Don’t put out for love
Women increase their chances of being lucky in love if they avoid sleeping with men on the first date, scientists say.
Using a mathematical model, researchers have shown that lengthy courtships evolved to allow women to week out unreliable partners.
Prof Robert Seymour, of University College London, used a branch of maths called game theory to explore the dating rituals of men and women.
The findings mirror the advice given to generations of women by agony aunts, big sisters and close friends.
His model is based on the idea that women have the most to lose from any new relationship because they can end up with a baby fathered by an inappropriate – or even absent – father.
It assumes courtship is a battle between the sexes, with both sides compromising on the point in the developing relationship where they have sex.
A male’s willingness to court for a long time is a signal that he is likely to be a ‘good’ male.
Long courtship is a price paid for increasing the chance that mating, if it occurs, will be a harmonious match which benefits both sexes.
This may help you to explain the commonly held belief that a woman is best advised not to sleep with a man on a first date.
The model doesn’t work so well in a society where contraception removes much of the risk of pregnancy. It also ignores social and peer-group pressures on men and women.
It helps how the extended courtship of humans may have evolved in prehistoric societies tens of thousands of years ago.