In my recent post about strategic pluralism, and in another recent post on this subject, many people critical of this theory mischaracterized it . They suggest that this theory depicts women as being calculating, strategic, and Machiavellian, in choosing partners. They think researchers are saying that women are intentionally try to cuckold long term mates, that they intentionally and consciously try to secure "good genes" for their offspring.

I chalk this up to a poor understanding of evolutionary psychology, specifically the mistaken belief that behaviors which evolved to fulfill a particular purpose are necessarily conscious decisions. It doesn't need to be conscious, and usually it isn't.

If females* who preferred certain traits in male partners experienced greater reproductive success, that means they were more successful in passing on their genes compared to females who didn't prefer these traits. So the next generation of females would be more likely to have these preferences, and over time these preferences would become more and more common in the females until it became the norm.

Note that this process does not require that females consciously desire to be reproductively successful, it does not require that they consciously desire certain traits for their offspring. This process does not even require that females understand genetic inheritance, natural selection, or even how reproduction works. I suspect that for the vast majority of human history we DIDN'T really understand how these things worked.

In the case of strategic pluralism/dual mating strategy, the theory simply suggests that females who partnered with less desirable men while being more sexually attracted to(and seeking extra-pair intercourse with) the most desirable men were more reproductively successful. So it is suggested that women evolved to behave this way, and tend to be like this.

\ The use of the word "female" as opposed to "woman" when referring to our ancestors IS a conscious, intentional, decision. Natural selection has been going on and influencing the behavior of our ancestors since before they were even human, since before humans even existed.*