Friday, September 7, 2007

Other People's Stuff

Ok, so I'm pretty slammed at work today, and on top of that, it's Friday, which usually means I'm lazy about this blog. That said, in the interest of posting new and interesting things for y'all to read here while still being lazy, I'll let someone else generate the content for me like so:

Last weekend, a friend sent me this interesting and thought provoking article. The gist of it is that extravagant spending and charitable giving are both somewhat motivated by the desire to impress the opposite sex. It's really well presented, and I think it might actually make a good deal of sense. I understand there's a lot of problems with evolutionary psychology as a field, but their approach that most of our instincts and drives came about as a way to achieve the primary goal of replicating our genes also makes sense to me. Who knows? Definitely makes you think.

And from the department of "why the hell did you need a study to figure that out, stupid?", if you haven't already seen it, be sure to check out the one that shows men like hot women and women are picky.

See ya next week!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

RE: Men liking hot women; those were my thoughts _exactly_ when I read this article! (which I had already done when you posted it.) Wendy Wasserstien wrote, "Always put lipgloss and mascara on when you take out the trash because you never know who you might run into." (_Isn't It Romantic?_, quote may not be exact.) She's somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but there's a lot of truth to the idea that men like women who make a little bit of an effort. Also, I can't speak for women as a whole, but when I take the time to fix up and my young man's jaw goes a little slack when he sees me, that's when I feel most powerful as a woman. It's also liable to be a pretty good evening for all parties concerned :) That being said, he better like me just as well when I wake up.

Anonymous said...

The reason the second study is a little interesting is because it shows how people say that they want one thing, when actually they want something else (I'm sure there's a clinical term for this but I have no clue as to what that would be). Obviously doing this isn't so smart, but no, it's still not anything really earth-shattering. I guess people do it because of parental/societal expectations?

Anyway 50 people isn't a very large number of subjects, so I'm sure that they didn't waste that much time/money on it!

Anonymous said...

From the first one: "Only when it counts sexually are men profligate and women helpful."

Women only being charitable when it counts sexually? It's an interesting idea, but I don't buy that at all.

How big was that study anyway? If it was only 20 or subjects, it doesn't really say very much. Interesting as a theory, but not as anything reliable.

Anonymous said...

on other question, how does his theory explain women entering the convent for a life of helping other people? those women all just have no libido?

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm. Nice blog. I will definitely be back to see read more of your insight into this thing called love and life. See what you're working with. ;)

Anonymous said...

Sorry about that, but apparently evolutionary psychology is actually something that gets many people "riled up". See here: http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/07/mating-effort-and-infidelity.php

"Psychologists often get pretty riled about evolutionary psychology, as evidenced by the reaction to this recent post on so-called 'truths' about human nature. It is particularly attractive to blow up fairly limited findings out of all proportion."

(this is my last post here people, OK?)