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Comment by orangethirty | Hacker News Reader

This is kind of scientific from an evolutionary stand point. The company is allowing males to setup a mating ritual display to appear more desirable. I don't know if its scientific, but my fisrt hand experience always had me being more desirable to the opposite sex when I was in a relationship. Now that I wear a wedding band around my finger, I could swear that the effect has increased. Which is quite funny at some times, but very uncomfortable at others.

But I wonder what purpose in the evolutionary side of things does the company play? Are they doing like some species that help others mate through their own mechanisms? Or am I just too tired from programming all day and writing endless babble?

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Jumping straight to "from an evolutionary stand point" in these sorts of things is just gross. Evopsych is pretty much BS anyway, and seems to find the most play in circles that enjoy spouting off about how women are this way, and men are that way. The New Yorker had a good article on it.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/09/17/12091...

Sexual selection has been observed in other animals. It's inaccurate to say that all men or all women are alike but it's not far fetched to think humans have certain behavioral trends.

Sure. And when these discussions on the internet happen in a vacuum of social studies or experiments it inevitably devolves into people dumping their half-baked post hoc rationalizations on each other backed by some crap anecdotes. It also inevitably turns sexist, especially given the issue at hand.

Ah, I misunderstood you. You're right that our own opinions aren't really relevant without a study.

Yes, and evo-psych is usually unfalsifiable. So these studies probably won't show up any time soon.

Actually, it's based on the radical notion that our brains are not made out of a magical substance that's immune to genes and hormones. In a utopia where there was no gender discrimination or societal pressure to conform to expected roles, do you really think that women would commit half of all violent crimes, and would have identical mate selection criteria as men?

>Actually, it's based on the radical notion that our brains are not made out of a magical substance that's immune to genes and hormones.

There is a mind blowing Norwegian documentary on the nature versus nurture debate the HN community should watch. The show touches on a lot of taboos, which might be too controversial for some people. The first episode is about gender equality. The interviewer investigates why/how there are less women in engineering and less man in nursing in a country listed having the highest level of equality. Other episodes are about parents influence, sexual preference, violence, sexual desire/commitment and race.

According to wikipedia a producer has made the series available online with English subtitles. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xp0tg8_hjernevask-brainwash...

It's also on youtube (ignore the terrible comments as usual) http://youtu.be/KQ2xrnyH2wQ

My point is that just like some animals put off mating rituals to attact mates, we humans do so. Still, I know as much about that as I know about zoology. Zilch.

> my first hand experience always had me being more desirable to the opposite sex when I was in a relationship

But it's not necessarily the case that this is due to others thinking you're in a relationship.

I suspect at least a large part of the effect you describe (which seems to be pretty well-known) is because people tend to be more relaxed and confident when they're "out of play"—the pressure's off—and ironically that tends to make them more attractive....

Not sure. I've always been shy in real life (not on the net), and have dressed in the same style for years (black plain tshirt, levy jeans, asiics sneakers). I'm not one to come off as confident or even stylish. Heck, I prefer to use the same style shirt because I cant match colors for the life of me. But Im pretty athletic, and run about 20-25 miles per week. So it might be that.

I think it's simply social expectations. Single guy is expected to make the first 'move'. Married guy is expected to not make any moves at all. Therefore it's on the woman to begin flirtations with guys who appear to be taken. Married guy concludes he's must be more desirable because women are suddenly flirting with him.

As ahelwer has observed, assuming evolutionary causes for anything is a troublesome way to build a case.

But why bother? "Social proof" is a well studied effect in psychology. Having a girlfriend increases your attractiveness to some other women; saying "We're the leader in X" increases sales; adding canned laughter to sitcoms fools people into thinking they're funny.

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