While Valentine’s Day used to consist of the traditional dinner date and a gift of flowers or candy, the romance rules have changed, and in many cases, have become much more confusing. “Men no longer have clear-cut cues on how to treat a woman, and the mixed messages they get from the media and women themselves can often leave them questioning what to do,” says Andrew Irwin-Smiler, an assistant professor of psychology at Wake Forest University and an expert in masculinity at Wake Forest University. [continue reading…]
Relationships
The novelist and philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is married to cognitive scientist Steven Pinker. What have they learned about love, from study and experience?
Follow the bigthink’s Valentines Day series featured today are Stephen Fry, Noam Chomsky, and Elizabeth Gilbert, among others. link to see the other videos
Source: bigthink
His or hers jealousy? Study offers new explanation for sex differences in jealousy
When South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was caught red-handed returning from a tryst with his Argentine mistress last June, he told the Associated Press that he had met his “soul mate.” His choice of words seemed to suggest that having a deep emotional and spiritual connection with Maria Belen Chapur somehow made his sexual infidelity to his wife Jenny Sanford less tawdry.
What the two-timing governor didn’t understand is that most women view emotional infidelity as worse, not better, than sexual betrayal. This may explain why Hillary Clinton stayed with Bill Clinton and seemed unconcerned about his sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky. Research has documented that most men become much more jealous about sexual infidelity than they do about emotional infidelity. Women are the opposite, and this is true all over the world. The prevailing theory is that the difference has evolutionary origins: Men learned over eons to be hyper-vigilant about sex because they can never be absolutely certain they are the father of a child, while women are much more concerned about having a partner who is committed to raising a family. [continue reading…]
Women around the world spend billions of dollars each year on exotic smelling perfumes and lotions in the hopes of attracting a mate. However, according to a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, going “au naturale” may be the best way to capture a potential mate’s attention. [continue reading…]
