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Cited by 72Evolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorAnimal Behavior and ReproductionMarriage and Sexual Relationships

Why do men marry and why do they stray?

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Winking, Jeffrey, Kaplan, Hillard, Gurven, Michael, Rucas, Stacey·2007·Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
DOI 10.1098/rspb.2006.0437PMC PMC2169272
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Abstract

Humans are quite unusual compared to other great apes in that reproduction typically takes place within long-term, iteroparous pairings—social arrangements that have been culturally reified as the institution of marriage. With respect to male behaviour, explanations of marriage fall into two major schools of thought. One holds that marriage facilitates a sexual division of labour and paternal investment, both important to the rearing of offspring that are born helpless and remain dependent for remarkably long periods (provisioning model). And the other suggests that the main benefits which men receive from entering into marriage derive from monopolizing access to women's fertility (mating effort model). In this paper, we explore extramarital sexual relationships and the conditions under which they occur as a means of testing predictions derived from these two models. Using data on men's extramarital sexual relationships among Tsimane forager–horticulturists in lowland Bolivia, we tested whether infidelity was more common when men had less of an opportunity to invest in their children or when they risked losing less fertility. We found that Tsimane men appear to be biasing the timing of their affairs to when they are younger and have fewer children, supporting the provisioning model.

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  • Sexual fidelity is widely considered a virtue, and adultery is considered a serious moral failure, even a sin.

    “Sexual fidelity is widely considered a virtue; adultery is considered a serious moral failure (see Winking et al. 2007), even a sin.”

    From Natural Selection, Childrearing, and the Ethics of Marriage (and Divorce): Building a Case for the Neuroenhancement of Human Relationships (2012) · cites this paper as Winking et al. 2007

  • Life-history trade-offs extend beyond puberty, and other switch points likely exist across the life course, including menopause for women and increased parental effort in middle-aged men.

    “LH trade-offs extend well beyond puberty, and it seems likely that other switch points can be found across the life course. For example, menopause most certainly represents a fundamental switch point for women, and there seems to be a tendency for men around the world to increase their parental effort when approaching middle age”

    From The Adaptive Calibration Model of stress responsivity (2011) · cites this paper as Winking et al., 2007

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Authors
Winking, J., Kaplan, H., Gurven, M., & Rucas, S.
Affiliations
  • University of New Mexico (US)
  • University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
  • California Polytechnic State University (US)
Corresponding author
Winking, Jeffrey
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Publisher
The Royal Society
Published
2007-04-24
Volume
274
Issue
1618
Pages
1643-1649
ISSN
  • 0080-4649 (ISSN-L)
  • 0962-8452
  • 1471-2954
DOI
10.1098/rspb.2006.0437
PMC
PMC2169272
OpenAlex
W2128621729
Cited by
72
References
52
Citations by year
2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 5
FWCI
7.27
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Chapman University Digital Commons (Chapman University) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Marriage and Sexual Relationships
Keywords
marriage, adultery, infidelity, paternal investment, gender division of labor, fertility, Tsimane, forager-horticulturalists, human evolution, iteroparity
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Bolivia, Ethnicity, Extramarital Relations, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Marriage, Middle Aged, Models, Theoretical, Logistic Models

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