Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire–Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do by Alan S. Miller, Satoshi Kanazawa Page A
Authors: Alan S. Miller, Satoshi Kanazawa
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older than Benjamin, being the mother of his girlfriend, Elaine; in reality, Anne Bancroft is only six years older than Dustin Hoffman. It appears that we expect the woman to be so much younger than the man in movies that when the woman is actually older than the man, even by only six years, she is considered to be âtoo oldâ for him. We should also note that, by the end of the movie, Benjamin (the Dustin Hoffman character in The Graduate ) ends up with the young Elaine, not with her mother, consistent with the evolutionary psychological prediction. Sorry for the spoiler.
Q. He Said, She Said: Why Do Men and Women Perceive the Same Situation Differently?
Miscommunication and misunderstanding between men and women, created when a man and a woman perceive the same situation entirely differently, are the staple of television situation comedies and literary novels alike. A man and a woman encounter each other and have a pleasant and friendly conversation. The man is thinking that she is romantically and sexually attracted to him, while the woman is entertaining no such thought; she is simply being nice. Whether youâre male or female, you can probably think of a real situation in your own life that involved this type of miscommunication with someone of the opposite sex.
The phenomenon is not merely anecdotal or only in our personal experiences; it has been scientifically documented. 70 In a laboratory experiment, a male and a female participant engage in a five-minute conversation, while, unbeknownst to both participants, a male and a female observer watch the entire interaction. After the interaction, both the male participant and the male observer rate the female participant as being more promiscuous and seductive than do the female participant or the female observer. Male participants report being more sexually attracted to their conversation partner than do female participants. So men and women can engage in or observe the same situation, but men perceive greater likelihood of sexual relationship than women do.
The failure to recognize this pervasive sex difference in cognitive biases can lead to costly mistakes, not only for individuals but for corporations and society alike. In January 1998, the American supermarket chain Safeway (not related to the British supermarket chain of the same name, which has recently been acquired by the rival chain Morrisons) started implementing the âsuperior customer ser vice policy,â which required all Safeway employees to look customers in the eye and smile. 71 If the customers paid by check or credit card, cashiers were required to quickly scan the customerâs last name and thank them personally, as in âThank you, Mr. So-and-so, for shopping at Safewayâ while looking them in the eye and smiling.
Reflecting the unquestioned assumptions of the Standard Social Science Model, the Safeway company policy was completely egalitarian. It required both male and female employees to greet both male and female customers in the identical âfriendlyâ manner. And the policy worked very well roughly three-quarters of the time, between a male employee and a male customer, between a male employee and a female customer, and between a female employee and a female customer. However, the policy backfired when the employee was female and the customer was male. When the female employee gazed deeply into the customerâs eyes, smiled, and thanked him by name, some male customers ânaturallyâ assumed that she was attracted to him and started harassing her by following her aroundâboth at and away from work. Eventually, five female employees had to file a federal sex discrimination charge against Safeway to force it to stop this policy, which the corporation did when it reached an out-of-court settlement.
Why do these problems happen? Why are men more likely to infer sexual interest in a neutral encounter than women are? Two evolutionary
Q. He Said, She Said: Why Do Men and Women Perceive the Same Situation Differently?
Miscommunication and misunderstanding between men and women, created when a man and a woman perceive the same situation entirely differently, are the staple of television situation comedies and literary novels alike. A man and a woman encounter each other and have a pleasant and friendly conversation. The man is thinking that she is romantically and sexually attracted to him, while the woman is entertaining no such thought; she is simply being nice. Whether youâre male or female, you can probably think of a real situation in your own life that involved this type of miscommunication with someone of the opposite sex.
The phenomenon is not merely anecdotal or only in our personal experiences; it has been scientifically documented. 70 In a laboratory experiment, a male and a female participant engage in a five-minute conversation, while, unbeknownst to both participants, a male and a female observer watch the entire interaction. After the interaction, both the male participant and the male observer rate the female participant as being more promiscuous and seductive than do the female participant or the female observer. Male participants report being more sexually attracted to their conversation partner than do female participants. So men and women can engage in or observe the same situation, but men perceive greater likelihood of sexual relationship than women do.
The failure to recognize this pervasive sex difference in cognitive biases can lead to costly mistakes, not only for individuals but for corporations and society alike. In January 1998, the American supermarket chain Safeway (not related to the British supermarket chain of the same name, which has recently been acquired by the rival chain Morrisons) started implementing the âsuperior customer ser vice policy,â which required all Safeway employees to look customers in the eye and smile. 71 If the customers paid by check or credit card, cashiers were required to quickly scan the customerâs last name and thank them personally, as in âThank you, Mr. So-and-so, for shopping at Safewayâ while looking them in the eye and smiling.
Reflecting the unquestioned assumptions of the Standard Social Science Model, the Safeway company policy was completely egalitarian. It required both male and female employees to greet both male and female customers in the identical âfriendlyâ manner. And the policy worked very well roughly three-quarters of the time, between a male employee and a male customer, between a male employee and a female customer, and between a female employee and a female customer. However, the policy backfired when the employee was female and the customer was male. When the female employee gazed deeply into the customerâs eyes, smiled, and thanked him by name, some male customers ânaturallyâ assumed that she was attracted to him and started harassing her by following her aroundâboth at and away from work. Eventually, five female employees had to file a federal sex discrimination charge against Safeway to force it to stop this policy, which the corporation did when it reached an out-of-court settlement.
Why do these problems happen? Why are men more likely to infer sexual interest in a neutral encounter than women are? Two evolutionary
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