- There is a conservation principle for laughter. If I say something funny and sit stone-faced, you will laugh. If I laugh, you probably won’t. People in a room can be ranked by their laughter valence. Any given joke gets a certain quantity of laughs and these come from those with the lowest valence. Sandeep’s valence is minus infinity. This ignores social laughter where I laugh not because the joke is funny but just because everyone else is laughing.
- Women should be attracted to older men because survival to old age indicates good genes. The effect is weaker in the other direction (men being attracted to older women) because the opportunity cost of another mate is zero for men. This explains why men “age gracefully.”
- Skilled interrogators presumably are trained to understand and leverage the curse of knowledge: the fact that you know something makes it very difficult to imitate the frame of mind you would have if you did not know it.
- The things gay men do to make themselves attractive to other men also makes them attractive to women. Not so for lesbians vis a vis men. I am not sure I have a good theory for this one.
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November 29, 2011 at 1:51 am
Alison Cummins
EEEW, men do not age gracefully! Spend some time with some older folks and compare the 70-year-old men with the 70-year-old women. Time is not kind to the dudes.
Women have different mating strategies: pick a young and able guy with potential but no accomplishments, or an old guy who has proven his worth but who is less likely to be alive for parenting, Both strategies are seen, though the former is clearly preferred since there are proxies for future accomplishment. Successful older men still find mates – even *old* ones, though rarely because they are aging gracefully: they’re usually trading on their histories.
Women continue to contribute to their communities and families long past their directly reproductive years. Once a woman has stopped risking her life in childbirth she’s likely to be around and useful for a long time to come. See “grandmother hypothesis.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandmother_hypothesis
November 29, 2011 at 9:51 am
Rowz
The problem I have with all such arguments as (2) is that people do not appear (in my experience) to be (additionally) attracted to those with long-lived close relatives, or attractive/accomplished close relatives. You would think that substantial information about gene quality would be available here. My inference is that natural selection has not been particularly subtle in this respect, presumably due to engineering difficulties.
November 30, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Anon Two
Dead on about thought one. Hazing is frowned upon these days, but one thing the high school football team at my alma mater was allowed to do to incoming freshman during the first practice of the season was to make each one stand up and tell a joke infront of all the upper classmen (and the atmosphere wasn’t supportive).
I still remember the joke that drew a lot of laughter when I was a senior. One of the freshman, when it was his turn, took his place in front of the upper classmen and said to the team captain, “Ask me if I’m an orange.”
The team captain asked him, “Are you an orange?”
The freshman responded with a deadpan delivery and no expression on his face, “No.”
Everyone laughed.