There are obviously two types of strategies for male reproduction: Being a provider, or being a Cad.
Each has its positives and its downsides in terms of success. In a system that has rigid monogamy, where the penalties for fornicating out-of-wedlock or for adultery are severe, and by severe I mean a capital offense, then the provider strategy is the logical one. Male and female characteristics are fairly stable over time.
There will certainly be cads, there always are, but the level will be low, the stability favors being a provider over the long-term.
In societies that allow polygamy, but severely punish sex out-of-wedlock, the situation is not as good for the middle of the pack provider. The top-tier of men, the male ’10s’ are able to capitalize on women. Assuming the top-tier is the top 10% of men, that top 10% can, and will control the top 40% of the women. Leaving the male 9s on down with 6s or worse. This set up does not favor human beauty, quite the opposite, but it does favor male characteristics, simply because of the lopsided sex ratios this causes.
All of that assumes that there isn’t a dirth of one gender or the other. The typical dirth is in males, especially due to war. In those situations, female beauty begins to be selected for because the men can be picky, even in a society that allows polygamy, if there are twice as many women as men, then the top tier dominates the top 20% of women. The males 9s have access to 7-8s in women.
However, in the sexual free for all that is western society, what is the best strategy for reproduction?
First, about 30% of our male population is effectively cut out of reproduction. So, the remainder get to breed. That 30% are evolutionary dead ends.
Of the remaining 70%, lets call the top 10% alpha, and the remaining 60% beta.
There are two forms of cuckoldry: The willing and the unwilling victim.
The willing victim marries a woman who has a child from another man, the unwilling victim has a wife that cheats and gets pregnant by another man.
Single motherhood is around 30+% in this country. Even if every single mother has one child, if they marry a beta, and provide him with the second child, (assuming an average family size of two children) that is still one less child that half the betas are going to have, and the alphas that sired these single mom’s bastards have three children to every 1.5 the beta average get in this situation, if they get their two from their primary woman, they are at 5 children to the beta 1.5.
There are more beta children OVERALL, but there are more children per alpha.
Add in the unwilling cuckold rate, if it is around 10%, that the Beta average goes down to 1.35 and the alpha average goes up to 5.9 children. Who is the winner here?
If the cuckold rate is 30%, the betas are down to one kid, the alphas are up to 8.
Now I will concede that there are Betas having huge families.
But for ever Beta that is doing that, there is a felony that sires 10-30 children with various different women as he goes in and out of prison, and he doesn’t pay child support.
Even assuming all that, the large family Betas have to make up at least 10% of all men and sire more than 5.9 children to even break even with how the alphas are doing in terms of reproduction.
Cading in our society is the strategy that works and yes Betas cheat too, but this just favors cheaters overall at the expense of straight providers.
