For me this book was fascinating from beginning to end. Written by evolutionary psychologists, its focus is mostly on sex differences and genetics. It begins by positing that humans genetics developed on the savanna and that genetically influenced behavior hasn't changed significantly since we were 'civilized'. There are quite a number of -- for me -- unexpected predictions or explanations from this direction of reasoning. For example, a man gets the (perhaps subconscious) urge to buy a sports car in a mid-life crisis because his wife is going through menopause and no longer able to bear children. The car advertises his fitness and wealth to younger women. Men take on more risks to acquire wealth and status because not to do so could mean not attracting a female mate and not passing on genes. Women does not have to (or want to) take risks because she has something rare and desirable, the egg. Also, once a male scientist (artist or businessman) is married and has a child, his output drops considerably. Single scientists (and engineers?) continue to produce results until much older. (Read the book to understand why.)
About the title, beauty is apparently wasted on males from a reproductive standpoint. Generally, women don't weigh male beauty heavily in their partner search. (However, if they are at the fertile part of the hormone cycle, they do search for a particular kind of testosterone heavy look, of solid jaws, extra height, and muscles.) Thus, nature has it rigged so that the prettier folks turn out more girls to whom beauty is more useful.
Interestingly, with all their work, they were still unable to explain genetic survival value of homosexuality or the reason for its development.
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