Tuesday, 20 August 2019

The evolutionary psychology of love and personality

types: r/K selected mating strategies according to
subsistence economy
Evolutionary psychologists have been pointing out the problems with our monogamous laws
do not correspond to the more promiscuous human nature. The biggest problem, however,
has been explaining the variation in human behavior, as some people are clearly more
monogamous than others.
So, instead of assuming one monolithic human nature it makes more sense to investigate
mating strategies by personality type. Helen Fisher has just done that (quite successfully
IMHO), and found out that there are four personality groups and three preference strategies:
builders (traditional, family-oriented), explorers (freedom-loving) - both of who prefer to find
partners within their respective groups - and directors and negotiators who prefer to bond
with each other. Whereas Helen Fisher thinks that these personality types have been present
more or less equally since early humans arrived on the scene, I think that their “genotypes”
have been predominant in accordance with a particular subsistence economy.
Hunter-gatherers are usually highly monogamous. Sexual dimorphism (a sign of promiscuity)
is largely diminished among hunter-gatherers, both compared to early human ancestors and
modern societies (e.g exaggeration of secondary sexual features and digit ratio.

With increasingly longer onset of puberty (K selection), hunter-gatherers needed increased

parental investment, not only maternal but also paternal and from relatives (grandmother
hypothesis) and friends (alloparenting, see Sarah Hrdy). So, monogamy became the norm,
making our ancestors more similar to penguins than our close ape relatives, as far as mating
strategy is concerned.
With the advent of farming and pastoralism status could be acquired with the accumulation of
more material reproductive resources polygamy started to creep in (which might have been
in both male and female interests). As there was less paternal insecurity among farmers,
early farming societies actively tried to discourage polygamy (e.g. code of Hammurabi),
which made pastoralist societies the ones with the highest degree of polygamy.
The following personality types correspond well with Helen Fisher's types (as well as Myers-
Briggs types):
Farmers prefer the traditional type of family we know from the Romans, with the pater
familias as the head. Hunter-gatherers prefer more “equal partners”.

hunter-gatherers farmers pastoralists

Late-onset of puberty average onset of puberty Early-onset of puberty

Tendency towards Tendency towards Tendency towards polygamy

monogamy; increasing monogamy; gets lost with
status doesn’t change that increasing status
much

Look for: soulmates Look for: helpmate Look for: playmates

Difficulties in finding Mostly still want to get Reluctant to get married and
partners and reluctant to married and have children have children when there
have children in a once they have reached the are so many options in
competitive society desired status modern life

High divorce rates due to Lower divorce rates High divorce rates due to
partner mismatch and/or promiscuous tendencies
prioritizing self-actualization

More egalitarian more status-oriented more status-oriented

Out-group social More In-group social More In-group social

Often dislike routine, playful Love routine, industrious Dislike routine, artful
and imaginative

From the first row, it can be inferred that the respective mating strategies are r/K selected
and it is therefore not surprising that pastoralists are the least whereas hunter-gatherers are
the most monogamous strategy.
Farmer is the majority personality type and they are also the most adapted to our capitalist
society (love routine and 9-5 jobs, making a career, etc.) and are the group of people who
are most likely to start a family. Farmer women are the most likely to sacrifice a career to
have children.
Pastoralists are freedom-loving and find it hardest to commit. They start early and often
change partners in their teenage cliques. They often do settle down once they have children,
however. Some, like Donald Trump and Hugh Hefner, might never do, though.
Hunter-gather mating strategies can widely vary. They represent the smallest percentage in
society and therefore find it hardest to find a matching partner. Extroverted individuals may
be very promiscuous until they find their soulmate and then become very monogamous.
Introverted hunter-gatherers find it even harder to find a soulmate and might prefer to stay
celibate if they can’t find a partner. In general, hunter-gatherers strive for a high degree of
self-actualization (e.g. becoming a scientist) before settling down. They tend to be the last
ones to have children among their peers. Once hunter-gatherers have found each other they
tend to be very monogamous and not even high status may come in between (examples:
Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates).

When it comes to online-dating, hunter-gatherers are over-represented as it is hardest for

them to find their "soulmates" and online-dating might actually have the advantage of getting
somebody to know on a deeper level than real-life dating. For farmers, it is the exact
opposite, online dating has little to offer to them as far as their prospective mates are
concerned.

The three types have not only distinct personalities but also distinct facial features, most
probably due to within-group sexual selection.

Hunter-gatherers: rectangular face shape for hunters, heart-shaped face for gatherers
(male and female patterns are often reversed in modern hunter-gatherer personalities, i.e.
females can have rectangular facial shape and males the heart-shaped form. They,
therefore, tend to pair in all possible varieties: hunter-gatherer, hunter-hunter and gatherer-
gatherer.

San hunter (rectangular face) and gatherer (heart-shaped face)

Richard Dawkins (hunter) and Lala Ward (gatherer) paring, two soulmates

Pastoralists have oval-shaped faces.

Datoga and Maasai pastoralists: oval faces.

Paul and Linda McCartney: oval faces, artistic personality types (ISFPs), two playmates, a
turbulent but successful marriage.

Farmer types tend to be more serious and hard-working. They have typically square or
round faces:

African farmers with square/round faces

Geroge W. and Laura Bush, square/round farmer faces

Dedicated to Helen Fisher and Sarah Hrdy, whose ideas have inspired this blog post.