Speaking as a heterosexual male, no it doesn’t. People, even young human males, can be mature enough not to have an impulse to “compete” for every female they encounter.
Describing it as an “impulse to compete” is inaccurate. It’s more like an increased desire to be seen/noticed, that results in increased competition, aggression, and risk-taking behaviors as a side-effect, with the strongest effects occurring when there’s only one or two females, and several males present. (Perhaps a lekking instinct is being triggered.)
Anyway, it’s certainly possible to suppress the behaviors the impulse is suggesting, but merely being aware that one is being biased in this direction is not the same thing as stopping the bias.
In fact, it’s likely to motivate one to try to show off just how not competing you are… i.e., to stand out by making a show of not standing out, by being… “mature” as you put it.
So, if you’ve been priding yourself on being more mature in such situations, it’s probably because your brain selected a display of “maturity” as your strategy for competing. ;-)
IOW, it is a “live fire exercise” in debiasing behavior.
So, if you’ve been priding yourself on being more mature in such situations, it’s probably because your brain selected a display of “maturity” as your strategy for competing. ;-)
It certainly can happen in virtual venues, but IME the experience is nowhere near as visceral. Until you mentioned the idea, it actually hadn’t occurred to me it could happen without actually seeing or hearing the people involved.
Describing it as an “impulse to compete” is inaccurate. It’s more like an increased desire to be seen/noticed, that results in increased competition, aggression, and risk-taking behaviors as a side-effect, with the strongest effects occurring when there’s only one or two females, and several males present. (Perhaps a lekking instinct is being triggered.)
Anyway, it’s certainly possible to suppress the behaviors the impulse is suggesting, but merely being aware that one is being biased in this direction is not the same thing as stopping the bias.
In fact, it’s likely to motivate one to try to show off just how not competing you are… i.e., to stand out by making a show of not standing out, by being… “mature” as you put it.
So, if you’ve been priding yourself on being more mature in such situations, it’s probably because your brain selected a display of “maturity” as your strategy for competing. ;-)
IOW, it is a “live fire exercise” in debiasing behavior.
This is depressing.
Question: is this the depressing bit?
(My tentative solution: figure myself out before others do. Then I feel much better about it.)
Wouldn’t what you are describing be happening to some extent on this forum as well?
It certainly can happen in virtual venues, but IME the experience is nowhere near as visceral. Until you mentioned the idea, it actually hadn’t occurred to me it could happen without actually seeing or hearing the people involved.