If status was really what women wanted, the vast majority of men would go to their graves without ever getting laid.
I seem to recall someone mentioning a study concluding that probably only about 40% of men who ever lived had children, compared to about 80% of women.
IIRC it just said “no children”, not “no descendants alive today” (the 80% figure sounds way too large for the latter). Still not quite the same as “no sex”, but given that reliable birth control has only existed for a tiny fraction of human history, they must be quite close.
Evolution shapes a lot of behavioral tendencies in us all that we never chose. It’s unfortunate that some commit the “naturalistic fallacy” and think that just because something is natural it’s a good thing. IS does not imply Ought.
I seem to recall someone mentioning a study concluding that probably only about 40% of men who ever lived had children, compared to about 80% of women.
However, there’s a huge difference between “no children who lived long enough to have descendants” and “no sex”.
IIRC it just said “no children”, not “no descendants alive today” (the 80% figure sounds way too large for the latter). Still not quite the same as “no sex”, but given that reliable birth control has only existed for a tiny fraction of human history, they must be quite close.
I don’t see how you could tell what proportion of people had ever had children. It might be possible to tell how many common ancestors people have.
This seems to be a source for the meme, but it doesn’t have a citation. It does mention genetic research, though.
By the way, I’d have sworn I saw the thing debunked, which is probably as good evidence as your having seen it somewhere.
I’ve managed to find the page where I originally saw that claim, and it indeed cites Baumeister’s 2007 talk.
Evolution shapes a lot of behavioral tendencies in us all that we never chose. It’s unfortunate that some commit the “naturalistic fallacy” and think that just because something is natural it’s a good thing. IS does not imply Ought.