Re: Flynn Effect explained?

From: Spike Jones (spike66@attglobal.net)
Date: Tue Apr 24 2001 - 00:08:49 MDT


> "J. Goard" wrote: Over the
> millenia during which a woman surviving (natural) childbirth become a much
> more vital trait relative to her chasing down deer with a spear, wouldn't
> you expect both pelvis size to increase and male subconscious mate selction
> to favor that trait even more?

My thinking is that in humans the mate selection pressure would be
towards females with a narrow waist. My reasoning would be that
those males who randomly had that trait passed on their genes with
a slightly higher probability. As a result of their taste, they would
choose those females not already impregnated by a different male.
The same effect would cause males and perhaps females to prefer
younger mates.

This speculation could be tested easily using chimps. Presumably
chimps have not been socialized to prefer slender mates. Has
there been an experiment where male chimps are given the choice of
fat or thin mates? I suspect they would differentially choose the thin.

spike



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