles
away." He's like, "I can I can
manufacture one of these easily cuz he
obviously is very interested in sex
differences or or studies them as part
of, you know, the bus lab and whatnot."
And so he's going to have really good
intuitions for like how to pick good
examples that will draw them
>> something that women will women and men
will.
>> Yes. Exactly. Exactly. That that that's
what I should have said. Yeah. So to
clarify with sex difference, he asked
men, do you think he looks better before
or after? Meaning after this incredible
physical transformation where he's lost
copious amounts of body fat and goes
from
>> essentially, yeah, as you say, like
muscular guy at the pub, but not much
more than that to, you know, like stage
ready basically, except you know, not
not he's not roided up or anything, but
you know, he's he looks incredibly lean.
Um, and so William posts this and says,
you know, men versus women, you know,
what do what do you guys think? And as
you say, yeah, the women strongly
preferred the before and the men
strongly preferred the after. And there
was an insinuation by men, a widespread
insinuation that women were um basically
being koi about their actual preference
or lying about their preference and that
this is kind of like, oh, it's known
that women lie about these things. I'm
I'm going to um the reason that I don't
think that is because when you ask women
about their height preferences, they're
very open about saying it's tall in
surveys, right? So I I I look at this
this sort of study and this sort of
these sort of data all the time. Women
are very open about preferring taller
men. Uh they're also very open about
preferring more muscular men, right? So
women say they prefer taller men and
then you look at height and mating
success and generally taller men are
more popular on the dating market. So
that seems true and stated, true and
revealed.
>> Yep. Muscularity, same deal. You ask
women, "Do you like muscles?" Right?
They say, "Yes, we like muscles." And
then you survey muscular men and it
turns out they also have more positive
romantic experiences. So, stated versus
revealed, it's it's all on track. With
leanness, it's a little more
complicated. Um, it does seem that women
don't prefer too lean. And when you look
at the Ollie M's transformation, I would
say that the main difference before and
after if we were to look at it like he
does look more muscular in the after,
but I would say that very likely he just
lost fat, right? Like I've I've seen
those sorts of transformations before.
Usually it's just fat loss rather than
any actual muscle gain. And so I think
that what happened here is partially
that men looked at the photos and said,
"Wow, that guy got jacked." And then
women said, "Oh, you know, I don't
really like that." And they're like,
"Oh, what? So, you don't like jacked
guys, right? But women were seeing that
and saying, "Oh, this guy just like lost
a lot of body fat, and I don't like men
who are too lean." Uh, so women's uh
body fat percentage preferences from the
research we have um are a little heavier
than what
>> the gym bros think.
>> Well, it's heavier than 10%.
>> It's like 15, right?
>> Yeah, it's closer to that. So, in the
most recent study from Zia and
colleagues, uh they use DXA images. Now,
DXA images is actually there's a there's
a big pro and a big con. The the big pro
is that we know the body fat of men.
We know the body fat percentage, right?
We actually it's not a guesstimate. The
con is that like a DXA image doesn't
look like a real man. So, I think that's
a real limitation of the study. Um, but
in that study, it was between 13 and
14.1% body fat. So, that's still pretty
lean, by the way. Like, [clears throat]
you've definitely got the kind of
fourpack up top,
>> visible upper abs, but it is not as
lean. Look, this is where two different
worlds collide. If you're a bro
listening to this
>> and you hear
>> 14%.
>> Dude, I can walk around with 14% is a
piece of piss. Oh my god, I can have
some bread. Thank
>> pretty lame.
>> 14% is a hard cut away. You've got a
hard cut to do to get down to that. Um,
so yeah, I I tweeted about, sorry, I put
in my newsletter, um,
>> the ideal body fat percentage is
>> higher than Jim Bros think. And I think
that's true as an anchor. I think most
guys would assume that optimal body fat
for women would be 10 10 nine maybe
even. I do think that most guys would
just guess that you can get too lean
that it's going your face is going to
look gaunt, but it wouldn't wouldn't
actually be to do with the body
>> that uh the optimal body fat percentage.
But then that being said, you have
somebody like Mike Thirst, for instance,
who at quite lean uh levels of body fat
still looks quite full,
>> still doesn't look very dry. One of the
problems that Ollie M had was he had
like
what I would call as opposed to skinny
fat, he had skinny lean.
>> Um, which is it a slight not quite the
right amount of mass to carry that level
of leanness. And if you have a little
bit more mass underneath it, I think it
can actually make you look more healthy
in that way. And some people just don't
carry leanness that well. Some people
don't carry fatness that well. I'm
somebody who doesn't look great fat. Um,
I'm someone who looks all right lean. I
can keep going. I think the leanest I've
ever been in my life is maybe 8 8 and a
half.
>> That's extremely lean.
>> Um and I looked fine. Everything got
pretty much better uh from there. And it
doesn't look but Ollie struggled a bit
more with that.
>> I I mean you're making really good
points. I think that the I think that it
is I think that there I think that a lot
of gym bros would be surprised at how
lean 13% can look. Yes.
>> Uh it really depends on how much muscle
you have to some
>> also. Where do you carry it? carry it in
different places. If you're carrying it
in your legs and your ass as a dude,
>> you're laughing. You're carrying it
around the midsection. If you got the
classic tire, you can get down to
>> 12% and really have visible abs.
>> Yeah, it's a really good point. I mean,
when I when I read this when I read this
result and was reviewing other results,
I was spending a lot of time looking at,
okay, can I see a DXA verified guy?
Like, this is the number and this is him
shirtless and comparing it. And you can
look a lot of different ways at 13 to
14% body fat. Uh there are some guys who
look all right up to 20%, right? They
they still have, you know, visible chest
separation, that kind of thing. Um I
would say though that most guys at 13 to
14%, they've got the upper abs very
clear. Um maybe some forearm veins,
right? Maybe like a little bit of upper
chest definition. Um but it's not stage
ready bodybuilder by any means. Um, I
think that your point about Ollie not
necessarily looking like fully healthy
at that weight, that's the key kind of
evocation
of all of this.
>> Yeah. Why why is it that women didn't
like the leaner guy? What's the what's
the explanation for that?
>> Well, the
there's the health angle where if
there's a famine, he's not going to
starve anytime soon. But the angle that
I take for women's bodily preferences
generally that I think is very I think
it has really good predictive power is
if you just say like between two guys
which of these guys physiques looks like
it would win in a fight. Usually the one
that looks like it would win is going to
be preferred.
>> And if you look at those two photos,
>> you know, like who who are you betting
on? You're probably going to take the
guy who's a little softer. Um, you look
at heavyweight boxers, heavyweight UFC
fighters, they they're generally quite
lean, but they're not insanely lean.
Like in nonweight class, just fighting
optimized sport. It doesn't seem that
being shredded is good for kicking ass
essentially. And I think that if you
think about women's evolved psychology,
it came about in a context where men
were often fighting, usually with with
weapons, right? Um, and where it would
be good to have as a long-term pair bond
a mate who could disincentivize
your own and your children's harassment.
>> You're talking formidability.
>> I'm talking about formidability, right?
That's exactly right. And so it's like
when you think about women's bodily mate
preferences and when you think about
bodily predictors of fighting ability,
it's like,
you know, the sorts of things that women
talk about like uh strong veiny hands,
big arms, broad shoulders, height,
not too lean. All of these things gear
towards
>> being formidable.
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That's drinklnt.com/modern
wisdom. Do you
do you think that the guys didn't
account for the lack of formidability?
Why did the guys not pick up on that
when they said, "I think that he looks
better in the second one because they're
they're looking at it
>> uh separated from formidability." They
weren't thinking, "How much can this guy
protect me and my kids?"
>> Yeah.
>> What was the reason for the guys
preferring the other one?
>> I don't know. I didn't find it
particularly surprising. And I think
that there's Yeah, Meither.
>> Yeah, there's always going to be, you
know, uh, most men were surprised, but I
think that the most vocally surprised
men were were obviously, you know, more
surprised than the average man, if that
makes sense. I saw it and just saw, oh,
okay, that that that makes a lot of
sense. Um, why didn't they pick up on
the formidability aspect? I think it is
bodybuilding culture to some extent. Um,
>> better.
>> Yeah. where bodybuilding culture has
proliferated throughout the Anglosphere
such that basically every young man is
now or not every young man but a a
plural a a a a a slight majority of all
young men in the anglophere are
basically recreational bodybuilders at
this point [laughter] and there's a real
status competition that is occurring
between these men where they have their
own yeah where they have their own
beauty standard that is it it probably
started out as a competition for the
female gays essentially. But then it
became a competition between each other
such that more difficult is more
impressive and therefore better um to
some extent. So you know winning a
bodybuilding competition is very hard
because it involves putting on lots of
mass and removing lots of fat and those
those two activities are difficult to do
alone but even more difficult to do
together. So, it's a good competition uh
between males and it reminds me of
women's fashion modeling to some extent
where women's fashion modeling
incentivizes a degree of thinness that
we know from the from the literature men
do not prefer. um it's it's passed the
optimum and you can say like why is it
that this beauty competition has passed
the optimum of the beauty standards set
by the opposite sex and it seems to be
downstream of difficulty downstream of
status and downstream of these standards
set within the group. So I think that
you know that's a rambling answer but
>> no that's great difficulty status and
the values set within the group. So, for
guys, every guy understands, [ __ ] he's
had to work really hard.
>> He looks like a reliable ally. He looks
like the sort of guy I could go into
battle with.
>> Um, I know how hard that is to do.
>> Uh, the status thing while imbued in
that is allow me to elevate you. That's
really impressive. That's something that
that I would maybe desire for myself.
Um, I did see, do you see Sasha
[clears throat] Baron Cohen also did a
transformation? He's in a superhero
movie.
>> Oh, interesting.
>> This stinks of your TikTok. Have a look
at Sasha Baron Conan. Have a look at the
There was a few articles that came up
where basically he recently got divorced
and got this role as a superhero
uh type character in some movie and just
goes through basically the same but he's
20 years older than Olly Muz. Same
transformation. Um lean looks for a
50-year-old dude looks great. like very
stringy, very flat, but like upper
visible abs separation, delta, arms, all
the rest of it. Like congratulations.
Well done, Sasha. And
>> there's a bunch of scathing articles
basically saying um this breakup body
thing is cheesy uh and and
like shallow sort of gossamer a thin
desire for attention from men. But then
there was some other stuff that I did
think was was quite interesting, which
is I looked at it with a lot of respect.
Some women looked at it with almost like
revulsion that why are you spending so
much attention on your body in your 50s.
>> Like what's going on there? Oh, well,
you're probably trying to signal
availability and attraction for a new
mate. That means that you're probably
not going to be a particularly good
family guy. You were in the era of guy
that is supposed to be family guy.
>> I think that's exactly right. Yeah. Um,
I remember a friend of mine's a a
fitness athlete throughout pretty much
every different discipline. He was a
powerlifter. He was a weightlifter. He
did bodybuilding. He did everything.
[snorts]
It's been with the same girlfriend
throughout all of these.
>> And she said, "Uh, I felt the most
comfortable with you when you were
powerlifting."
>> Oh, that goes with my formidability
anecdote. Now, if you were to pick the
fattest of the strength sports
>> after strongman, it would be
powerlifting.
>> Yeah.
>> It wouldn't be weightlifting. There's a
bit more athlet athleticism required
there. It wouldn't be high rocks or
crossfit or bodybuilding like in this
spectrum of leanness. And um I had this
insight that basically if you see as a
woman if you see a guy that is very
lean, very even very muscular, even very
beautified, even very pined in a way
that's evidently trying to attract the
opposite sex as opposed to like some
weird Yeah, exactly.
Um, what that suggests is for every
calorie that you have to spend in the
world,
quite a big portion of that is going to
go to trying to attract the opposite sex
through this sort of beautifification
thing. Even if you're getting it wrong,
even if you don't know what the other
sex likes, and actually if you don't
know what the other sex likes, you
[ __ ] it even harder because that
suggests that you don't understand us.
Yeah. and you're trying to do so this
idea of it really made me rethink dad
bods
>> like what what is a dad bod is a dadbod
the body of somebody who is a father or
is it the body of somebody who would
make a good father that do you
understand the distinction here
>> I do and what's funny what what you're
getting at is actually the result of a
you're you're anticipating the result of
a study that's already been done on dad
bots where they essentially this was
back when the term term dad bod which
which isn't as hot as it once was. I
mean that term was like very viral in I
believe it was 2020 and uh what the
researchers did when this term was
peaking was they investigated
personality perceptions as a result of
body type. And what they found was what
what what you're describing uh which is
that they were ascribing more positive
fatherly qualities to men who were less
lean.
>> And I think that there is a tension
among animals in general that pair bond
and expect paternal investment that look
you can engage in paternal investment or
you can engage in mating effort right
and you can't do both those things at
the exact same time. I mean maybe to an
extent paternal investment can be mating
effort in some cases but for the most
part it's like he's either the sort of
guy who's going to spend a lot of time
doing that or he's going to spend a lot
of time doing this right and so if
you're you know a guy who's like hyper
obsessed with looks I think that that
does strongly signal mating effort
orientation and that might be even if
they're better looking it might give a
personality cue that ends up being the
turnoff. I really do think that with a
lot of this like I don't want him to be
too muscular. I don't want him to be too
lean. I don't want him to be, you know,
too taking care of his hair. That kind
of thing. I do think that a lot of it is
personality inferences. It's like if he
just genetically looked like that and
never went to the gym, uh then that
probably would be preferred.
>> That's the sort of noble savage
lumberjack build, right? I don't think
women have got a problem with the dude
that happens to walk around at 10% body
fat. Yeah. But the [clears throat] dude
that happens to have massive hands or
great hair. Yeah. But the guy that
spends tons of time on that, well, it's
sort of narcissistic. It's
self-centered. He doesn't care about me
in this sort of a way. So, here's an
interesting one for you. I've always
been fascinated by the fact that um
women in marriages and men in marriages
tend to spend their discretionary
additional income on things that are
typically signals that only the other
sex would notice. But you can do this in
different ways. So for instance, women
spend a lot more money on
beautifification. Guys spend more money
on watches and and cars and stuff like
that, saders, signals of wealth, etc. Um
but by doing it that way, by doing it in
really sort of subtle and um highly
finessed ways, if women do the
beautifification right, maybe other men
would notice, but their partner might
not fully. Like wearing a expensive set
of heels, that makes you look good, but
is as much a signal to women as it is to
the men. And your husband might not
fully pick up on that. And the guy is
the same thing. Well, you know, this new
car, it's fast and does whatever, but
it's primarily an intraexual, not an
interexual intraexual competition device
as opposed to intros
interexual advertisement device.
>> Yeah.
>> Um, so I always think that's
interesting. One other bit on the Oy
Sasha Baron Cohen thing, I do think it's
a little bit of a failure of cross- sex
mind readading that guys looked at
something that they confused for
formidability, that famous David Putt
study. Um, this looks like formidability
to me, but didn't realize like women
assumed that what they find attractive
in a partner is what they will sleep
with. Will they? Because if other men
found him more formidable, which they
might have done, maybe women say that
they wouldn't have gone for that guy.
But perhaps that version of Oy would end
up being more successful after 12 months
because he's been pre-selected. The
David puts study suggests women don't
actually know what they want to have sex
with fully. Yeah. Uh, so I wonder if you
had a 100 oy Moses and you put them at
different levels of body fat percentage
and sent them out into the world, which
one actually would have performed
better? Because we know that male
pre-selection and male uh, he's okay,
he's all right with me, I hold him in
high esteem is something that women do
use as a cue for attractiveness. And
maybe that is even more powerful than,
well, he looks a little bit lean and I'm
not too sure if he could survive a
famine. So perhaps the guys were right
all along.
>> Yeah. Well, you know, it's interesting.
You're reminding me of a of a concept
from behavioral ecology where basically
you these researchers uh the the the an
the kind of anthropological site studies
types will you know make an assumption
about like oh well based on our
calculations this is the you know
optimal foraging party size or something
and then when they find a discrepancy
instead of saying oh I guess they're
making a mistake they think oh we must
be making a mistake like they must know
something we don't know so then they
investigate more. And with something
like that where when you look at
bodybuilders, there's a really kind of
simple surface level where you say, "Oh,
they're they're wrong about what women
want." But in a way, they might be even
more right about what they want because
they're optimizing not just for women's
preferences, but also for men's
preferences that will give them the
social status that will be more valuable
than looking better, right? I mean, that
that that's something that we see. I
mean that's something that we see quite
a bit of right I mean it's something
that we see quite a bit of that people
will modify themselves and compete in
such a way that
the mates don't directly care about but
they do care about the status
consequences of that competition. Um,
like you can imagine that playing video
games isn't attractive, but if you're
like Ninja, I believe his name is. He's
like really rich, very successful.
>> If you got your hair blue, you could
look a little bit like Ninja. [laughter]
>> Oh god. Okay. Well,
>> compliment. He's one of the most [ __ ]
rich famous dudes on the planet.
>> Okay, I'll keep that in mind as an
option. uh if I ever want to if I ever
want to go for that look. And you know,
I'm sure that the video games component,
like you could look at that from from an
outsider, like at his mating strategy,
let's say. I I hope he doesn't watch
this cuz this is going to be
uncomfortable, but you could look at
like his quote unquote mating strategy
and say, "Oh, well, he's spending a lot
of time doing something women don't
like. How foolish, right?" But then he's
acquiring limitless money and status and
renown um through other men. Um, so I
think with the Ollie M thing,
>> look, I looked at it and I didn't care
that women didn't like it. I thought he
looked cooler in the after and that was
that. I was like, I respect it. That's
it. So my reaction, my reaction was not
like from a social status perspective, I
thought that's cool.
>> And if you walk into a bar and all of
the dudes think that that dude's cool
cuz he's just got lean, then maybe you
are going to be more attractive.
>> That's much better than being, you know,
slightly more optimized for body fat
percentage. It feels like this is
related to what you learned about
formidability from the female rapper
Gorilla. [laughter]
>> Yeah. Well, I I mean I I uh I
do a lot of these on Tik Tok. It's a
very Tik Tocky thing to do. Uh they do
tend to go viral where I'll just play
generally a woman's rap song and just
listen to it and react, you know, from
from an Evoy perspective. And it's a
really useful teaching tool, frankly.
And it's a very useful teaching tool for
my area of specific interest and
expertise. It it it's really good for
mate preferences.
>> Um because you see that in a lot of
types of music,
>> people are very koi about their mate
preferences, right? Like they don't
necessarily state them and if they do
state them, they don't state them
accurately. But then you you listen to
rap music and you just get very accurate
stated preferences where it's like,
"Yeah, I know the study." Like I'm I'm
listening to it. I'm hyped. I'm like, "I
know the studies. I know that that's
accurate. Like that's true." Like um so
you'll hear, you know, and you also see
more blatant intros competition where
it's not
>> where it's not beating Yeah. It's not
beating around the bush. It's saying
like straight up I actually have like
like I was listening to um the rapper
Lotto and she was um she was bragging
about the fact that you know her body
count is so low that she might say that
she's a virgin right she's mocking her
rivals for like giving it up too easily
quote unquote. Um she's flexing the fact
that she has tons of resources um that
her boyfriends don't mind if she cheats
essentially right. Um, so she's
paradoxically signal she's signaling
some things that are conflicting there,
but she's basically saying like I'm the
ultimate like
>> female
>> I'm the [ __ ] omega female here.
>> I'm the highest Yeah, exactly. I have
the highest mate value on all these
variables. Um, I have the highest
reproductive value value on all these
variables. Um, and I'm also I've also
got more resources for my future
offspring than you could ever dream of.
And I'm acquiring more from males
constantly. Um, who don't care if I'm
going out and and getting, you know,
>> I can't lose
>> Yeah. more genetic heterogeneity from
multiple mates, right? Like so it's so
it's it's it's incredible to listen to
um just the blatant um discussing of it
and I you know I have a great
appreciation for it and it's been it's
been good for it's been good as a
teaching tool. I feel like I've been
able to teach a lot of people who would
never take an FSA class
>> about mate preference.
>> Well, it's just as well that you're
using rap music as if you're using
metal. Like if you're listening to a Bad
Omen song uh to try and work out what
Noah Sebastian thinks about like his
mate preferences, it's all couched in
fluffy [ __ ] language. It's it's too
whimsical. No, Noah. Tell me tell me
about hitting it from the back. That's
what I need.
>> There is a study on uh metal guitarists
where they were like, "Is this um
introsexual competition or is this
interexual attra?" Because it's pretty
clear with other forms of guitar playing
that the guy who gets the guitar out to
play Wonder Wall right at the party, all
the other guys are thinking this guy is
the worst. Like we don't like this. But
lot Yeah. But a lot of women actually
are like, "Oh, you know, if he can do it
well,
>> this is cool."
>> Yeah. This is cool. Right. Yeah.
Exactly. If it's a if it's a if it's a
handsome man.
>> So [ __ ] Tim from Polifia. Do you know
what Pifia is? No.
>> Okay. It's like very mathy [ __ ]
super. Maybe one of the best
>> guitarists on the planet plays in it.
And uh he looks like an anime. He looks
like someone out of Final Fantasy. So,
he's got cool as [ __ ] luck and um
like all over the place. So, that's a
great question. Is it What did you
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That's drinkagg.com/modern
wisdom. What did they decide? Is it
intraexual competition or interexual
advertisement? Well, that's exactly what
they were they were investigating and
they were they were interested because
again, guitar is one where it's
literally it seems so straight up and
down like this is to attract women, but
metal is something where it's like, you
know, I've been to um I I'm actually
going to Metallica next year with my
dad. I'm stoked. Um so so I don't mind
metal by any means, but at these
concerts, I mean, I haven't done a poll,
but I'm assuming it's going to be like
90% male, right?
>> Very male heavy. Yep.
>> Especially as you get into the more
hardcore like heavy metal, it's going to
be and even the environment it's kind of
hostile to women in the sense that it's
like the mosh pit is not a place where
lots of black.
>> Yeah. Where like a 120 lb woman is going
to have like an awesome time on average.
I'm sure there's one listening who's
like no I love it. Um so it's
interesting. It's like what are these
guys doing? And it seems to be that it
is essentially a proxy for violence
where it's like it's not something
that's necessarily in the sense that
it's um it's a competition between the
males against each other, not something
that is attractive to women necessarily.
And the reason I used violence as as an
analogy there and even used the word
proxy, which I probably shouldn't have.
The reason that I use violence as an
analogy is that there's evidence from
some animal species, for example, that
even though winning fights makes you
more likely to mate, right? The fight
itself is something that the females do
not appreciate and do not like, right?
So, it's it's not the case in some bird
species, for example, that the that the
female birds are standing around
watching the male birds have at it and
thinking, "Ooh, you know, I love the way
he's, you know, completely pecking the
[ __ ] out of this guy." Right? that's
that's not what seems to be happening.
Instead, it's like, oh my gosh, there's
violence. Let me get out of here. And
then the fact that he won later um gives
him, you know, the
>> the formidability all guitar players are
too [ __ ] to fight.
>> No, I'm not saying I'm not saying that
at all. I'm sure that a lot of them
could kick my ass. What I am saying
though is that it's sim it functions
similarly to that where it's like a
massive status competition between the
males out of view.
>> But this is [ __ ] Ollie M.
>> Yeah. Where this is Ollie M again.
>> Exactly. where it's like we're not we're
not playing heavy metal guitar to
impress women directly. We're doing this
to settle the status hierarchy amongst
ourselves using this alternative to
>> then the women will pick off
>> and then Yeah. Exactly. And then once
we've all agreed on that then we then we
can move.
>> So what you're saying is
>> becoming a metal guitarist is a
high-risk strategy because if you become
the best great
>> but if you suck you double lose.
>> Exactly. Not only do you do something
that I find unattractive, but everybody
else seems to think you're really uncool
because you're no good at it.
>> Yeah. I think that learning the the the
in terms of like lowrisk, highreward
strategy, learning like four chords.
Rhythm guitar. I want to be the rhythm
guitarist.
>> Yeah. Learning like four chords on the
guitar and buying an acoustic guitar
and, you know, learning a few good songs
really
>> aspiring male metal guitar players that
have their entire future is just forked
in front of them. Which way do you want
to go?
>> Well, they can do both, but the but the
metal aspect, it's uh it's very likely
that the returns to mating won't come in
until you've appreciated quite a bit of
>> Well, also as well, you're going to be
playing to audiences that are 90% men.
>> Yeah.
>> You know, whereas if you're [ __ ]
Benson Boon or whatever, like, you know,
>> Lewis Aldi or some [ __ ] like it's just
it's it's all checked. So, okay. I
remember reading forever ago and I've
not been able to find it again. I'm
gutted. A study that was looking at um
maybe it was had this happened or maybe
it was women being asked to envision it
happening. Uh an altercation occurring
where their male partner was unable to
protect them
>> and that the question was how much does
your attraction drop pre and post this
interaction or pre and post infidelity?
And that the pre and post he couldn't
protect me was greater
>> than infidelity.
>> Yeah.
>> And I haven't been able to find it
again. [laughter]
>> Is there have you come across this?
You're like the [ __ ] chat GBT of
>> I haven't Well, I I hallucinate quite a
bit less, I would hope. But uh I think
that I actually did see this and I think
that it was actually an online poll
rather than So that's probably why you
weren't able to find it. I think I I'll
take the results kind of face valid that
I mean attraction is a funny word,
right? Because it's like I wouldn't be
surprised if you even found that a
breakup was more likely to be
precipitate. Infidelity has a very high
breakup consequence rate. Um it's it's
one of if not the most common causes of
divorce. Um and it's a very common cause
of relationship dissolution. You don't
really hear about you know men losing
fights and it leading to breakups as
often. Although, you know, maybe it's
just such a low frequency event that it
doesn't have the same influence on human
relationships.
But I think it could even be the case.
What I'm getting at is that the
attraction component is taking a bigger
hit, but the actual relationship
stability um may maybe it goes the other
way. I'm not sure.
>> It doesn't surprise me though. I mean,
it's um it's a it's a huge negative
signal. So, yeah,
>> beauty matters way more than chastity,
and it's not even close.
explain that to me.
>> Well, you see these studies on the
importance of so we have these
cross-cultural studies going back to the
going back to 1989
with David Bus where you look at you
know men's stated preference for um
chastity versus good looks. Um and you
also look at these more recent kind of
individual level studies that are a
little more modern and and take
different methods. And I would say yes
that men on average care more about
looks than a woman being chased or pure.
Uh for example, there was one study
where men perceived one group of women
as more uh physically attractive and
likely more promiscuous. that that was
their inference which is commonly the
case with um attractiveness where when
people perceive attractiveness they tend
to also perceive promiscuity and they
still chose uh they still chose that
group. I mean there's this um I think
it's actually
I think it's actually apocryphal. I
think it's I I hate to ruin this but I I
do think it's a I do think it's a fake
advertisement but I think that the
advertisement and look it's it's a
rather objectifying ad. I don't I don't
think it's the way we'd speak on modern
wisdom, let's say. But the fact that
this advertisement is so viral shows
that it's tapping into something that is
appreciated um to some degree or or
reflect something trueish where it's it
was a used Porsche dealership ad where
it was, you know, you're not the first,
but do you really care, right? And it's
a beautiful woman, right? Is the idea.
And I think that the fact that that's
something that's very clickable, very
viral, shows that it is something that a
lot of men find intuitive, but it's also
something we see in these studies that
does, you know, signals to low
socioexuality, are those attractive? Of
course, right? But is it a high
priority? Not really. No. Men put looks
over um chastity in most cases.
>> Well, that's interesting. I think um
I think that's a question that I'll have
to think about and circle back to you
because it's a really good one. But the
first thing that's coming to mind
is that especially in a modern
environmental context where we have
contraception and where a lack of sexual
history might signal some kind of
religious commitments
>> or strange or I won't say strange
atypical social development.
It may be the case that the strategic
salience of chastity or virginity
actually flips to an extent like you've
seen the studies from uh I know you've
spoken Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
So Thomas and Steuart Williams and these
guys they've done their kind of ideal
body count studies and it's an ideal
mate preference right so
you should get you know you should get
the even if it's a ridiculous result you
should see it if that makes sense. like
the ideal mate preference for penises we
discussed earlier was bigger than they'd
ever seen, right? So these do tend to
these do tend to be quite fanciful and
it was you know I believe it was peaking
at you know 1 2 and three right not zero
in terms of number
>> zero was as attractive as six.
>> Yeah that's correct. Yeah. Yeah that
that that that's well remembered. I
think that's exactly right. So men were
as quote unquote put off by virginity as
several past partners.
>> Um like an above average number of past
partners.
>> What's the average for men and women?
>> Uh okay. So the average body count based
on CDC data median uh and excluding
virgins from the data set. Um they put
out four for women and six for men
about.
Now uh the the reason for the
discrepancy could be due to the ver it
could be due it could be due to a
variety of factors. Um it could be as
simple
there there's so many statistical
potential explanations for it but it
could just be as simple as men over
report and women under reportport.
Right? It's both five.
>> Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Exactly. It's both five.
>> I would say that from that
you can safely say that the average body
count in the US probably isn't over six
because why would men lie and say it's
lower than it is? M I think that for us
in kind of you know an urban
college educated background secular
relatively secular at least I think that
given our backgrounds our kind of social
circles might find that surprising
>> y
>> but you also have to think about the
fact that there are you know very
conservative religious people there are
people who are you know incredibly
asocial
um I mean this is a CDC gen population
census, right? It's
>> you can't overestimate how normal the
normies are.
>> Yeah. Exactly. So, it's like we're
hitting all all types. We're hitting
people who are, you know, conservative,
you know, devoutly um Muslim, right?
We're hitting people who are
playing video games all day and haven't
spoken to a woman in two years and they
don't care that they haven't spoken to
them. So, yeah, I think when you run
those numbers, it's going to be between
four and six. And six is probably that
is probably fair. is like yeah it's not
higher than that for a median mean is
higher mean is higher
>> is it surprising that most people even
men don't want virgins even female
virgins are discriminated against
>> I think that it is it is interesting
right I think that the I think that
contraception has changed the strategic
veilance of
past sexual partners such that disease
risk and the risk of a covert pregnancy
that you're not aware of that's existing
from the previous relationship. Those
sorts of risks are very reduced
and as a result of them being very
reduced now body count is and I'm using
that term because it's it's what
everyone uses number of past sexual
partners would be the technical term I
suppose
it's mainly used as a proxy for
personality. Yeah. And so I think that
what men and what women are, we haven't
spoken about women's preferences here.
They're they're pretty interesting too.
I think that what is being
scanned for is primarily cues to
personality. And so we have
>> That's why I can't get over the [ __ ]
chastity thing. That's why I can't get
over the beauty of a chastity thing.
>> Yeah.
>> Like it's it is lower, I think, than
most people would assume. And
I would guess for any normal person with
a normal amount of looks and social
exposure throughout their life and is
30, this is especially if you're a woman
who's at three or four or below, you
have either had to be in long-term
committed relationships for most of that
time or actively turning down suitors.
>> Like you're going to have to be saying
no quite a bit.
>> Yeah. I I Okay, so I'll I'll I'm gonna
revise something about the beauty over
chastity statement. It's not like an
absolute in all cases on the tail end.
I'm imagining I would be confident
saying that if we're talking about
normal variation like what do do men
care more about a woman's sexual history
or the way she looks within depends on
how how much she looks and how much
within normal variation then I would say
that yeah beauty is winning. Um but then
when you get in like when you get into
abnormal outlier cases
>> um
things things are going to change a lot.
Um
but in terms of the I I do want to
circle back to the personality indicator
body count quote unquote body count as a
personality indicator
it's an indicator of socioexuality to
some degree and then it's also an
indicator of normal social adjustment.
And I and I say normal as in typical in
the sense that if someone has like I
remember speaking to a man who was very
you know classic kind of bro type you
know very muscular lots of tattoos and
not you know I'm not talking about some
like very um
like
kind of hippie polyamory type person
like he's like kind a a bro type, right?
And he was talking about how weird it
was that one of his friends preferred
virgins, right? And I said, "Well, would
you date someone if they were?" Cuz I
was I was kind of putting my researcher
hat on. I I wanted to double click on
this. I was like, "Oh, what?" You know,
this is pretty interesting. He's saying
that this other mate preference is
really weird. So, what's his mate
preference? And he said, "Oh, I'd be so
freaked out. I'd feel like I was doing
something illegal." Right? M
>> and I think that that might get it to an
extent where it's like
>> it's so uncommon in his social circles
and in many men's, you know, in America.
These surveys are America, UK, that sort
of thing.
>> Y
>> it's so common uh it's so uncommon to
encounter that that when you do it might
be a signal of like some kind of some
kind of maladjustment. Yeah. Exactly.
>> Why is this happening? Whereas so it's
it's a balance between like is this
person you know normal functioning
welladjusted sexually active individual
um you know a person who has sex right
just my type that kind of mentality um
and then on the other end is it someone
who is going to cheat on me who is not
going to be able to hold a stable
committed relationship down that sort of
thing and so I think that that's what
explains the I guess when you think
about it I know that from like a first
principles EVO perspective you might
think that no sexual history is always
better, but when you take it in our
current ecological context, I think that
men's preferences make some strategic
sense.
>> Yeah. And not even necessarily our
current, although I guess when you start
to fold religion in previously, that
gets a bit squirrely. There is something
sacred about the first time. Everybody
remembers their first time, unless you
were drunk, I think. Um, and
>> do you want that to be you if you're a
fullyfledged adult that you know has
done it five times before? Yeah.
>> Number six is going to be someone's
first. Really? That's Oh, I have a
friend who uh uh dated a um a pretty
public-f facing girl and she made it was
you can still go on the internet and
search these stories and he was the one
that took her virginity
>> and uh I think he was 30 and she was
sort of early 20s like 22 or something
like that and fair play but yeah there's
a bit of
like
just I don't even know what to say about
it. such a the facial expression you're
making is I think fusion explains the uh
I think that
>> that's a good one. Let's just for the
guys that are listening, you know, and
this is the reason that it's interesting
and the reason that me and you took an
interest in this is that a lot of the
talk in kind of the red pill brophere
would be around, you know, virgins is
what you want. This is why you got to
get your passports, bro, etc., etc.
>> And then you see men like normal men's
preferences and they don't they don't
>> we don't want that. And if you just
think you're everybody listening to this
is going to be of age and a little bit
older. Just think about what that would
be like like and do you would know maybe
beforehand or certainly afterward would
that be like super sick bro or would
that be
>> something else and I don't know what it
is and you're like what the [ __ ] just
happened
>> like that feels
>> and there's also here's another thing to
fold into that I wonder whether there's
a sense of obligation
>> from guys to girls that oh first she's
gonna expect dot dot dot which kind of
pushes out the casual sex angle here
that if this is your first that's going
to be special maybe she's going to
expect more she I'm not just one number
which means that a particular type of
sex casual sex
>> it's less accepted
I'm more obliged stick about perhaps
>> yeah I mean you hear you hear from
I think I think that honestly it's just
it's just it's a it's it's a very
the takes that you're describing are
very online and and kind of only work
online. Uh they they don't they don't
really map on to the modern mating
market in a way that a lot of people
find relatable.
>> I think that the facial expression you
made and reacting to your friend story
is uh
>> I think that that explains the thing is
that it's not
>> it's just that it kind of it it feels a
little weird. I think that past a
certain age it's a little odd
>> and I think that that's where these mate
preferences come. Uh I think it's worth
noting here uh I'm conscious of the fact
that we might switch topics that women's
mate preferences are surprisingly very
similar here if you ask about women's
ideal preferences. I think that there's
this uh concept among men that like oh
>> get away with way more.
>> Yeah. Yeah. That women love playboys
that sort of thing. Um but there does
seem to be um a similar effect where
it's true that women discriminate much
harsher against virgins than men. This
is again
>> Oh, that's interesting.
>> Yeah. This is the Steuart Williams and
Thomas paper.
>> Um where there was a gap where women's
kind of ick at the whole virgin thing um
was stronger. Men also exhibited it, but
women's it was a bigger one.
>> That's interesting.
>> Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I find
that I find that very intuitive. Um but
then their optimum was very similar.
We're again talking like a one pass
partner, two pass partners, three pass
partners, four. That all looks pretty
swell. The decline starts after above
average where we're talking 7 8 9.
>> So it's a slightly longer tail.
>> Yeah. And then as it as you pass that
like this male has slept with, it's kind
of funny how well it maps on to the
averages. He slept with more women than
most men will sleep with in their lives.
That's when it starts to like that's
when we get the plummet and it's like
the willingness to date a man who has
slept with like 20 women, 30 women.
That's where
>> and it's you're saying personality cues
again.
>> Yeah. It's like is this guy really going
to be like just be realistic like like
odds on how likely is this guy going to
be to never cheat on you and never want
to cheat on you? That kind of thing.
Very low probability. And then also like
how likely is he to take you seriously
and be interested in you? So I think
that it makes sense. But when I first
heard about those data, I was surprised
by them. The intuition again going back
to the '8s in the kind of evoc
literature has been like, oh, chastity
is going to be much more important to
men than women.
>> But then the actual research has showed
surprisingly less consistent sex
differences. And then, you know, if
you're talking about modern anglophere
populations,
>> basically no difference. Well, I mean,
if you were in Victorian era England,
the uh judgment on tattoos, dyed hair,
choker necklaces, piercings would be
significantly harsher cuz all of those
accuse of socioexuality. I think
everybody interprets tattoos, dyed hair,
piercings, choker necklaces. The choker
necklace thing is [ __ ] fascinating.
You've seen that, right? Like about
Yeah. That it's fewer dates before sex,
like more likely to give oral sex, a
bunch of others. And it seems to be like
borne out in the data a little bit too.
The other thing is that with with
appearance enhancement that has
stereotypes associated with it, there's
going to be a self- enforcing effect,
right?
>> Because you know that this is going to
be the way that it's so you are
expecting people to interpret you in
that way and are prepared to play up to
it. Even if the even if the and I'm
talking about appearance modification,
even if the appearance-based stereotype
is at first completely meaningless and
inaccurate and it's a joke about like
the location of the necklace being
related to oral somehow, like it's a a
black belt or whatever.
>> Um, even if it starts as like a silly
>> meme among high schoolers, once it's
there, now there's the social
expectations associated with it. And so
when you're waking up in the morning and
being like, "Oh, I want to wear this
type of necklace." You know that that
association is there. And so there's
there's going to be some effects found.
Um, and we see the same thing with
tattoos where it's like people think the
tattoos are associated with associ
socioexuality and then when you test it,
it actually is, right? People think this
is [laughter]
>> Yeah. Right. You think about facial
piercings, you think about choker
necklaces, all these things. Yep. It's
like maybe at first it was nonsense, but
once there's the association, you've
just made everyone who's not that way
reconsider. And just that alone is going
to have a small effect. And these are
small effects, but they're still
interesting.
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What is the impact of body count on
long-term relationship success?
Um I mean it's very intuitive. I'm
always surprised by how controversial
this is because I say it quite a bit and
I say it
not even kind of bracing for impact if
that makes sense. I'm like this will
this seems intuitive, right? But people
who love to have casual sex and sleep
with lots of people and hop from
relationship to relationship and as a
result of all those behaviors end up
with a higher number for their age than
you would otherwise expect. Those people
are less likely to succeed in long-term
monogous pair bonds than people who do
not like doing that and do not have that
sort of track record. And that and when
I say succeed, I mean in terms of every
outcome measure, I mean
you know more likely to get divorced,
less likely to be satisfied in their
relationships, uh more likely to cheat.
uh there there was one analysis I
believe it was by the IFS where if an
individual and this is from this is all
true for men and women by the way there
I know that on the internet there's a
huge focus on women but all these
effects there's no sex difference and
sometimes the effect is even larger in
men than women so that aside right we're
we're talking about everybody here uh if
you subdivided the data neatly and said
people with a body count below five
people with a body count above five
what's their infidelity rate the
infidelity of the above five five group
was double that of the below five group.
>> No way.
>> Yeah. So this is not this is not a
nothing burger, right? This this is a
thing. Uh and the reason it's a thing is
very intuitive, right? It's like
what is an affair, for example, like an
affair is a form of casual sex. And so
if someone has had lots of casual sex,
they're telling you to some extent, oh,
I'm more likely than someone who has not
done this, I I probably enjoy this,
right? because I keep doing it over and
over. I mean, I'm sure there are some
cases where that's not true and and
people change obviously, but it's a
huge, you know, past behavior is a
predictor of f future behavior. So,
you're basically saying, oh, I've got
like when people are surprised by this,
I'm surprised because it's like you've
got two groups of people, let's say
people who have slept with lots of
people and people who haven't. And
you're trying to predict who's going to
sleep with more people in the future
going forward.
>> [laughter]
>> Like why why would you why would you
predict anything other than
>> the only the only explanation that I
could come up with is that somebody has
closed the loops.
>> Oh, they've gotten it out of their
system. Yeah. The classic Imagine if I
said that with alcohol,
>> right? I'm going to get it out of my
system. I'm going to so I can drink less
in the future. I'm going to drink more
during my undergrad. Right? Imagine if I
said this with drug use. Imagine if I
said it with positive things. Imagine if
I said I'm going to get the gym out of
my system. Right? then that that doesn't
happen that it's like, oh, I'm going to
go to the gym every day. I'm going to
work on my muscles and then in the
future I am not going to want to do it
as much cuz I used to do it. Like you
build healthy habits, you build
unhealthy habits.
>> Do you think do you think that there's
ever the potential for somebody to stray
because they had unfulfilled variation
early on in their sexual uh career?
That's I mean it's a really good point
and I think that what we're talking
about here is average population level
trends which is the sort of thing this
data is good for.
I think that there probably is some
causal relationship but the data don't
speak to that yet and you actually can't
ethically design the sort of experiment
that would tell us
>> [ __ ] ethics boards dude they suck so
hard. [laughter] Um so
>> so many interesting questions that we
could answer. I think I think it's an
interesting one around um how people
interpret socioexuality.
Bus had in the evolution of desire I
swear one of the lines that's still in
my readwise is the single biggest
predictor of extrammarital sex is
premarital sex.
>> Yeah.
>> Is that true?
>> Well, it's sex predicting sex, right?
>> But is that true? is the single biggest
predictor of extrammarital sex.
Premarital sex.
>> Single biggest predictor. I Well, it's
David Bus saying it, so I'm very tempted
to just
>> Slightly older book though, right? Like
has evolution of desire is what how old
now?
>> Yeah, that's true. It's it's like 1999,
I believe. So I I mean in my data and
looking at other people's data, I would
say relationship dissatisfaction,
>> but that is
>> could that be due to
>> think about that? Think about
relationship satisfaction as like the
damn lifting up and like all the other
causes being allowed to run rough shot.
>> Relationship dissatisfaction is not one
of the predictors that you could be able
to
>> say in advance. Yeah. Exactly. It's like
obviously when things get bad they get
bad, right? It's it's kind of it's
predicting itself.
>> And maybe it's because they've got
wandering eyes. Maybe it's because
they're not paying as much attention.
>> Exactly. And then it's it's also it's
not a like it's it's kind of an all
cause thing because as soon as you don't
care about the relationship, any other
motivator becomes much more pertinent.
Like maybe you were the sort of guy who
never had a wandering eye and you know
couldn't be swayed.
>> Dissatisfaction has now meant that the
first thing to the surface is now what
burst out and the most salient
personality trait you have is your high
socioexuality cuz you slept with 25
women before you got into this
>> relation. I think that the the best
predictor of extrammarital sex is
premarital sex. Maybe that's true. I
mean, I do know that the if you look at
people who do go the very religious
route and they
just have one person and and that sort
of thing, they I mean, they do tend to
have or and they don't live together
before marriage and do all this. Yeah.
>> I mean, they seem to do they seem to do
pretty well. Um I do think though that
this is correlational and so there are
going to be individuals who don't fit
that pattern. And one thing that we
cannot test, this is a huge caveat, is
that we can't know like if you take that
person who had a a high body count,
let's say, and cheated. We can't rewind
the clock and say, "Oh, if you hadn't
built that habit, you would have like
maybe maybe it would have been maybe it
would have been even wor like like like
I can't recommend from this like I can't
I can't like tentatively I would say
it's probably not a good idea. If you
want to marry for life, it's probably
not a good idea to sew your wild oats.
it's probably not a good idea to try and
get it out of your system with the
caveat that it's hard to know from the
data with great confidence that um that
there aren't individual cases where that
actually is protected. But also I I
really wanted to get into this the
causal effect somebody is somebody's
just lost their virginity yesterday and
they're going to get into a relationship
which is going to be their lifelong
relationship in 8 years time. They want
to have sex with lots of people. They
want to. They really, really want to.
>> And is me saying hold it back, is that
going to make them less likely to cheat?
Yeah, I I It's a good point. It's a good
point. I think
>> Does it change? Does it change? Does you
sleeping around? Because one of the
questions would be, well, you know what
it's like. You've developed some sort of
habit, some sort of lifestyle. You've
maybe gotten rid of some of the stigma
that's a part of it.
Inculcated some kind of [ __ ] sexual
rhythm with new partners, whatever it
might be. uh you know what's out there.
Yeah. Right. And
>> you actually know the mechanics. I mean
people who have never had a one night
stand, they actually don't know
>> the mechanics of a one night stand. They
don't know how that works.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I that's such
an interesting point. I think one night
stands are apart from in modern modern
media often romanticized by people that
have maybe only been in long-term
relationships. Like the taxi home, the
[ __ ] cleaning up of the clothes in
the morning. It's not the beginning of a
Love Actually movie. It's not. It's just
it it's steeped in awkwardness and
stories that you tell your friends in
WhatsApp chats the next day.
>> Yeah. I think there's some cases
probably I mean I I think there's some
cases probably where people have that
experience don't like it and it actually
solidifies their commitment to monogamy.
I'm not doing that.
>> I think that the I think that when we're
talking about I made I made kind of a
glib analogy to I was feeling quite
cheeky made an analogy to alcohol that
kind of thing. And I think that to to
walk that back to some degree, I would
say that it's probably true if we're
talking about like very high cases. Um,
but there probably are some cases within
normal normal range where like if you
came to me and said, "Look, Mac and I
really really want to drink and party
and and all that sort of stuff." Like
would my advice really be going into
undergrad, well don't do it because
you'll become an alcoholic later or
would it be like well have have a little
bit of fun try not to go too far and
then after check back in and maybe maybe
don't maybe you could make similar
advice about like how to navigate
sexuality if you are someone who's you
know socioexually. This is the problem
with these sort of like big population
level data, these big surveys. We don't
know what the underlying motivation is,
right? There are lots of different ways.
Robert Plman, I always think about
Robert Plumber when I think about this
stuff. I always think about casual sex.
I think about Robert Plowman. Yeah.
>> And um he said to me that uh there's
lots of ways to get fat. He's talking
about behavioral genetics. He's saying
there's lots of different ways to get
fat. Some people have a higher ghrelin
release. Some people have got a bigger
stomach. Uh some people just don't like
exercise. Some people got a slower lower
BMR. Uh lots of and a million other ways
I haven't thought about.
>> Okay. What that means is when you look
at fat people, you are looking at many
different routes up the top of the same
mountain. When you look at high [snorts]
body count people, many different routes
up that. Maybe it's because of social
approval. Maybe it's because of a need
for connection. Maybe it's because of a
difficulty with commitment. Maybe it's
because of high socioexuality. Maybe
it's because of a high sex drive. Maybe
it's be whatever the whatever's going
on. Maybe it's because of your job,
right? You're a stripper or whatever,
like or a [ __ ] metal guitar player.
>> I think I think in that case the the
negative predictive outcomes might might
be maintained. But yeah, I I completely
take your point
>> and we don't know how people are getting
up because we're just taking these big
aggregate pieces of data.
>> I also think that another thing to keep
in mind, we're the reason that body
count means anything is likely because
it's a proxy for socioexuality. And so
when we're looking at an aggregate as
you say sure there's some predictive
benefit but if we were to look at any
individual case you could assess it and
say like okay well how predictive is
this of socioexuality and we even see
this in the recent research from um
again it's it's it's Thomas's team and I
I believe Stuart Williams is on it as
well again where they looked at this
across nations and they took a more fine
grained nuanced approach than they did
in 2019 and what they did was They
looked at essentially the effects of
recency, right?
>> And it's like if someone like the number
can be the same, but if it's like all of
them, and you can really think about
this, like what's a better cue to
sociality? If you're 38 and you meet a
woman who's 34 and she's slept with 10
people, but they were all in undergrad
and since then it's been like one
boyfriend, right? That's very different
to meeting the same 34y old woman who's
like, you know, actually it's been 10,
but they were all this past month,
right? And you're number 11. Like,
what's what's the cue, right, in terms
of personality? And what they found was
that people were sensitive to that. And
I think they're sensitive to a lot of
things. Like I think that
>> if you're talking about like like a body
count of seven being quote unquote high,
it's not really high for like a
35year-old, right? And it's certainly
not a 35-year-old for someone who's only
slept with one person in the last 10
years.
>> Yeah, exactly. Um, but it actually is
insanely high for like a 19-year-old,
right? Like that's a shock, right? So, I
think that for people listening to this,
>> I would say that if you're trying to I
mean, I talk about this stuff first and
foremost because I find it interesting
and not necessarily like it's kind of a
second order effect. Yeah. If anything
happens to be useful, that's wonderful,
right? And we want to extract that as
much as possible. Uh, but that's not my
primary motivation for
>> as a life coach. Yeah, like in terms of
looking Yeah, in terms of looking into
it, it's um but I would say that if you
were trying to glean something practical
from this, don't I wouldn't take the
kind of caveman like, oh, high body
count bad, low body count good approach
or or you know, a cave woman as well. Um
because these these preferences are
apparently very similar.
>> I would and these outcomes as well,
>> I would say, okay, well, I've got this
piece of information, but what's the
context of that number? Like, is this a
person like, if you want long-term
healthy monogamy, is this a person who
has had five long-term relationships?
Cuz that might even be like a green
flag. If you're like 30 and this they
they've had a few long relationships,
that that sounds pretty good. Um, if
you're an undergrad and you met someone
and the number is five and it's all one
night, I mean, yeah, that's such a good
point. If you were to do a third
iteration of Thomas' study and say, were
these in a committed relationship that
lasted for longer than 6 months or were
these one-offs? Yeah. Well, the
>> completely different story.
>> Totally different. Yeah, that's so
great. Okay. 7.1 million views, quote,
tweeting, "Men do not care about your
career, ladies. I'm sorry. They just
don't. They will date a waitress at
Applebee's over a corporate executive if
they treat them right and make their
lives easier."
[laughter]
>> What does the science say about this?
>> Well, the men don't care about your
career. It kind of depends on what men
you're talking about. If you're talking
about successful men, they clearly do. I
mean there's no like this whole meme of
successful men will date a what did you
say a waitresses Applebee's waitress
okay
>> um so the successful men will date an
Applebee's waitress doesn't line up with
the data that
richer men tend to select richer women
more educated men tend to select more
educated women um richer women appear
basically immune to the decline in
marriage that has transpired um since
the 1970s. So it when you look at this
data holistically, it doesn't seem to be
the case that
there is a
effect of men selecting downward for
youth and beauty and and whatnot at the
trading wealth for lugs.
>> Yeah. At the expense of career and
education. When you look at the most
successful men, they tend to pair up
with the most successful women. uh this
whole like men will date a Denny's
waitress kind of fantasy.
>> Be careful with what you say about
Denny's. I'm a huge Denny's fan.
>> I No, nothing. Well, there's nothing
wrong with being a Denny's waitress, but
I'm just saying
>> No, no, no. I don't care about the
waitresses. I care about the restaurant.
[laughter]
>> Okay. Okay.
>> So, Applebee's then.
>> Applebees you can talk [ __ ] on as much
as
>> I'm not talking [ __ ] I'm not just be
careful with Denny's, dude. I'm proud to
I'm a proud [ __ ] Denny's attendee.
Um, one point that I do want to bring
up. A friend of mine has an Applebee's
theory of attractiveness um which is if
you see some chick that's super famous
like um Sydney Sweeney for instance. So
he uses this example of uh Jennifer
Anderson uh versus Megan Fox. Jennifer
Anderson you could see working in
Applebees. Like you just saw her be like
[ __ ] that's a hot Applebee's waitress
but you could see her working in
Applebees. There's no way Megan Fox
working works in Applebees. We'll get
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>> And what is this test meant to deduce?
Where are we?
>> Whether or not you can whether or not
you're actually able to sleep with super
famous celeb women.
>> It's total pulled out of his ass bros.
But he basically says like if you can
imagine her working in Applebees, you've
probably got a shot.
>> Like it's it's is she sort of god tier.
Yeah. You don't have nobody's going to
[ __ ]
>> need to see your friend.
>> Yeah. Yeah. No, he's he would not [ __ ]
Jennifer Anderson or uh Sydney Sweeney
or [ __ ] Megan Fox. Applebe just
Applebee's coming up a good bit. Um so
>> how much truth is there in men don't
care about your career? Because it seems
to me like guys would uh be happy to
sacrifice more in terms of socioeconomic
status from a woman than women would be
in a guy. That sounds I mean that that
is like one of the most wellsupported
findings in psychology.
>> Okay. So is this just doing reductio
absurdum on that men do not care about
your career? I'm sorry they don't.
They'll wait date a waitress at
Applebee's over a corporate executive if
they treat them right and make their
lives easier. It's we care more about
interesting there that they said uh
treat them right and make their lives
easier. Not is hot.
>> Yeah. Actually that's a good point. I
disposition. I heard that, but it landed
on my ears as a previous meme.
>> Um, you know,
>> they're talking about disposition,
agree, agreeableness, conscientiousness.
>> Yeah, that's interesting. I think um I
think that the caveat that that is
chucked in there
probably makes it true in the sense that
yes, people will select for personality
and beauty over career. highly
disagreeable woman in masculine energy,
not soft or sensitive, not treating you
right, making your life more difficult
versus less educated, less wealthy.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Like we we don't see like if
you look at the biggest studies on
stated and revealed preferences, career
comes in as a low moderate priority,
right? Like it's
>> for men on women or for both?
>> For both. Well, in revealed preferences
for both for men especially in stated
preferences. Uh so the sex differences
in revealed preferences are less
consistent. I think that my initial
reaction of oh that's that's nonsense
comes from knowing that successful men
tend to pair up with successful women.
>> Um and that suggests some caring there.
And then when you ask men there does
seem to be some stated preference for
career. It's not like don't care. And
then when you look at revealed
preferences again it's a low priority.
Yeah, I I do think that
with the personality caveat or with a
beauty caveat, it kind of becomes true.
>> But to say like don't care is is quite
misleading.
>> Well, it's interesting that you uh and I
actually uh misread even as I was saying
it didn't realize that it said treat
them right and make their lives easier,
right? Which is personality went to Lux
and youth. It was 35year-old corporate
executive versus 21-year-old Applebees.
And then one of the reaction the
reaction that actually got me onto it
was um from a woman being critical.
Smart men don't marry bimbos because
that would be a very very stupid thing
to do. The men claiming they don't care
about intelligence, education, or status
are just revealing where they're at on
the hierarchy more than anything else.
There's a lot that's been pulled out of
this, but the first one, smart men don't
marry bimbos. I mean, Katherine D boil
or some [ __ ] I think
>> that is very accurate actually to the
data in terms of
>> smart men don't marry bimbos because
that would be a very very stupid thing
to do. The men claiming they don't care
about intelligence, education or status
are just revealing where they're at on
the hierarchy more than anything else.
How's that accurate to the data? Well,
we um they've put they've put some
linguistic top spin on it in order to
make it a tweet, but so it's not
precise, but it is accurate
directionally in the sense that higher
status men h marry higher status women.
More educated men marry more educated
women, richer men marry richer women,
men with higher income marry higher
income women. Even though often times
those women stop working after marriage
um at the initial point of contact they
tend to both be in similar stratospheres
and they also tend to marry similarly in
terms of their own age. The richer a man
is the smaller an age gap he is likely
to have which a lot of people
>> the richer a man is.
>> Yeah.
>> The smaller the age gap.
>> The less likely the precise phrasing
would be that the less likely he is to
have a large age gap. So, you see with
these 10-year downward age gaps as well
as these 5year downward age gaps,
they're less common among the male
economic elite um than they are among
poor men.
>> Explain me that.
>> Well, I think that it's that these men
are very successful and they're crushing
at everything they're doing. Like, it's
kind of the Jeff Bezos archetype where
it's like Jeff Bezos could, if he wanted
to, marry a 21-year-old, but he probably
doesn't want to. He wants to marry
someone he can actually relate to who's
a fellow, you know, multi-millionaire
and and successful in her own right. And
that's who he gets along with and who
appeals to him. And I think that that's
probably just the case with these I
think it's just probably the case with
these elite males that they also
covet eliteness in their kind of refined
a refined taste born out of a refined
lifestyle. In order to be able to
achieve high socioeconomic success as a
man, you've had to become discerning and
you probably have non-typical challenges
that you're facing and you want somebody
that can keep up with you. The great
line from David Senra, he says he's read
like 500 biographies of greatest
founders from history. Everyone should
go and listen to founders. And um he
says, "The rule that I've learned about
choosing a partner is that as a
high-erforming CEO or founder, you
either need a supportive spouse or no
spouse at all."
>> Yeah.
>> And I feel like it it's playing into
that.
>> It is. I mean, I was speaking to, you
know, very successful businessman, um,
you know, one of the one of these
absolute crushers, and he, um, you know,
he's dating someone who is in a non just
just a not highly cognitive role, and
he's like, "Look, they're great, but I
miss when I was dating women who were in
my space because at least they
understood, you know, what the f I was
talking about when I came home from
work, like the the sort of deals I'm
working on, the mechanics of it.
>> I have a partner in this."
>> Yeah. One thing that I one thing that I
love about about my girlfriend, frankly,
not to be not to be cheesy, is just that
she's also a researcher. And so when
I'm, you know, explaining something or
or presenting a paper or talking to a
conference, like all aspects of my work
are fully understood by her. Um,
>> it's not laborious. You don't need to
overly explain
>> and to the point where I I can actually
acquire assistance on and and offer
assistance on research matters. such a
it's a huge it's a huge hack and a lot
of these successful men
>> they wouldn't have anything to talk to
with with you know
>> the Applebees
>> Denny's waitress tons of things to talk
to cuz Denny's is incredible but
Applebee's specifically
>> [ __ ] Apple dude
>> um I mean Denny's supremacist
>> um yeah look I've been in relationships
in the past and this is this is an
interesting pivot that guys in their mid
to late 20s will see and I certainly saw
as well that what I was selecting for in
my 20s was not what served me in my 30s.
And that was largely due to kind of
growing up not being so much of an adult
infant, but that as I started to grow as
a person and have I think what really
happened was my true interests came to
the surface that I was less embarrassed
about what it was that I was interested
in. I felt less shame about being nerdy
or sensitive uh despite presenting like
the school bully like inside a Milhouse
as Finn Taylor said.
>> And um
>> what that meant was I what I wanted in a
partner changed. I I couldn't get away
with somebody who was simply pleasant
and attractive. I needed to be able to
have a little bit more of a conversation
because what it made me feel like was uh
I was sort of Batman by day but Bruce
Wayne by night and I couldn't bring my
work home. It's obvious that these
conversations are important to me. It's
obvious that thinking about this stuff
fires me up and I'm interested in it.
And if I can't bring that into my
relationship, for instance, if you
needed to reexlain what a sex difference
is, Yeah. or what intraexual competition
is every time that you needed to talk
about, "So, how was today, honey? What
are you working on at the moment?"
>> Um,
>> that would be tough. And I think
the
desire that people have to be able to
really resonate with their partner on
the surface, especially again online Red
Pill Brophere, um doesn't necessarily
sort of hit. But when you get into the
nuts and bolts of how this long-term
relationship is actually going to work,
a relationship is essentially one long
[ __ ] podcast.
>> That's what it is. It's one big
conversation for the rest of time. And
you want to,
the theory is basically that you should
try and have the most generative
conversation that you can. You want to
be able to speak to someone for 20,000
hours without getting bored. If you've
got that
plus the basics sorted, I think you're
probably going to get through like
they're pretty good with loyalty,
they're pretty good in terms of
attractiveness on your level, etc., etc.
like that functionally is a big is
carrying a big part of long-term
relationship success. I think can you
talk to this person and not get bored?
>> I mean I think I mean what what you said
there I hope somebody clips it because
it's it's a it's a really good point
that I think people should hear and I
think the analogy is is is funny.
>> Well I mean I'm always going to
pedestalize my own industry.
>> Yeah. Well, well, one thing that was
coming to mind was that it must be quite
difficult for you to find someone who
you can actually explain your work in a
way that is coherent. Uh, with with me,
I'm wearing a few hats and so,
>> but you can niche down,
>> right? You need to find somebody that's
in the niche.
>> Yeah. Like I don't need someone
who understands like all elements. like
they don't need to understand like Tik
Tok and that kind of thing, right? Um
like understanding one or the other
would probably fine, but with you, your
career genuinely is like very very
strange.
>> It's Yeah, thank you. Uh I I was
thinking about what it would be like if
you were a UFC fighter. Do you need to
date another UFC fighter?
>> Well, a lot of them do. like Ryan I
believe is um he's not a UFC fighter but
I believe his
>> misses is a excellent
>> and like who when you kind of hear that
guy interviewed and stuff it's like yeah
that that tracks right
>> yeah of course um
but the more niche that your pursuit is
especially if it's sort of sexcoded
right if it's malecoded or female coded
>> I understand what you're saying
>> well [ __ ] like you're a teacher
>> well okay you going to date another male
teacher well you know you can probably I
think a lot of teaching especially of
you uh primary school secondary school
kids most competent people can hold a
conversation there
>> but if you're talking about oh I teach
pure mathematics at postgrad like oh
[ __ ] hell
>> I think it's yeah I think it's
understanding the kind of elements and
nature obviously you don't need to have
like dating within your career isn't
necessarily necessary but dating like
within your your kind of stratospheric
ballpark of like like a doctor and a
lawyer both understand long hours and
cognitive labor and, you know, trading,
>> you know, lots of education.
>> Even if one's a pediatric surgeon and
the other one does sports rehab or some
[ __ ] Yeah. Exactly.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It could be even
it could be even closer, such as this.
Um, I think that where this where this
whole kind of Applebee's waitress
fantasy falls apart and the reason that
you just don't see it, right? Again,
like you can this is so fact checkable.
Like you can see like how many times?
>> Yeah. You can see like is this something
that happens? And when you actually look
at the data, educated men marry educated
women, richer men mar, you know, I've
said this all before. So it's like it
doesn't seem to happen very often, not
as a norm.
And I think that in terms of explaining
it, part of it is just that part of it
is just proximity effects of course. Uh
but then I think part of it also is
selection for genuine selection for
similarity, like someone you can talk
to. Um, I think that a corporate lawyer
could totally date, you know, a sick
business woman or a surgeon or whatever.
>> But I think that, yeah, I think that
most of them if they were dating someone
who's
>> it doesn't need to be within the same
niche. One other interesting uh [ __ ]
appendage to add on to the work that I
do. Uh, unfortunately, there is
basically no moat around podcasting
because everybody has conversations and
what you're basically doing is chatting
[ __ ] for a living.
>> Yeah. And the issue of that is that
everybody partakes in what you do in one
form or another. And what I do and the
particular skill set that I have built
up like permeates the rest of my life in
a way that if I was a surgeon or a UFC
fighter, it wouldn't. Unless you're a
very bad fighter, you're not randomly
getting into punch-ups on the street or
over dinner or with your partner. And
you presumably you're not just like
spontaneously doing improv surgery when
you're out at a bar,
>> right? Um, but everybody partakes in
what I do, which means that at least in
my experience, um, it's been sometimes a
little bit of a challenge to make girls
feel comfortable
not being not having a self assessment
of they're boring.
>> Oh yes, I completely understand what
you're is that you're like a
professional conversationalist whose job
is to
>> What the [ __ ] have I got to talk to him
about? What have I got to talk? He just
spent the afternoon with Jordan Peterson
on Mac and Murphy talking about God.
Like, you know, it would be it would be
like
>> being a professional porn star and going
home to your amateur amateur sex,
>> but apart from the fact that you have
sex everywhere. You have it over dinner.
You have it as the kids are at the
table. You have it, you know, as you're
doing the dishes. Um, it would be like
that. And this is what I mean. It
permeates everything. So, it's an
interesting shot. So, what I'm saying is
it
>> incredibly unique.
>> Podcasters need more sympathy is what
I'm saying. Jesus [ __ ] Christ.
>> Well, it's Yeah, I mean that is that is
that is absolutely fascinating. I I I'm
glad I double clicked there because I I
was expecting just the kind of mechanics
of the work being hard to understand,
but the porn star analogy really drove
it home for me. Uh you know,
>> well, I know the language.
>> Do you feel Do you feel Yeah. Do you
feel when
you get home so to say
>> Mhm. that there is a so I was speaking
to a guy who was a professional
guitarist in his early 20s and he said
it ruined guitar for him. No, not
[laughter] he was he was playing
wonderful. Um so he was you know working
for these cover bands and things like
that. He was a pro guitarist, right? But
not not like a huge success
>> and he said that it killed guitar for
him where it was like he got paid to do
it so much that it was like there was a
period where it took a while to get back
into it. And I've even found this with
social media to some extent that it's
like when I was doing it and there was
you know no money involved and it was
kind of just for fun. There was a lot
more it was a lot there was so much more
like creative passion at that time and I
kind of have to get myself I've forced
myself in that headsp space.
>> Do you leave like com like does talking
become kind of like look I talk I talk
>> I talk professionally let me rest. Does
that
>> uh yeah like the porn star coming home
and going honey not tonight. Yeah,
exactly. Like I've been doing this all
day. I've done a 9 to5. Come on.
>> Uh I I could talk about this for a long
time. I wrote um a little note to myself
probably about 5 years ago just as I
started to turn pro with the show, which
was during co and I I've come to sort of
think about turning anything that you
love into a labor as a very dangerous
pursuit.
>> Yeah,
>> very dangerous. You need to pick it very
carefully. If you play pickle ball, you
love pickle ball, you play a couple of
nights a week and on a weekend with your
friends, you're really into it and you
watch maybe you even taking classes and
you're becoming a bit better or
whatever, you don't need to cross every
tea and dot every eye. You don't need to
put that much work in. But as soon as
you decide to turn pro, as soon as you
make it your thing, all of that [ __ ]
goes out the window. You need to be
getting agility coaching and you need to
be working on your sleep and your
hydration and your nutrition and you're
going to miss weddings and your
girlfriend's going to get mad at you and
you're going to need to work on you're
going to get injuries and you're going
to have to rehab them and your sense of
identity is going to be wrapped up and
you're going to be on this roller
coaster. Well, you in some ways you're
going to love it more because you've
committed to this thing, but in other
ways it's going to feel like a labor and
the way that I've come to see it is uh
Paul Graham's got this great how to do
great work wonderful essay and there's a
few different dynamics going on. And you
need like a 3D graph to to explain it.
At the very beginning, you have the most
enthusiasm typically because
everything's freshest. You're doing it
just for the love of it. Isn't this
amazing? But your experience is the
lowest it'll ever be. And the returns
per unit of effort are also the lowest
that there'll ever be.
>> And as you go over time, typically I've
found passion, the free liberated
passion does wayne a little bit. Like if
I look at my day, I did 11 hours of
calls back to back on Wednesday this
week. I started at 9:00 and I finished
at 8 and there was no there was zero
break in between. Now I'm frontloading a
lot of this cuz I'm about to go away on
tour and I've got to eat a lot of [ __ ]
and there's like tons of big episodes
that I've told you about that coming up
and I'm like trying to negotiate all of
this [ __ ] and like 90 minutes just
on flights. Just 90 minutes on my
flights for the next two months. Yeah.
Right. Trying to move. Oh, I got to go
from [ __ ] Portland, Maine to LA to
this to that. Um, 2 and a half hours on
copywriting for the channel, titles and
thumbnails. But I extended that because
I want to get out ahead so I don't need
to do these calls when I'm away.
>> Um, I had a call with my doctor team for
half an hour on the morning. I had a
call with my GM and my my uh business
development guy for a half an hour. And
I look at my day and I'm like, that's 11
hours of calls back to back. I [snorts]
didn't need to do that when I started
because the obligation it was just doing
it for love. It's just doing it for fun.
So, when you start to turn pro with
things, typically a lot of this comes
along for the ride. But I'm at the stage
now where every word that I say, every
episode that I record, everything that I
put out, there has never been a point
before now where it's had as much
impact, where it can move the world in a
better direction, where it generates
more revenue, where it uh grows the
platform more, where I have and I've
never had more expertise than I do now.
So, you have these three dials that are
all moving, and there's probably more,
but you have these three dials that are
all moving at the same time. And I think
what the goal is, at least in in my
experience, doing anything for a really
really long amount of time. I've been
doing this show for nearly 8 years now.
That's a long amount of time to do
anything, right? Even to be in one job
now in the modern world for 8 years, is
is is pretty long. Um, you're managing
your passion by tolerating how hard you
work by putting your foot on and off the
gas. There's a couple of little hacks
that you can do to keep it going.
Working with other people, huge hack.
Like celebrating wins as well, huge
hack. If you've outsourced your
motivation to a group around you, little
goals, having side quests that you do
that don't distract from the main thing,
but just keep it sufficiently varied.
That's why the live shows are so
important to me because if I can get out
there and get on stage and get some
positive reinforcement from 10,000
people,
sick. Like, I ride off that for a while.
Um, but I'd be lying if I said that I
had the same
motivation that I did when I started the
show. But the reason that you start
doing a thing is not the reason that you
keep doing it after a long time. You
know, the reason that you started your
uh postgrad
studies will not quite be the same as it
is now. And it won't be the same as when
you've got your doctor. It won't be the
same as when you start writing books.
And it won't be the same as when your
substack. You know what I mean? It's not
going to be the same throughout time.
So, an interesting question is how do I
keep the main thing the main thing when
the fuel source driving the main thing
changes and the direction the main
thing's going in is altered as well.
Yeah.
>> And uh I I talked about this with Chris
Bunstead, the Chris Bunstead episode.
People can go and listen to that. And he
says the same thing. He's like, "The
reason I started doing bodybuilding is
not the same as when I was partway
through my career was not the same as
when I thought I was going to retire and
wasn't the same as when I did retire.
And it's not the same that I do it now
now that I have retired." Yeah.
>> But it's the same thing.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. So, what does that mean? Well,
you've got different fuel sources,
different directions, and it's
fascinating. Fas I really love that you
went there. [ __ ] great question.
>> Yeah, I mean I it's it's a it's a I
mean, that was really interesting. It's
it's
it's a it's a it's a ch it's a
challenging idea, this idea of going
pro. I mean, I think one of the funniest
things, and I'm sure you experienced
this switch at some point, has been
everyone in my life pivoting from like,
you know, being may not, you know,
everyone's everyone's supportive, but
maybe being a little bit irritated with
how much time I'm spending on TikTok to
being like, please post more on,
>> you know, like because you suck at the
you know what I mean? I remember when I
used to play I played violin between the
ages of maybe 11 and 15 and I played in
orchestras and stuff. Uh, I did notice
over time my mom would ask me to play
for her more.
>> Oh, that's interesting. Yeah.
>> Presumably just because it was less
painful.
>> It was like, oh, it was less [ __ ] Yeah.
>> To listen to. So, as somebody gets
better at what they do, and this is what
I mean, there it is a vicious um
it is a vicious dynamic, this trade-off
that you have where motivation can
dwindle over time. And there's other
fuels that come in. And okay, how can I
bolster this? Because habit as well,
there's another one that I didn't
account for. Like just at 2 p.m. Central
time, I'm supposed to speak to an
academic with an unpronouncable surname.
That's what I do, right? That's what I
do. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, I that's
what I do.
>> Yeah.
>> And you go, well, if I didn't do that,
I'd feel, you know, all out of sorts.
>> Yeah. It gets easier.
>> But is that motivation? No, not really.
It's more habit. And does that make it
less pure? Well, I don't know. like the
outcome the expertise is better but
would it be even better if you could get
the mot it's it's a a real it's a real
interesting sort of nebulous thing and I
think anybody that does anything for a
long time should be aware of this and I
would say
use the fuel that you have would be a
piece of advice so if if you are say
someone came and asked me this in London
a couple of weeks ago basically said no
sorry it was it the the first work in
progress live show that I did here it's
like dude my life's going Great. I'm
okay. Well, that's that's a first in
terms of questions that I get asked at
Q&A. You were at the Melbourne show and
it wasn't usually my life's going great.
It was usually here's a challenge that
I'm facing.
>> Uh, my life's going great. Um, I really
really want to crush it at the moment
and I've got tons of energy, but I feel
like work life balance kind of
important. I sort of looked at the dude.
It was dark. I couldn't see cuz the
light was my How old are you? He's like
23. It's like, bro, [ __ ] hell. Let's
send it. You've got the freest
motivation in history. It is never going
to be easier for you to do the [ __ ] that
you need to do than right now. Cuz for
me to have the energy that I had to when
I was 23 doing Club Promo or 31, one
year into the podcast,
>> that like pure unbridled blue sky
vision, [ __ ] light sky ceiling
thinking. I it it that fuel source is
largely spent in many ways and it's been
taken on by perhaps even more potent
ones, but that one's gone.
>> Yeah. It will never be easier to get you
to do the [ __ ] that you need to do than
when you are compelled to do it. So
[ __ ] send it. I'm like like
castigating this guy who's like, "Yeah,
my but life's going great, but I'm like
kind of taking it easy, but I really
want to go harder, but I realize that
work life balance." My dude, you're 23.
Worry about this in a decade. Like
[ __ ] take a flamethrower to the
middle of the the candle and blow the
[ __ ] out of it. Yeah. And he was like,
"Oh yeah,
>> yeah, that feels like what I want to
do." I'm like, "Okay, go forth and
[ __ ] end some worlds." Cuz honestly,
the the work life balance is going to be
a lot easier when your wife and kids are
begging you for balance and
>> as opposed to inverting it. As opposed
to inverting it.
>> Uh yeah. Okay. The bottom 40% of men and
top 20% of women are now hyperandrous.
>> What's that mean?
>> Well, I'm glad that you uh struggled
with the pronunciation there because it
actually highlights a just how
interesting this change is.
That
hyper
hypergamy, hyper hypergeny, uh have been
these pre prevailing norms. Uh hypergamy
just meaning, you know, marrying up
essentially. And the default when you
say that term has been, oh, that's
that's women marrying up, right? That's
that's almost always what it's what it's
meant to refer to. Uh and over the last
half century or so uh women's economic
and social gains have been tremendous
such that men and women are rather equal
in terms of their economic and economic
productivity and social status. And this
has occasioned a rebalancing of the
mating market such that
if any significant number of people pair
up, there's going to be a number of
people who are pairing up in the reverse
of the normal hyperandry, right? Where
where the male is made up. That's a term
that I actually believe was was coined
by um by one of my supervisors, Rob
Brooks, who you who you
>> Yeah, I love Rob.
>> Yeah.
>> So,
it's interesting. Um,
what do you want to discuss related to
this? Uh,
>> well, first off, explain explain what
the bottom 40% of men and top 20% of
women are now dating
more socioeconomically successful women
to less so economically successful men.
Why is that? Why bottom and top? What?
Explain that to me.
>> If you were Oh, so I understand. So, the
one real risk of confusion here
potentially would be that thinking that
they're pairing up with each other. So
what seems what what that data reflects
this is from the IFS analysis
is that and I believe it was 1.4 million
was the sample size. So so it's let's
say representative.
>> Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of people.
>> Um is that the bottom two quintiles of
men on average right if you were to take
if you were to separate and it's just a
way of it's just a way of looking at the
data. It's nothing more than that. If
you were to separate people into
quintiles and say okay what are the
bottom two quintiles of men doing like
on average and on average those men are
marrying up. So if you were to take one
of them at random and say do you earn
more or does your partner earn more on
average they would say my partner earns
>> and that's zeroth percentile to 40th
percentile of income.
>> Yeah. And if you look at 80th percentile
to 100th percentile of income in women
um they're and you were to just randomly
say you know are do you make more or
does your husband make more on average
they would say my well I I make more. Um
and that's that's a real change. I think
it's pretty interesting and it's hard to
know how much this reflects a re this is
a recalibration of behavior to the new
>> landscape. Yeah. the new ecology. Uh it
remains to be seen how much it's a
recalibration of uh of preferences. Uh I
know that I know that this is something
that's very interesting to you. Um but
as humans, I think
>> well as a woman in the top 20% income
bracket, it's unbelievably interesting
to me.
>> Yeah, it is interesting. Right. I think
it's interesting, too. It's what I've uh
it's what I've been studying for the
last year. It's a problem that I've been
thinking about. Uh we've got some new
research under peer review right now on
this exact subject.
>> Can you say much about that or is it too
early to blow your load on it? It's
[laughter] I wouldn't use that phrase,
but
>> premature publication.
>> Yeah. A premature publication. You know,
I've gotten in trouble with this before
where where I've had uh I've had Candace
say, "Please stop talking. Please stop
doing a podcast."
>> We love you, Candace.
>> Yeah. A podcast tour prior to peer
review. Um and I suppose it could
influence things in some way if it's
already like a known fact.
>> Um but I think that I I I'll talk more
about it in the future. Cool.
>> For now, we'll just say that uh it's an
interesting problem, right? Because
humans have a diverse array of variation
producing mechanisms that we can
leverage towards adapting to the
ecology, right? And it is possible to
adapt to the prevailing ecology as you
say without adapting what you want
internally. Like you can make a
strategic so a really shortterm I'm
talking about different behavioral
adaptation mechanisms. We've got really
short-term stuff like thinking through
your situation like playing chess and
saying, "Oh, it's gonna suck if I like I
might want to get my queen out now, but
the chess board is going to be all sorts
of messed up if I do that. So, I'm
thinking about what what I should do and
I'm doing something different from what
my impulse is, right? Like we can do
stuff like that as people and we can
adapt through that. We have longer term
um medium-term adaptation such as
cultural adaptation. So that's where
like for example in the case of this um
in the case of this precise example, it
used to be uh humiliating and strange to
at a dinner party say that your wife
makes more money than you. But already
we have culturally adapted to the new
markets, the new the new ecology by
making that kind of benal, right? It's
it's it's it's maybe
>> depends on what the audience is it's
landing with.
>> It maybe results in one joke at your
expense at worst. That doesn't really go
much further than that. most people
would be completely normal
>> as opposed to if it was 50 years ago.
>> Exactly. Exactly. So, we've got some
cultural adaptation and then there's the
longest term slowest and most
uncontrollable. I mean, it's it just is
what it is. Genetic adaptation, right?
Yeah. So, which could be the preference
in this case. So, if our mate
preferences are hard influenced by our
evolved psychology, right? Then you're
gonna have a very long period of
behavioral and cultural adjustment, but
internal.
>> Oh, this is so cool. You know what I'm
saying? Yeah. Yeah. So, we have we have
conflict.
>> So, we have we have ev what this what
this evidence is showing here is
strategic adjustment. That chessboard
level mechanism that we were talking
about,
>> some cultural adjustment. Maybe that's
not
>> Yeah, but that's not shown in the data.
But we know that there's some we know
there's some cultural adjustment. We can
see that there's some cultural
adjustment. The um it's it's
interesting, right? Because
It's not clear from that data, but is it
the case that these let's say bottom 40%
of men are like, well, you know, I would
like to be I have the kind of cultural
coding that I should be a provider that
would give me a lot of self-esteem. I
would quite like that. You know, I maybe
have some mate preferences geared
towards that as well that are that are
evolved to some degree. Maybe, maybe
not. I don't know. Um, I have this
intuition, but strategically I know I'm
going to be single if I don't mate up.
Right. And also I know that I'm not
going to pay rent if I don't make up.
>> The same thing is in reverse too.
>> Exa. Well, yeah. Exactly. And that's
that's even the more risky one because I
would say that I would be quite
confident that those bottom 40% probably
the bottom 40% of males I'd be pretty
confident based on what I've seen that
they're probably just either ambivalent
or kind of stoked to be mating up. Like
they don't really, [laughter] you know
what I mean? like it's like, you know,
she's she's paying off my car, right?
You know, like I've been that guy. Like
I know I know what that I know that
situation. It's like most of most of the
rent most of my rent is covered. The the
my car is getting paid off. Um it's not
that stressful, right? Even if at a
dinner party it might be there's a joke
of my expense.
>> What about the inverse?
>> But the other but the inverse is where
the concern comes in. That's where we
see these New York Times articles.
That's where we see these viral tweets.
That's where Yeah, exactly. That's where
we see this kind of cultural tension
that is happening where it's essentially
like it's it's what you call the tall
girl problem so to say where there is a
widespread concern that the mate
preferences of the most successful women
won't adapt over a short-term time
horizon. And so what we're really
interested in investigating and we're
we're doing this completely neutally.
It's it's it's just interesting. Um
can they adapt? Right? That's the that's
the current research question that I'm
>> suggest that that they are adapt
>> behaviorally but emotionally you you
know that there are I know that you know
this data I'm just repeating it for the
audience's sake that these um culturally
in congruent pairings these hyperandrous
pairings they're associated in some data
from Europe for example
>> domestic violence
>> yeah with worse relationship outcomes
which would suggest that it's like maybe
there's a strategic situation where it's
like I'm going to adapt my behavior so I
can mate.
>> Well, think about that, dude. Think
about how ruthless it is. Uh, I can't be
bothered doing the caveat, but evidently
this is only a hypothetical. Imagine how
ruthless it would be if you were to say
to women, you have two choices in life.
One is to pursue the career that you
want, and the other is to be beaten up
by your husband.
>> I mean, that's that obviously that's not
the actual thing, but that is the but
that is that the data is in that trend
where it's like there's this these
status reversed marriages have these you
know, horrible outcomes in some cases
like or they have a higher probability
of these
>> or or you you have a more milktoast
example, you have the choice between
pursuing the career that you want and
being in a happy relationship where
you're attracted to your partner.
>> Yeah. So what we're we're what we're
hoping I guess and also like
optimistically
investigating is like to what extent are
these preferences for women mating up to
what extent are those malleable and to
what extent are they rigid?
>> Ah dude, you you've always been so
[ __ ] white on this ever since we
started talking about this years ago.
>> Well, yeah. I mean I I think that the
the to I think that the question is
to what extent are mate preferences
flexible to what extent are we flexible
and I'm
>> without getting too into
>> without getting too into recent research
I think that we have a lot of reason for
optimism here and I think that there is
so look I think that there is
>> some evidence of really unfortunate um
cultural growing pains so to say where
these
these relationships where the woman
makes more have these negative outcomes
for now but I feel confident that over a
longer term time over a longer time
horizon uh humans will be able to adapt.
>> Why if how long evolution takes [ __ ]
forever? When you look at the
anthropological literature, there are
many cases where um female provisioning
is greater than male provisioning.
Right? So
um for example um among the paleon of
South India, they live in montaine
rainforests and
the primary food source yams are
gathered rather than hunted. Right? And
gathering is more of a cross-culturally
it's more of a female coded activity and
hunting much more done by males, right?
And so the long and short of it is about
70% of food is produced by women, right?
Um
>> and there seems to be cultural
adaptation to this. It seems totally
fine and it it doesn't seem to be
causing trouble. What I would say is
that we're in an uncomfortable state
culturally because we are Yeah, we're
pivoting from a culture where male
provisioning is the norm to a culture
where by parental provisioning is the
norm, right, socioeconomically.
And so
what I would say is this is that in the
short term it is true
>> that there are these horrible growing
pains.
>> But I feel confident if I'm going to bet
on human adaptability
versus non-adaptability. I'm going to
bet on human adaptability every time
just because I've seen
>> there's evidence for so you see the
study.
>> I see so much variety crossculturally.
But I don't want to downplay though. The
thing is, the thing is this is that you
you don't want to when we're talking
about something as ser when I'm when I'm
talking about something as serious and
awful as domestic violence or divor
divorce or infidelity or even
relationship dissatisfaction.
Relationship dissatisfaction is awful.
>> Very painful.
>> I don't want to come on here as the
overoptimistic anthropologist, right?
And just say and just say, "Oh,
everything's going to be all right,
guys." You know, everything's going to
be fine. I know that there there are
these I know that there are these
issues, but I'm confident that like to
even even my phrasing it as growing
pains maybe was was insufficiently
sensitive to how bad some of these
issues can be.
>> Um period pain.
>> Yeah. However,
>> again, look, we'll we'll have another
conversation about it in the future.
It's a topic that I'm investigating. I
think that um I think that humans are
adaptable and that there's bound to be a
period of tension when you're switching
Here's
>> provisioning strategy.
>> Here's the sort of nuts and bolts of it.
Unless you're going to put the kaibos on
the socioeconomic status of women
or men and women are going to stop
coupling up. This is going to happen
>> that. Thank you. Yes. So this is this is
the exact point I'm making is that there
is no conceivable future I think where
anyone is going to put the brakes on
women's economic gains. Like that would
seem, you know, morally insane.
>> Um
>> especially in the current climate. Yeah,
exactly. Like it doesn't it doesn't it
it's complete non-starter, right? And so
it's literally
>> and also sorry women wouldn't put it on
themselves, I don't think, which would
be another option for some way either
externally or internally someone would
put kind of ceiling socioeconomically on
women.
>> So the options for the mating market and
the options for successful women are
adapt or don't pair up, right? It's like
if you're a top 20% woman,
>> your choices actually are either accept
the likely possibility that you probably
won't date someone at or above your
level or don't pair up right there.
There is going to be some portion of
them who still manage to action on
dating up economically, but it's not the
norm already. And soon, if trends
continue, it's going to be yeah, the top
half of women
>> don't pair up up, if that makes sense.
And so you can either so for men and
women the option is the option that it
has been for us and all of our male and
female ancestors for time immemorial
adapt or die.
>> Bro, this is so interesting. I [ __ ]
especially having watched this. This is
a wonderful thing about being in a uh
niche for a while. You get to see things
unfold. You know, I've been talking to
this fascinating. You know, I think I'm
I first said tall girl problem 2021.
>> Yeah.
>> I'm seeing it unfold. You know, that top
quintile are the tall girls.
>> Yeah. In this
>> and then you see even this year all
these New York Times articles, these
things basically focusing zeroing in on
this subgroup and saying, "Hey, what's
going wrong?" You know?
>> Mhm. It's
>> interesting.
>> Yeah. It's fascinating. Uh I voice noted
you a while ago basically saying could
birth rate and coupling rates be going
down because everyone is just fatter
now. Uh basically my argument that's a
reductive way to put it. Basically I
said can a civilization make itself too
unattractive?
>> I think I think I nixed this idea in the
in the
>> You don't want to talk about it.
>> No I'm I'm I'm ab I I suggested it as
something we talk about.
>> I think that in our initial interaction
I said I'm I'm not sure but I'm happy to
talk about it more.
>> Okay. So here's here's my here's my
perspective. I wondered whether or not
humans can eat themselves out of being
attractive sexual objects. Like
>> obviously with increasing weight there's
changes in vasculature, libido,
like issues like etc etc.
>> But even though people typically mate
with people of a similar level of
attractiveness, presumably there is kind
of a flaw below which people are just
less attractive. No matter how
unattractive you are, and especially if
it's becoming unattractive due to
gaining a lot of weight, like if you're
morbidly obese, what you know inside is
maybe a you that wasn't and maybe your
sense of your own mate value, you kind
of have like uh alpha widow distortion
of yourself. You have like mirror widow
distortion of yourself where you think,
well, look, I know that I might be a bit
[ __ ] fat right now and maybe that's
made me go from a five to a four to a
three or whatever it might have been.
Uh, but I know like deep down I know
that I'm not and I really shouldn't be
dating this sort of a and people's I
wonder if our own sense of our own mate
value physically is able to be
sufficiently malleable to wax and wayne
with the sizes of weight gain that we've
seen. And I'm wondering whether the lack
of coupling up and the increase in birth
rates could just be due to the fact that
everybody finds each other a bit less
attractive because the number one source
of malnutrition globally is obesity, not
starvation.
>> I think u
>> not saying all the starving people are
having sex either. [laughter]
>> I think uh I think the the there's a few
interesting threads that you've pulled
out there. One is that there is the you
know very broad correlation in the sense
that over the same time period that
we've seen singleness and sexlessness
rise there's been uh there's been
obviously increasing obesity over that
time same time period and then also um
we're going to get to run the experiment
here uh with these GLP1 agonists uh
there's already been a massive reduction
and there's that that reduction is going
going to continue I think that we're
going to see obesity essentially
disappear from America in our lifetime.
And that's uh that's that's an incred
from a health perspective, from a human
flourishing perspective, that's an
incredibly positive thing. Uh as far as
the causes of sexlessness and
singleness, I actually think this is
something that I was speaking to Andrew
Moore about rather recently is that I
think that
the coincident timing
with in the case of singleness,
declining marriage, etc.
I think it does. I think it is
downstream of what we were discussing
earlier more than anything problem.
>> Well, it's a complex it's a complex
issue, right? But
>> because here's the thing is that people
hear people hear reducing marriage and
they think sorry to interrupt you.
>> No, no,
>> it's it's a habit of mine. It's
terrible.
>> People hear reducing
marriage rates and they think reducing
marriage rates bad. But a lot of the
people who aren't getting married are
people who shouldn't have gotten
married. Right.
>> That's why divorce rates are going down.
>> Divorce rates are also going down.
Exactly. Like the people who get married
today. Yeah.
>> No joke.
>> The people of my generation, Gen Z, the
people who are getting married from my
generation are currently on track to
have a divorce rate similar, most
similar to people in the 1950s. and
divorce rates overall as low as they've
been since 1970 among people who get
married. So marriage
>> among the people who participate in the
institution is doing better than ever,
right? It's it's it's good, right? Um so
people hear like oh marriage rates
declining bad and I they've actually
upticked a little bit since co there's
kind of a postcoid bump but overall
overall declining. People think that's
bad and I and I agree to an extent, but
with the caveat that
if the reason marriage rates are
declining is because women who would
have married due to having to be
financial prisoners of men, I know
that's a term you've used before.
>> Um,
>> if that's the reason they're declining,
well, that I mean that just seems like a
writing of a great wrong. So, in terms
of like explaining declining marriage
rates, things like that,
>> I I I I would lean towards that
explanation. Um the connection with
obesity though, I mean it's it's
interesting and what you're describing
in terms of the kind of internal mate
value like we see with um I know that
there's one speed dating study on this.
I can't remember the author's names. Um
but essentially the long and short of it
is is that it's not that people are
attracted to people who are their
league. It's that they're attracted to
the best looking person that
reciprocates their interest. Yeah. So
it's not that it's not that like
sometimes people ask this about like oh
do you know are do do when unattractive
people pair up right are they actually
you know is that their preference or is
like do do unattractive people prefer
the looks of unattractive people to
super attractive people that doesn't
>> would the three not date the eight well
if they were able to get reciprocal
attention probably
>> I wish it was true that it was like oh
twos are most attracted to twos threes
are most attracted to threes or or
however you might slice it But it
doesn't seem to be true.
>> Is there is there any data suggesting
that people who are less physically
attractive have worse relationship
outcomes?
>> Uh yeah. Yeah, there is.
>> Oh, that's really unfortunate. I've
never heard of it before.
>> Yeah. Well, it's
like even in
like it's uncomfortable to talk about
like but even in my infidelity study
which we talked about last time I was on
people tended to cheat up not down in
attractiveness. And one implication of
that would be that if you're more
attractive that's probably a protective
factor against infidelity. Um I think
that it's interesting. So with the only
negative outcome that I have seen
>> uh sorry just to interject there yeah
keep the only negative outcome that
you've seen pinned uh that only works
like the more attractive you are the
more protective it is against infidelity
but that's only if the person that you
are dating is within that attractiveness
band because
>> if attractiveness was that would be true
if attractiveness was evenly distributed
but the but the more attractive you get
you get so rare right
>> right
>> like you were a man
>> oh so the opportunity for your partner
to find another eight or above is less
than to find a two or
>> above. So, so you're so like you used to
be a male model, correct? Right.
>> So, you might
>> some would say still am.
>> Yeah. Right. Um are are you do you work
as a model? No. Some would just say
>> I did a I did a uh my first editorial
shoot that I organized myself. I did
that with a photographer I've worked
with for nearly 20 years now. Uh I did
that in Newcastle um over Christmas. I
haven't put any of the photos out from
it. I did it kind of just for my own
archive. It was so much fun, but it also
reminded me how much I [ __ ] hated
that industry for so long, dude. Being
ordered around, being on set early, not
being able to do I would much sooner
wear Crocs and socks and [ __ ] turn up
here and speak to you. So, I've pivoted.
It was cool for the time, but uh yeah,
as you as you're saying, if you're an
eight, there are way fewer nines and 10.
>> Yeah, exactly. So, the reason that
you're you're dead right in terms of if
it was perfectly even distributed, it
wouldn't have a protective factor. But
let's say people have a tendency to
cheat up and not cheat down in terms of
physical attractiveness. Um, and that
the vast majority of people who do cheat
will will only cheat up in terms of
physical attractiveness. If you're, you
know, a formal male model, even if
you're dating someone who's a female
supermodel, like how many
>> male models is she running into, right?
That's like one in one in 100 thousand.
>> Question on that there. The people who
are uh
cheating up, we could call it. um the
people that are cheating up presumably
one of the reasons for that is that it's
easier to get commitment from somebody
to short-term mating than it is to
long-term mating. So you can get a
little bit of a trade, but I must
imagine this changes the sort of people
that men cheat with and the women cheat
with because women are you can see where
I'm going. So
>> no, no, but maybe the audience can. I'm
I'm
>> okay. I I just like it. It's been I
haven't got to talk about this in depth
for a long time and it's fun when you
see somebody's eyes light which has
happened throughout the conversation and
you're like oh they know where I'm
going.
>> This is the good marriage coming home
from work thing I was talking about.
>> If you take us home Yeah.
>> basically
if you are um
guys will
tend to have higher standards for
short-term mating than they will for
long-term mating at least in terms of
physical attractiveness. Uh the same is
not true for men. and men will have the
opposite.
>> So, it it's one of the sneaky surprises
of that study which we discussed last
time I was on here was that I
understood.
So, look, it's just easier for for a
woman to cheat up in terms of physical
attractiveness because men will cheat.
Men will have these short-term flings
that are so Yeah. Like there are male
rock stars who will
>> just [ __ ] a groupy.
>> Yeah. who who will have sex with
completely random Yeah. will have sex
with completely random individuals who
you would never expect. And you just
don't see that with female rock stars at
the same not being slanging it
>> to like random guys, right? That's
that's just not I mean that I'm choosing
this very outlier example, but it's also
shown just in case some people are
saying, "Well, that's not normal human
mating." It's also shown in normal human
mating that men will relax their mate
preferences for short-term and
uncommitted mating. So it was surprising
in a way that men could not that they
wanted to that they they're wanting to
was not unusual to me at all. It was
surprising that they could effectively
cheat up on average in terms of physical
attractiveness. I found that surprising.
The the pin that I put in in terms of
the only negative relationship outcome
I've seen
>> if we were to go through, you know, um
associations between attractiveness and
mating, right?
It's just win after win after win for
the more attractive people, right? We're
talking more mates, more desirable
mates, uh more committed and doting
partners in some studies. Um it's just
>> uh I so I'm going to I'm going to push
back on that one.
>> Um mates who must be g mates once gained
must be maintained once said the
philosopher debut. And this point is
basically the more attention that your
partner gets, the uh greater the amount
of competition is. And yet it seems like
most people would make many people may
make this utilitarian, rational. Well,
how hot is my partner and how hot is the
person that's pursuing me? And if
they're a nine, how many more nines and
tens are there? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> But if you're also a nine, you're being
pursued by a lot of people. Yeah. And if
you have relationship dissatisfaction,
even if it's 9 to 9 or let's say it's 8
to 9, the nine is going to be like,
well, there's so many [ __ ] potential
suitors. So, I do think that there's a
challenge of I don't think it's good all
the way up in terms of attractiveness.
>> You're right. But again, I have to bring
back in the rarity phenomenon where if
you're a nine, a true nine, you're just
much more likely to be the more
attractive party in the imbalance. Hence
the more committed and doing partners
aspect of it, right?
>> But even within that, there's a
suggestion that when you have uh
attractiveness imbalance that
>> there's other tensions as well.
>> Correct. Yes. You have high rates of
[ __ ] what is it? Um men who aren't
the primary breadwinner are 50% more
likely to use erectile dysfunction
medication. Uh when you're in
relationships that have got too big of a
mate value discrepancy, partners tend to
switch from a benefit affording to a
cost inflicting mating strategy, which
is where we see stuff like negging,
excessive mateguarding, domestic
violence in extreme circumstances. Like
>> and you're subject to that heavy mate
guarding. So that's an that's actually
that's an interesting angle. I was I was
going in a different direction. I'm
going to 100% take your point and add
that to my list of negative outcomes
associated with being hot.
>> Yes, I [ __ ] added it.
>> You're you're subject to more heavy
mateguarding. Yep.
>> Uh regardless of how attractive your
partner is.
>> Also, in terms of the switch to a cost
>> to a cost inflicting versus a benefit
affording strategy, um it's more like
what the male can do than the absolute
size of the gap. So it's associated with
the size of the gap because of that
indicates something about what they what
they have options to. But a lot of it is
just benefit provisioning and you know
in a modern context there are lots of
benefits that can be provided. There was
a recent study from some Polish
researchers I I texted you about it but
I'll share it here for redundancy where
they found that the the greater the gap
was between a man and a woman in
attractiveness the if they if they
measured the gap they could effectively
predict to some degree how often he
would go down on her in bed. Right? So
there's a lot of benefit provisioning
that can happen uh in relationships and
attractive people are much more likely
to be the beneficiary in that scenario.
>> Yeah. And and and many other things,
right? I just had a very poorly time
licking of my own lips, which I hope
people do not zoom in on and make edits
of. So, here here's here's where I'm
going with this is that there are there
is some suggestive evidence that people
who are very good-looking might have
slightly lower relationship satisfaction
because they're more likely to be, you
know, keenly aware of the fact that they
could swap out their partner at any time
and dating down.
>> Oh, they have optionality distress.
>> Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Like imagine
what it's like to be, you know, like an
incredibly beautiful woman, right?
You're just constantly being bombarded
with your other choices um at your work,
on the bus.
>> Same would be true if you were a very
high status man.
>> Yeah, exactly. [clears throat] Being a
male rockstar. Imagine how difficult it
is to be I mean you're you're kind of a
podcasting rockstar. It's it must be
very difficult.
>> Unbelievably. Unbelievably all of the
women who come up to me on the street
and say, "My boyfriend listens to your
show."
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Right. So that's funny. Point taken. But
the but the but the long and short of it
is that there is a um
>> that there is that there is in fact a
cost there. But for the most part I
would say like if I was rolling the dice
to like start the game of human mating
>> there and it's like I want the best
overall outcome. There's no world where
I wouldn't want to be more attractive.
Right. There are costs, but the costs
are almost it's almost suffering from
success. Like they're they're they're
problems in the same way that like being
too rich causes new problems. Um like
the problem of
>> roll the dice and get a slightly bigger
penis, you'll be fine.
>> Yeah. Right. Exactly. Like the the
problem of too many people wanting to
date you is just so much better than the
inverse problem.
>> Yeah.
>> Even if it caused a little bit of
relationship to that question. Uh,
I sent you a car voice note a few months
ago talking about the asymmetry of costs
and benefits of men and women for non-
monogamy.
>> And I've never heard anybody else talk
about this, although I'm sure I'm not
the first to talk about it. So, I'm
going to try and remind you of what it
was that I said. So basically
uh
I was thinking about the prospect of a
man and a woman entering non- monogamy
and what the benefits are and what the
costs are. So the unique thing that I
haven't heard anyone talk about before
is that there are greater benefits for
men because on average men have more
variety in their sexual fantasies across
any single sexual fantasy. If you ask a
man how many partners he wants
throughout his life etc etc it tends to
be higher. Men do men have higher
socioexuality? Is that a way that you
would be able to say it? Yeah.
>> Right. Okay. But that that would be
>> it's one of the most replicable findings
in all of psychology.
>> Okay. So men are more socioexual than
women. They want more more uh sexual
partners and they're more open to casual
sex too, which is typically what non-
monogamy has at least in part, but
they're also more subject to
dissatisfaction at the thought that
their partner is getting physically
intimate with another person,
specifically another man. Uh so there
are greater benefits but there are
greater costs and both are paid by the
man. If there was such a thing as
emotional non- monogamy, not sexual non-
monogamy, emotional non- monogamy. So
for the guys that are listening, imagine
the relationship that you're in
potentially uh you get to sleep around,
but you have to deal with your misses
sleeping around. How much hey do you get
from getting to sprayed about a bit
versus how much do you have by the
thought that she's being sprayed at a
bit?
Now the inverse would be
uh and it's typically different ways
that you can set up nom monogamy but a
lot of them are physically you can be
intimate emotionally we are monogous.
Like that's one relatively common setup.
Imagine the inverse. Imagine physically
we can be monogamous but emotionally we
are allowed to spray it about. Now I
would suggest that in those situations
women would feel very uncomfortable with
it. That's not for me to say that women
don't already feel very uncomfortable
with the non- monogamy thing but I think
that's because they don't derive the
same benefits that men do. Not because
they pay higher costs.
>> Uh as in they're not going to find it
quite as painful. They're still going to
find it very painful. Especially if
you're not agreeing to this. if you've
been [ __ ] conned, coerced, persuaded
into doing this thing. Um, but the
pretty rep replicable study of as a man,
imagine your woman sleeping with another
man but not being emotionally intimate
or being emotionally intimate with
another man and not sleeping with him.
And for the woman, imagine the same. And
men typically say, well, I'd rather that
she said she loved him but didn't [ __ ]
him. And for women, they said, "Well,
I'd rather that he [ __ ] her but didn't
say that he loved her." M
>> at least that's one of the and when you
combine these two worlds together I
thought huh there seems to be something
interesting there. So what do you
reckon?
>> Well I think I think there definitely is
something interesting and I think what's
interesting I I'm going to agree with
everything you've said and just add the
ultimate lens. So this is this is all
quite proximate. It's about the feelings
but the asymmetry in feelings is also
reflecting an asymmetry in costs and
benefits at the evolutionary level. So
while a man can
have multiple women who are pregnant by
him at one time, a woman can only be
pregnant by one man at a time. And so
there's a much more powerful
evolutionary benefit to sexual variety
as as you're well aware of.
>> Um but then there's also a greater risk
of cuckoldry, right? There's there's no
chance of a woman accidentally raising a
child that is not hers, right? That's
just not the sort of
>> No woman has ever given birth to a child
that wasn't hers.
>> Yeah, exactly. And that's not something
that's occasioned by Well, I mean, I
guess technically with with modern
technology, but it's not something
that's occasioned by infidelity.
>> Oh, yeah, that's true. You Yeah. Yeah.
>> The the the surrogate the surrogate
scenario, but that's but it's it's
neither here nor there for the for the
purposes of our our discussion.
>> So, there's an asymmetry at the
evolutionary level that buttresses this
asymmetry at the proximate level. And
it's interesting. I mean, what I've been
trying to get my head around since that
voice note that I'd actually like to
hear your opinion on is given both the
approximate and the ultimate levels,
what sort of man would we expect to
benefit most from true non- monogamy and
what sort of women would we expect to
benefit most? Um my my intuition on the
women's side would be you know highly
committed partner who doesn't have the
conventional cues to physical
attractiveness that can get passed on.
>> Um but uh but I I wanted to
>> Hang on. So explain that for me. You
think that the woman would be in a
relationship with a guy that is
non-typical in terms of attractiveness?
>> I would say that which women would
benefit most from non- monogamy which
men would benefit most from non-
monogamy. I'm imagining that a woman who
is dating a man who is very committed,
handles the kind of supportive side of
things.
>> Cinnamon roll husband.
>> Yeah. But isn't uh isn't isn't provide
is providing paternal benefits but not
uh genetic.
>> Yeah. Conceptive benefits.
>> Oh, that's interesting.
>> That's one that's one angle.
>> What a wonderful archetype. I love how
we get once I get you three hours into a
podcast, you start to get much more
spicy. That's much [laughter] the
[ __ ] academic hat comes off. Well,
certainly the the point of um offsetting
the risk of cuckoldry by cuckolding
other people, which is basically what
men are doing in this situation,
>> is like a very meritocratic approach.
>> And that's what happens among some
anthropological
in some anthropology studies, this is
the mainstream explanation for what's
going on where you look at
>> you [ __ ] my wife, I [ __ ] yours and her
friend.
>> Yeah. Well, it's Yeah. It's basically
like uh why so you'll look at a given
society such as among like the Hima of
Namibia and you'll say you know why is
it that the men I I asked one of the
leading researchers this like well why
is it that they're putting up with
infidelity like why are they putting up
with their wives cheating so much like
surely this is just nightmare mode for
them and they're like well whatever
paternity they and why are they this is
the other thing is that they're good
fathers to children that they know are
the results of cuckled, right?
>> So, they know that the child's not
theirs. They know that it's conceived
through um an affair and yet they're
investing in the offspring and they're
completely tolerant of it. It's like,
why are they putting up with that? And
it's like the social benefit because
it's so widespread, they regain the
paternity that they lose in their own
nest in other nests.
>> But presumably, this only works if you
think that you're extracting more from
the system. So, if you were a higher So,
okay. So, on the guy's side, presumably
it's high mate value males or high
attractiveness males.
>> I mean, that's what you'd think, but
then you like I I'm just going to be I
you know, I don't I I don't want to get
too spicy too deep into the podcast, but
like I have not had the experience of
meeting
polyamorous males and being like, these
guys are super chad, handsome. But I
guess you're just selecting that you've
got to account for the selection effect
of just high socioexuality and wants to
do this,
>> right? I mean, I'm agreeing with you in
principle that you'd think like, oh, the
people who would be most enthusiastic
about polyamory
>> are the ones that can extract the most
from the system without
>> polyory.
>> But you know what? Actually, I'm going
to I'm going to dial back here actually
because we're talking about polyamory,
capital P, flying the flag, wearing the
label, and saying, you know, I'm
polyamorous,
>> not just slinging it about.
>> But if we think about like what
polyamory actually is, it's just
multiple mating and kind of this
informal
hierarchy of some of some variety. And
when I think about it without the label,
>> situation situation. It is very that is
what very handsome men are doing that
the so yeah I think that the people that
were kind of thinking oh they'd extract
the people who would extract the most
benefit from situationships are probably
hot guys
>> as soon as you get outside of San
Francisco the the rules of this change
>> yeah and it's like those guys would
extract the most benefit then yeah those
guys do seem to be situation showing up
situation
>> I think it's I think it's so great you
had this lovely line in our WhatsApp
chat getting cookolded is true disaster
mode for a male Whereas for a female,
technically your long-term mate could be
out and about without too much going
wrong for you.
>> It's Yeah, I mean, that's that's a
that's a that's a a bit of a glib
summary, but I think I think I can stand
by it that it's um that the it is in
principle possible to quote unquote get
away with it a lot more as a female
monogous mammal than a male monogous
mammal. However, there is especially in
humans because humans do like mate
switching quite a bit. It's a massive
risk. Like you see how upset uh women
get at the thought of sexual infidelity
by males. And it's like look in our
species, sexual infidelity often leads
to mate switching.
>> So it's like
>> it actually is very stressful. It's like
you could lose
>> you could lose your entire investment.
You could lose you could lose your mate.
>> I So he
>> So I think it's disaster mode for both.
But yeah, in terms of like who is it?
Who is it? Who is sexual infidelity more
threatening to? Yeah, it's probably
going to be male mammals.
>> Yeah. So, this is where I would love to
get
some data around
how split like if you were to have a a
distribution of how much men agree or
disagree. I think it's going to be more
extreme for the men because
some men will hate the idea of their
partner sleeping with other men so much
more
>> Yeah.
>> than they would enjoy the freedom to be
able to sleep around themselves.
>> I think that's most men. I mean, I
literally like when I think about the
imbalance here, every time I meet a
polyamorous man, and I've met a couple
actually, I really just desperately want
to pick their brain cuz I know myself,
the benefits of the occasional fling are
so small, like diminishing benefits.
Like we're talking like next to nothing
may as well not have happened level of
low benefit
>> compared with the emotional cost is
literally like I would put myself I'm
imagining something where it would like
if it ever if anything even on that
spectrum happened years of mental
recovery.
>> Correct. Yeah. And also probably the end
of your relationship the inability to
see your partner in the same way.
>> Yeah. End of the relationship. Uh end to
my self-esteem for a period of months.
So, so when I speak to these men, I do
find it very interesting. I'm like,
okay, so
>> you have just [ __ ] zeroth percentile
jealousy and mate guarding
>> and 99th percentile external extra pair
mating motivation. I'm like, there must
be a story here where the extra pair
mating motivation is either so high that
it's intolerable
>> or the jealousy is so low that it's
inconsequential. Imagine if you have the
desire for extra pair mating being very
high and the jealousy being moderately
high and you have this this tension.
It's like one of those bridges in an
earthquake that's being flexed and
pulled against itself.
>> I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to
say who this is because I I heard them
speak about this in a public interview,
but there's a there's a very famous um
there's a very famous evolutionary
psychologist who's who's polyamorous.
His name Yeah, his name is Primal Poly
on Twitter. And I remember listening to
a podcast uh that he did on this where
he was talking about how it was a
multi-year
process to or at least at least a year
process. I believe the word year is
ringing in my ear where it was trying to
deal with the
negative psychological ramifications
side of things. So was the there was the
high motivation, right,
>> for for moderately high
>> and then the moderately high jealousy.
And to me, I remember listening to it
and thinking I think it was a I think it
was a podcast with Sam Harris maybe.
>> Um and I think Sam's response was, you
know, is it really worth the hassle, you
know? So it's interesting. I don't know.
I'm not commenting on his I'm not
commenting on his on his you know, it's
it's not a personal thing at all. Um,
but because he's a public figure and I'm
commenting on what he's
>> and Diana have not been shy about
talking about.
>> Yeah. So, I feel like it's fair game.
Normally, I would never, you know,
discuss someone else's sex life as like
an object of interest. Um, but in this
case,
>> we don't have enough publicly non-
monogous people in the world of mating
research uh to be able to do that. But
yeah, so the worst situation to be in, I
imagine, would be to not match the uh
extra paired jealousy and extra paired
desire with your partner. Like if those
two things are out of whack, like you
have high desire, any amount of
jealousy, but potentially low jealousy,
and your partner doesn't match that.
>> Yeah.
>> That's when you're going to start. And
if you've [ __ ] spent too much time at
SF parties or you know you've listened
to too much Diana Fman or whatever like
you know before you know it you're like
ah
maybe I could start a poly cool with
like you know John next door or whatever
and meanwhile your partner's going um
>> yeah exactly because that's going to
that's going to really twist it up but I
think that's a [ __ ] I think that's an
interesting one. Um, I also want to
learn about what the rich gay uncle
hypothesis is for homosexuality.
>> Well, I don't know if that's the I don't
know if that's the formal name, but it's
the name that an evolutionary biologist
at uh at Boston University uh who will
remain unnamed inform it's what he
informally called it in one of our
lectures and it was pretty interesting.
So, the idea here is that we have this
powerful cultural stereotype in the west
of the rich gay uncle, right? It's like
that it is known that um that gay men
tend to have slightly higher incomes.
And the idea is that oh that you know
there's some social investment that
tends to happen um diagonally from them
to the offspring of their closest kin,
their siblings.
>> They're also more likely to have older
brothers. So they're more likely to be
an uncle.
>> They're more like birth order effect.
>> Yeah, exactly. They're they're more
likely to have the That's exactly right.
They're more likely to have the
opportunity to be
>> Look at me.
>> I know you're killing it.
>> Throwing [ __ ] [ __ ] into that's
pneonic for you.
>> I know. Exactly. Um it's it's hitting me
as well. I feel smarter than ever. Uh so
they tend to be quite successful and
evunular and it that that's interesting.
Right now they've tested this in the
west and it has not borne the type of
fruit that you might expect it to. There
doesn't seem the the idea of it as a
hypothesis is basically this. I should
have explained this at the outset is
that it's hard to explain. We know that
there is some heritable component to
homosexuality,
but it is quite difficult to explain how
that heritable Yeah. How does that
persist, right? That
>> given that you can't reproduce if you're
truly being gay.
>> Yeah. You're Yeah. You're truly at like
I know that a high percentage of
homosexual people have some opposite sex
encounters at some point in their life.
>> Unless Unless you've thumbmed it in
enough times to be able to actually have
a kid. Yeah. Like this is this is just
not how Yeah. So so so it's like it's
it's at the very least even if in a
state of nature a lot of homosexual
people would reproduce anyway. Um it's
at the very least reducing their odds
not to feel opposite sex.
>> Yeah. Right. So how does that persist?
And so the idea was is that maybe it
would persist through kin selection. So
one way to win the game of survive and
reproduce is to get your genes into the
next generation by reproducing yourself.
But the other way is to piggyback off
the reproduction of your kin such I mean
they share a sibling shares 50% of your
genes.
So, it's entirely possible that you can
have this, you know, um, offspring
adjacent to you that shares 25% of your
genes and you can essentially pass on
your genes by supporting them surviving
and reproducing. And so the idea was
with with this hypothesis, this rich guy
uncle hypothesis that maybe the way
homosexuality pu persists is by instead
of having one kid, right, you support
two kids
>> of
>> your your closest kid,
>> could that be passed on genetically? Is
there a lineage for this to be able to
work?
>> Yes. So that could work. That could
work. Uh mechan if you're asking like is
this is this theoretically possible?
Yes.
>> Yeah. in terms of the mechan I don't
understand how the lineage of the person
who did the thing but wasn't a part of
the promagation
>> the yeah so it would be the case if the
genes for homosexuality and this is how
most behavior genetics works as you know
>> if it wasn't like um if it's more like
genes that increase your probability of
expressing homosexuality rather than
like an individual gene that causes it
[clears throat] then if you have some of
those genes
>> enough so if you have enough of those
genes that you exhibit the behavior um
then your your kin still have some of
those genes as well and you're passing
on your
>> genes indirectly through them through
their kids.
>> Yeah. Exactly.
>> Right. That that's the that's the
hypothesis. It is not well supported in
the west. Um it it it it hasn't borne
out. It is well supported um among the
fafina of independent Samoa. So this is
a group where
it's um
it's a it's I don't want to anal because
the culture is so different. I don't
want to analogize it to American and
western homosexuals
>> which are have their own kind of
cultural phenomenon that we can we can
talk about.
>> This is different. It's considered a
third gender in this space and they are
natal males, right? They're biologically
male and they are attracted to males and
they are not transgender. That's not
what's going on. Um they present in a
very feminine way and they occupy their
own space and it's a similar percentage
>> to what we see with western homosexuals.
Right. So
>> some might say that it is a um it is a
cultural
>> reinforcement of homosexuality
essentially. Yeah. like a cultural space
to that homosexual people can fill. And
in those groups, it does seem that they
are statistically more ofunular, right?
They invest more, they act more as
uncles um than straight uncles do. And
so, it seems to be that there's some
support for this idea that they
>> lose, we talked about losing paternity
and re regaining it else elsewhere. M
>> they lose paternity but they regain uh
kin selection benefits by supporting
their sisters and brothers in their
reproduction.
>> It feels to me like the male
provisioning equivalent of alo
parenting.
>> Yeah.
>> It feels a little bit like the
grandmother hypothesis but actually
outside.
>> Yes. It's very analogous to that. That's
a great analogy. Yeah. It's a lot like
the grandmother hypothesis where it's
it's at a certain point if you have 20
brothers maybe it's better to not to
stay off
>> if you've got if you've got [ __ ] 20
brothers you are gay.
>> If you've got 20 if you're brother 21
with 20 brothers
>> your odds your odds are so low cuz it is
it is a loading effect where one older
brother there's a slight increase. If
you two older brothers are slightly
bigger and then if you're
>> my [ __ ] brother 20 Yeah. It's like
dude there's no chance
>> you come back around and become straight
actually.
>> Yeah. It's a horseshoe theory. Well,
that that uh
>> but you get what I'm saying is that it's
like imagine your brother, imagine your
brother seven. Is it optimal for you to
get on the same pitch as them and
compete for the same women
>> or is it better to step off the pitch
and say, "Hey, you guys go
>> the explanation for the birth order
effect.
>> It's basically it's basically I'm going
to the weather vein lick my finger and
put it in the air to be like how how's
the sex ratio going to be in this local
ecology?" So that's what some people So
I I'm definitely not the first person to
have said this whether it's true or not.
It's kind of touchy because it does seem
to be downstream. The birth order effect
mechanistically seems to be downstream
of an immune response
>> immune system because it works it works
for um abortions and it works for
miscarriages.
>> Yeah. So now Yeah, exactly. So those
things can be adaptive to be clear like
you can have a mechanism like that and
have it be adaptive.
>> It' be weird that it would go through
the immune system.
>> Yeah, it's a bit quirky. Um, but it
could go it could go like that.
>> What are other explanations for birth
order effect?
>> Um,
>> why would the woman's immune system
react in this way to having a male
inside of it?
>> Yeah. Well, it could be a to be honest,
it could be more of an adaptation on the
part of the mother rather than the
rather than the gay son. Like maybe it's
not the it's not that the gay son gets a
selective benefit from investing. It's
that the mother's total reproductive
pool is increased by not adding another
competitor and instead adding another um
instead of adding Yeah. a helper. Again,
this isn't a theory that
>> Oh, so the mother could the immune
system thing could be the mother's way
of ensuring the rich gay uncle.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So, it's not so in terms of
where the adaptation is actually
happening. That's why it would be
quirky. Like the reason that I had that
gut reaction is that it would be strange
for the son's adaptation
>> to mechanistically occur as an immune
system response in the mother.
>> It would probably [clears throat] be
more likely to be adaptive for the
mother in terms of like the the locust.
However, I actually don't think we're
talking about it and it's very
interesting. If you had to say, you
know, Mack and put your chips down, is
this true or not? I'd say that the rich
gay uncle hypothesis is probably not
true. I would say that the the Fafhina
are unique cultural case where they have
a they have a cultural scaffolding that
makes it adaptive in their case. But if
you looked at homosexuality writ large,
I I don't think that that's the
explanation for its persistence. No, I
and I don't know what is. My honest
answer is like cuz people I I do I do
AMAs occasionally.
Every single AMA people are asking
explain homosexuality and I understand
it. It's like the first thing you'd want
to ask
>> an evolutionary sexual scientist, right?
And the my honest answer is I'm not sure
what's going on, but this is a pretty
cool explanation.
>> Back in Murphy, ladies and gentlemen,
dude,
>> so much fun.
>> Cheers.
>> Last time that we got to hang out was in
Melbourne.
>> Yep.
>> Uh are you going to come to Bali with me
after my Australia and New Zealand tour
in March?
>> I I've already started my cut.
>> Let's [ __ ] go. So, I'm going to take
you this evening um to Bill Perkins
Formula 1 party. So, uh Bill wrote Die
with Zero. He's got a party over at his
very large the most expensive house in
Austin never sold actually I think up
until a few years ago and um
that if you want to do some ethnographic
mating research the cohort of people
that are going to be here at at this
party this evening is going to be good.
So we need to uh get finished so that we
can actually get turned around and go to
that. Uh where should people go? You've
got a great Tik Tok. You've got great
other stuff too. They want to check out
your [ __ ] Uh, well, first my my my
girlfriend's listening at home thrilled
at the sound of me going to this party.
So, I'm I'm I'm in
>> ah girlfriend, don't worry about it.
I'll look after him.
>> And then uh yeah, so in terms of where
people go, I think that uh searching my
name on any social media is a good
place. I I don't I don't really I don't
really have anything to sell. Um just uh
just more videos on topics like this.
>> [ __ ] yeah. Oh, and go and check out
Species the podcast.
>> Yeah, it's it's mostly retired, but
occasionally I still do an interview.
>> You've moonlight it, but there's good
[ __ ] in there, dude. I love going back
and listening to those. Species Podcast,
Mackam Murphy on Tik Tok and Twitter and
everything else. Until next time, man.
>> Thanks, Chris.
>> Thank you very much for tuning in and
congratulations for not being so Tik Tok
brain that you actually made it to the
end of a full podcast. Hooray. Uh maybe
another podcast with the one and only
Naval Rabbitant would also be good for
you to watch. That's right.