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Mating Intelligence: Sex, Relationships, and the Mind's Reproductive System
Human intelligence is sexually attractive, and strongly predicts the success of sexual relationships, but the behavioral sciences have usually ignored the interface between intelligence and mating. This is the first serious scholarly effort to explore that interface, by examining both universal and individual differences in human mating intelligence. Contributors include some of the most prominent evolutionary psychologists and promising new researchers in human intelligence, social psychology, intimate relationships, and sexuality.
David Buss’ foreword and the opening chapter explore what ‘mating intelligence’ means, and why it is central to human cognition and sexuality. The book’s six sections then examine (1) our mating mechanisms ― universal emotional and cognitive adaptations for mating intelligently ― that guide mate search, mate choice, and courtship; (2) how mating intelligence strategically guides our choice of mating tactics and partners given different relationship goals, personality traits, forms of deception, and the existence of children; (3) the genetic and psychiatric causes of individual differences in mating intelligence; (4) how we use mental fitness indicators ― forms of human intelligence such as creativity, humor, and emotional intelligence ― to attract and retain sexual partners; (5) the ecological and social contexts of mating intelligence; (6) integrative models of mating intelligence that can guide future research.
Mating Intelligence is intended for researchers, advanced students, and courses in human sexuality, intimate relationships, intelligence research, behavior genetics, and evolutionary, personality, social, and clinical psychology.
David Buss’ foreword and the opening chapter explore what ‘mating intelligence’ means, and why it is central to human cognition and sexuality. The book’s six sections then examine (1) our mating mechanisms ― universal emotional and cognitive adaptations for mating intelligently ― that guide mate search, mate choice, and courtship; (2) how mating intelligence strategically guides our choice of mating tactics and partners given different relationship goals, personality traits, forms of deception, and the existence of children; (3) the genetic and psychiatric causes of individual differences in mating intelligence; (4) how we use mental fitness indicators ― forms of human intelligence such as creativity, humor, and emotional intelligence ― to attract and retain sexual partners; (5) the ecological and social contexts of mating intelligence; (6) integrative models of mating intelligence that can guide future research.
Mating Intelligence is intended for researchers, advanced students, and courses in human sexuality, intimate relationships, intelligence research, behavior genetics, and evolutionary, personality, social, and clinical psychology.
480 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 28, 2017
Mating intelligence is easily one of the best books on evolutionary psychology, particularly on the subject of mating success. Each chapter was laid out perfectly with extensive details of different aspect of what makes an organism fit to reproduce. I really enjoyed the different mating strategies, and how various factors affect the chance of successful mate attraction, such as humour, personality, intelligence and physiology.
The primary focus of the book was to reconcile general intelligence with "mating intelligence" (such as correct signaling, language acquistion, theory of the mind, etc), I think Geher did a really good job of it but I find the part on brain size and mating intelligence rather prepostrous (they do have very low r value).
The primary focus of the book was to reconcile general intelligence with "mating intelligence" (such as correct signaling, language acquistion, theory of the mind, etc), I think Geher did a really good job of it but I find the part on brain size and mating intelligence rather prepostrous (they do have very low r value).
May 13, 2013
An interesting look at how humans play the mating game in the current age.
The writing style an be confusing at times. There is a paragraph where the authors try to make some point about successful artists but I can't figure out what that point actually was. There are a couple of times where they try to compare data but the first sentence would talk about A then B, the second would have data set B then A. I read a lot of scientific articles and, if you want to clearly compare data, you make the sentences equivalent.
However, it's a very informative book. They ask whether creativity is sexy (it is, and very important for short-term mating.) They compare the strategies for short- versus long-term mating.
Some interesting points: Flirting doesn't necessarily have a high correlation to interest
They mainly look at hetero-normative mating, because that is what most of the studies have looked at.
The writing style an be confusing at times. There is a paragraph where the authors try to make some point about successful artists but I can't figure out what that point actually was. There are a couple of times where they try to compare data but the first sentence would talk about A then B, the second would have data set B then A. I read a lot of scientific articles and, if you want to clearly compare data, you make the sentences equivalent.
However, it's a very informative book. They ask whether creativity is sexy (it is, and very important for short-term mating.) They compare the strategies for short- versus long-term mating.
Some interesting points: Flirting doesn't necessarily have a high correlation to interest
They mainly look at hetero-normative mating, because that is what most of the studies have looked at.
March 25, 2019
Not an easy read as Mate and Spent (Anyway, Geoffery Miller is a scientist for god's sake), but it provided even much more insight into mating grounds.
November 13, 2009
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although my area of research is interpersonal communication, and this focus is better categorized as evolutionary psychology it gave some great insights. This would be an excellent text book for upper division or graduate level courses. The authors produced some great ground work for a burgeoning field of study. A few things I did not agree with, but overall well written and researched. Quite engaging for a scholarly text.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews