“…Do you like beards?
I like beards.
But I know plenty of women who don’t.
Most adult men I know don’t have beards.
Which is weird, when you think about it.
Because beards are a biological signal.
A signal that says, “I am a sexually mature male, ready for mating.
I have excellent genes and will impregnate you with fine children. Mate with me ladies.”
They are the human equivalent of peacocks’ tails.
From an evolutionary standpoint, shaving off beards makes no sense – so why do many men do it?
I’ll tell you why.
It’s because human beings are highly complex social animals embedded in highly complex social systems.
Culture, fashion and what-other-people-do have an enormous influence on us.
So much so they can completely confound our biological programming.
So when evolutionary psychology looks at mate choice in humans, it needs to bear in mind this inconvenient fact.
Which means I take this recent Telegraph headline, “Stressed men prefer larger women”, with something of a pinch of salt…”
(cont..)
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