I think it would be more useful to frame such matters as whether they improve or damage your chances of creating children who reproduce. [1]
Just to clarify- this isn’t literally the case. The extent to which we have different thinking paradigms for near and far is due to evolution- which maximized the chances of large numbers of people who share a large fraction of the organism’s genetic material (perhaps by increasing the number of grandnephews as well as grandchildren). But the effect this feature of our psychology has on us in the current era doesn’t necessarily correspond to evolutionary fitness. It seems at least possible that those who are excellent at signaling aren’t the people who are having the most grandchildren (due to social and technological changes). It seems more likely that those with the best signaling fitness are still having sex with the highest-status members of the opposite sex but even that might have been undermined by modern culture or technology.
I think it would be more useful to frame such matters as whether they improve or damage your chances of creating children who reproduce. [1]
For the most part this involves getting laid, but also a great deal more, including status.
[1] Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grand overview of what most increases the odds of having grandchildren.
Just to clarify- this isn’t literally the case. The extent to which we have different thinking paradigms for near and far is due to evolution- which maximized the chances of large numbers of people who share a large fraction of the organism’s genetic material (perhaps by increasing the number of grandnephews as well as grandchildren). But the effect this feature of our psychology has on us in the current era doesn’t necessarily correspond to evolutionary fitness. It seems at least possible that those who are excellent at signaling aren’t the people who are having the most grandchildren (due to social and technological changes). It seems more likely that those with the best signaling fitness are still having sex with the highest-status members of the opposite sex but even that might have been undermined by modern culture or technology.