Yes, Chicks Dig Jerks

[Mister D]

Very interesting article in National Review.

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Normally, the NPR demographic is receptive to the wit and wisdom of Bill Hicks (another ugly and seldom-spoken truth: Bill Hicks had neither wit nor wisdom). Not so much in this case. When I shared Hicks’s observation, the host, Michel Martin, said my remark found her “trying to contain violent impulses” of her own. When I attempted to explain to her that there is a significant body of scholarly work on the subject of the relative sexual success of men with certain personality characteristics — aggression, narcissism, manipulativeness: jerkiness, in a word — she dismissed the assertion as being “based on, I don’t know, some novels that you read.”

Unfortunately for me, I read a great deal more social-science literature than fiction these days, and, while I could not pick Rihanna or Chris Brown out of a police lineup, I know more about domestic violence than I have ever wanted to.
The most frequently cited (and probably the most controversial) research on the “Chicks Dig Jerks” thesis is the “Dark Triad” work of Professor Peter Jonason of the University of South Alabama. The Dark Triad is a combination of psychological traits — subclinical psychopathology, subclinical narcissism, and what Professor Jonason calls “Machiavellianism” — that are, he believes, in fact a unitary phenomenon associated with a higher level of sexual success, defined in the literature as a larger number of total lifetime sexual partners. The correlation of the Dark Triad with larger numbers of sexual partners holds true for both men and women, but the effect is much more pronounced in men. This is unsurprising, inasmuch as men’s relative preference for larger numbers of short-term sexual relationships and women’s relative preference for long-term relationships is, as Professor Jonason notes, “one of the most consistent and strongest sex differences in the field.”


http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...illiamson?pg=1

[Conley]

I had to read this snippet multiple times to make sense of it because for some reason I kept reading "NR" where "NPR" was written. The National Review demographic is a big fan of Bill Hicks. Huh?!

I do think women are attracted to jerks, but there's quite a leap from being a jerk to beating the crap out of a woman. I can see why women have evolved to prefer the former, but being attracted to the latter is a form of mental illness IMO.

[Mister D]

I had to read this snippet multiple times to make sense of it because for some reason I kept reading "NR" where "NPR" was written. The National Review demographic is a big fan of Bill Hicks. Huh?!

I do think women are attracted to jerks, but there's quite a leap from being a jerk to beating the crap out of a woman. I can see why women have evolved to prefer the former, but being attracted to the latter is a form of mental illness IMO.

He admits as much.

It’s a long leap from finding that conniving and selfish men have an easier time getting women into the sack to arguing that women such as Rihanna actively select men of the sort who are likely to abuse them (which may be morally a different thing from choosing to be abused, but it is operationally identical to so choosing). But here too the data paint a depressing picture.

[Conley]

He admits as much.

It’s a long leap from finding that conniving and selfish men have an easier time getting women into the sack to arguing that women such as Rihanna actively select men of the sort who are likely to abuse them (which may be morally a different thing from choosing to be abused, but it is operationally identical to so choosing). But here too the data paint a depressing picture.

I was agreeing with him.

[Mister D]

I was agreeing with him.

I wasn't sure if you clicked on the full article. Wasn't suggesting you were in disagreement.

[Conley]

I wasn't sure if you clicked on the full article. Wasn't suggesting you were in disagreement.

I did, I skimmed the Triad of Darkness and the research from the guy at USA. What are your thoughts on the article?

[Mister D]

I did, I skimmed the Triad of Darkness and the research from the guy at USA. What are your thoughts on the article?

[Conley]

No opinion? I don't get it.

[Mister D]

It's interesting to see Evolutionary Psychology come up at NR. This guy touches on such views often and this time he jumped right in. I was a little surpruised.

[Mister D]

No opinion? I don't get it.

Putin wonders why anyone would be surprised. Women clearly adore him so there is obviously something to these theories.
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