Much to Man’s Joy

Men are made to chase women, and women are programmed to remain faithful to them. A macho point of view? Not at all; it’s an eminent biologist who maintains this point of view.

Male infidelity is written into the evolution of the species, claims Dr. Jared Diamond, professor of physiology at the Los Angeles school of medicine.

The essential goal of a man, in his quest to promulgate the species, is to collect a maximum number of sexual conquests, the biologist explains. As for women, once they’ve found the ideal father for their children, they have no motivation to look elsewhere… With international opinion polls to back him up, Dr. Diamond underlines that the reasons for male infidelity are identical from one country to another, and so claims that cheating is therefore “biological”.

Unfaithful men blame their infidelity on boredom, while women cite their wish to be happy. That’s why a man increases his chances of passing on his genes by having intimate relations with as many women as possible. In terms of heredity, his interests lie in being polygamous, while a woman’s last wish is spending her entire life pregnant! That’s the theoretical explanation given by Jared Diamond and his team.

As for unfaithful women, why do they exist? For the same reason as faithful men, suggests the doctor: the human species makes moral choices that sometimes contradict the message transmitted by the genes.

Designed to live a worry-free polygamous life, man is therefore predominantly monogamous. He has to worry about protecting the seeds that he sows by having children, and in order to make their lives easier, he must also take financial and psychological care of his offspring’s education.

The man who cheats on his wife – for whatever reason – has a hunter’s appetite and can’t pass up such a seductive prey. At this stage biology and psychology are in conflict: “we invented jealousy to bring some order to things,” comments Jared Diamond.

A man is jealous of his wife passing on another man’s genes, while a woman is jealous of being abandoned for another. In other words, physical infidelity makes men suffer, while women wishes only to be loved. Dr. Diamond points to an obvious inequality: why is female adultery condemned in most societies? Quite simply because it’s the men who write these laws!