Hello Science of Sex Community!
I hope this newsletter finds you well. I’ve got some exciting updates to share with you, including the latest art, articles, and podcast episodes, all by yours truly.
Released today: my interview with Jonathan Kent, the author of A World Beyond Monogamy: How People Make Polyamory and Open Relationships Work and What We Can All Learn From Them which can be found here on Amazon.
You can listen to that podcast here or on your favorite podcast network (Spotify, Apple Podcasts).
I recently published two deep dives, one on porn and erectile dysfunction and the other covering the science of attraction (and first impressions).
Let’s dive right in.
📚 Latest Articles:
Does porn really cause erectile dysfunction? There’s a lot of noise floating around online. I wanted to do a deep dive all the way down to get to the bottom of the subject:
Next up, the idea of “love at first sight” is as old as time. And while I wouldn’t say I’m a hopeless romantic firm believer or anything, considering what science has taught us about how capable we humans are at making instantaneous judgments, I wouldn’t be surprised if humans could feel deep, powerful, life-changing attraction in just a few moments.
In case you missed it, this article covers much of the science of what we understand about human perception, and how that might relate to our feelings of attraction.
Recently, I also recently published a few politically-minded articles. In case you missed those, you can check them out here:
Now let’s dig into audio-video content…
🎙️ Latest Podcast Episodes:
Here’s my conversation with Jonathan Kent, which covers the grand diversity of relationship styles. We talk about his new book, A World Beyond Monogamy, and much more.
In case you missed it, I recently released a conversation I had with Renata Ellana about a viral clip that was going around the internet. The clip was of Scott Galloway saying that men aren’t “economically viable” and that’s destroying the fabric of our dating lives. Naturally, I had my disagreements. We ended up talking for hours and a video of our conversation can be found here:
I also re-released a couple of episodes from earlier this year. Initially, I’d released the video interviews, but this week I published the audio podcast episodes as well. You can listen here on Substack or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
If you missed these talks the first time around, check them out here:
Debunking Myths About Porn Addiction with Dr. Nicole Prause, Ph.D. (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Substack)
New Battles in the Modern War on Sex with Dr. David Ley, Ph.D. (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Substack)
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Disclosure: this podcast contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, I make a small commission from any sales of Jonathan’s book, A World Beyond Monogamy, which can be found here on Amazon.
Yes all the mate preferences research i've seen usually has phrases like "resource acquisition ability..". The latest replication of Buss' 1989 37 culture study has a new sample of 14.3k participants in 45 countries and there they ask about "good financial prospects."
Women rated that higher on average than men in all countries as far as I can tell. The difference wasn't large enough such that men do not care. They absolutely do, just a bit less so.
I also went and checked my copy of the latest edition of The Evolution of Desire and there Buss also reviews the literature up to that point and talks about resource acquisition, financial prospects, ambition, etc.
So definitely a far cry from saying women are gold diggers who only want 6 figure men. The research doesn't say anything close to that.
A lot of people seemed to interpret Prof Galloway as saying that a man needs to be rich to be seen as relationship worthy by women. But I read it more as just stating that women tell us they prefare to be with men who are gainfully employed and/or smart/educated. Atleast to the same level as the women being asked.
With labour participation and educational attainment rates being what they are, it stands to reason that we may see educated and successful women in a dating market without enough mates that meet their stated standards.