Promptness is not necessarily the nature of men

For decades biologists still think that men are more mature and women are more careful when choosing partners. But a new study shows that truth is not that simple.

The study, published this month in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, assessed data collected from 18 residential areas - from the Pitcairn islanders to the Dogon in Mali - and found men generally more children than women. This is true of what we expect from a long-standing perspective that men are more promiscuous.

However Professor Gillian R. Brown of the School of Psychology at the University of St Andrews and the principal researcher said that major differences in the type of successful reproduction in men and women were also discovered.

For example, in the societies of Botswana, Paraguay and Tanzania women, not men conceive with many partners.

Brown's research offers a challenge to Angus J. Bateman's research. Angus Bateman conducted research in 1948 about mating habits in fruit flies. Bateman found that male fruit flies had more sexual partners and had a higher number of children than female flies.

According to Bateman, since egg formation is more difficult than sperm, the descendants of female flies are limited by their ability to form eggs; while the male fruit fly reproductive success is limited only by the number of females it fertilizes.

In the following years, findings in fruit flies were also applied to other species, including humans. But Brown's research shows that in some of Bateman's research populations, descendants are not right.

Brown writes: 'Evidence of gender differences in successful fertility does not allow us to generalize about the roles of both sexes, because many variables affect both.'

Multi-sex women are no less than men. (Photo: tin247)

Population size is such a variable: both women and men will be very careful when choosing a partner if there are many choices , such as in a big city. In contrast, both sexes will not be picky if they live in low population areas. Under such conditions both men and women are satisfied with the object they have.

Brown said: 'We think that human behavior is more diverse and flexible, Bateman's explanation of the roles of both sexes will be less convincing. Men and women should be described as the views of evolutionary psychologists. The idea that we can predict everything about the human gender role based on the different costs of producing sperm or eggs is simply too much. '

Brown's research also addresses reproductive problems in monogamous relationships. While 16% of research societies have a monogamous marriage system, they create a high proportion of relationships in a developed society. In such societies, the difference in successful fertility in both men and women is negligible. Besides, half of the marriages in the world of society - accounting for 83% of society - only 5% of men get more than 1 wife.

Brown is cautious when he points out that research does not include data on the actual number of partners. The reason is that the studies that give these statistics are not true, these numbers are only to explain the mathematical difficulties that men have more sexual partners than women. A similar study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics confirms that men have an average of 7 partners in their lifetime, while women have only 4.

Brown said: 'This number cannot be logically correct if we consider it as relations between two different sexes, all individuals must be interviewed. We are only particularly interested in finding out whether the difference in the probability of successful mating exists in men and women, but the studies mentioned above are not reliable evidence. '

In fact, past studies show that people rely not only on such surveys but also confess their unfounded conclusions.

Statistical evidence can easily be obtained from fruit flies, but the application of these numbers to humans with more complex activities does not easily yield results.