Why women have been programmed not to sleep around like men and you will also be happier if you don't say 'I love you' to your partner, writes CLAIRE FOGES By Clare Foges Published: 02:01, 26 May 2024 | Updated: 02:01, 26 May 2024 e-mail View comments A campfire, 40,000 years ago. There is something about her – the way the flames' glow lights up her soft features, the plumpness of her lips, the arch of her back. He just wants to be near her, and she him.
He is known for his hunting skills, often coming back with a feast for the group. The couple are magnetised, entranced. They pair up, have sex, have babies.
The scene around the campfire in 38,000BC is not all that different from one in a nightclub today. Then, as now, we were driven to seek mates who would give us the best chance of passing on our genes. We might think ourselves sophisticated creatures who are unbound by such primitive calculations, but the old gene-spreading urge is still felt in many subtle ways.
Take the fact that men with deep voices tend to be considered more attractive. Why? A study of Hadza women found that they prefer men with Barry White-style baritones because they assume that they are better hunters. There is a huge gap between what human pair-bonding was designed for and what is expected of it today – and it's causing incalculable emotional fallout in relationship breakdown, writes Clare Foges Another oddity: women at the most fertile point in their cycle are three times more likely to wear r.
