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I think that idea that men use wealth to attract mates is pretty damn obvious, but I never really considered that women use displays of altruism to attract male
by araneae 17y ago
I think that idea that men use wealth to attract mates is pretty damn obvious, but I never really considered that women use displays of altruism to attract males. But makes sense that women would want to say "look! I'll make a good mommy! I am nice and selfless!"
But to go back to our usual question of women-in-tech, people often remark that women tend to go into fields that are more "helping" i.e. medical professions, non-profits. In general, I think the implication that women go into more "helping" fields and men go into more revenue generating fields is used to paint men in a bad light; but here they've shown that women are being just as selfish when they appear to be more altruistic than men. After all, they're much more likely to do charity when a potential mate is watching.
- nopassrecover 17y agoWell "pretty damn obvious" wasn't so clear. As a concept it sounds nice and clean that we're all motivated by sex but when you (I'm assuming you're male) go and buy a new car, new watch or a trip to Europe, are you really thinking "this will impress the ladies"? Because that's what this study has actually proved for once - conspicuous purchasing decisions are motivated by sex (conversely conspicuous charity for women).
- araneae 17y agoI guess what is obvious to me is that conspicuous behavior != conscious behavior. No one is really thinking "this will impress the ladies" or "this will impress the guys" when they perform these behaviors, but that's really irrelevant. Most of human behavior, I would argue, is not conscious. We're conscious of the decisions we make, but not always about the ultimate (evolutionary) causes. And why should we? It's completely unnecessary for the evolutionary reasons for our behavior to be conscious, only that we act in a manner that will produce more copy of our genes.
- krakensden 17y ago"Man is not a rational animal, man is a rationalizing animal"
- adammichaelc 17y agoMaybe I'm all alone here, but in high school I remember buying a car and thinking exactly "can't wait to show the girls." :)
- vaksel 17y agoI think they go into nursing because the income is better than programming. My cousin's wife just became a nurse. 2 years of schooling, and her first job started her off at $80K a year. And since she doesn't work at a hospital, that's $80K for regular hours. And she is just a regular nurse fresh out of school.
- nazgulnarsil 17y agoextrapolating from a single data point is a bad idea. the national average for 2009 is in the ballpark of $45k
- vaksel 17y agowell this is NYC, $80K here is like $45K in Kentucky
- blackguardx 17y agoThat statistic gets dragged down by nurses who only have associates degrees. Nurses with a B.S. earn over $60k on average.
- pmorici 17y agoIt's possible to get 80k out of school as a computer scientist and I also know nurses that have a 4 year degree before they started nursing school so...
- iigs 17y agoIf people go into nursing because the perception is that it pays so well, these viewpoints are not contradictory.
- pwnstigator 17y agoI think that idea that men use wealth to attract mates is pretty damn obvious, but I never really considered that women use displays of altruism to attract males. It makes sense. The contest for status (i.e.. access to women) among men makes men a lot more mean-spirited and despicable than they would like to be, so a woman who is, or seems to be, "above the fray" is very attractive. This explains the appeal of the female healer, the angel in the house, etc.
- zaidf 17y agoBut makes sense that women would want to say "look! I'll make a good mommy! I am nice and selfless!" I was hanging out with this girl when this random guy approaches us in the parking lot asking for gas money, saying how he's forgotten his wallet at home. I am super wary of his story and am about to walk off. The girl with me doesn't. She wants to go in the ATM and get him some money. I let her do that and like you said, knowing the girl would go out of the way to help some random guy added brownie points for her in my book. Of course, if I was being totally rational I may have considered the move dumb on her part. But my gut reaction was "cool chick!".