Quotes from David M. Buss

According to most surveys, the average penis ranges from five to six inches in length when erect and three to four inches in length when flaccid, or nonerect. Contrary to popular belief, penis length is not closely related to height.

If a woman enjoys having her cervix stimulated during sexual intercourse, then size can matter. For most women, it is going to take a good five or six inches in length to reach the cervix when a woman is sexually aroused.

Evolution refers to change over time in organic design. Characteristics, or "design features," that help an organism to survive and reproduce, relative to other organisms with different design features, get represented in future generations more than characteristics that are neutral or that impede survival and reproduction.

Adolescent men often live in a world where available women are in scarce supply, because women prefer mature men with position and affluence. Young men's strategies reflect these local conditions of female scarcity, because they engage in highly risky competition strategies, committing the vast majority of violent crimes of sexual coercion, robbery, battery, and murder.

While women complain that men are emotionally constricted, men commonly complain that women are too moody and emotional.

As men mature into their thirties and forties, the ratio between the sexes typically tilts in their favor, if they have survived the risks and attained positions of reasonable status. They have a wider pool of potential women to choose from, and they enjoy a higher value on the mating market than they did in their youth. They are better able to attract multiple mates, whether through casual sex, extramarital sex, serial marriage, or polygyny.

Adolescent males age fifteen, for example, express a desire for females who are seventeen or eighteen. What is fascinating is that this attraction is almost entirely unreciprocated. Women in their late teens do not even notice these young adolescent males, much less find themselves attracted to them.

The basic truth is that men who lack status become losers in the game of mating. Other men abuse them with impunity, take their metaphorical lunch money, and poach their partners.

Whereas for men affairs are often motivated by the desire for sexual variety, for women affairs are motivated more by emotional goals and may represent an effort to switch mates while they are still reproductively vibrant. Women seem to know that their desirability on the mating market will be higher if they leave their husbands sooner rather than later.

Despite utopian visions and wishful thinking about egalitarian values, all human societies are subject to strict, and sometimes frustrating, rules regarding status. All societies, throughout the eons of evolution, have had status hierarchies. For men, one of the great benefits of status has been its appeal to women.

To paraphrase the evolutionary anthropologist Sarah Hrdy, "Men are one long breeding experiment run by women.

Men prize physical attractiveness more than women when looking for a mate, which is why this is one of the critical issues in competition among women, and also why one of the tactics women most frequently use to derogate their sexual rivals is public putdowns regarding a rival's appearance.

The implications of these fundamental trends in human mating psychology for a lasting relationship are profound. To maximize the chances of preserving a long-term bond, couples would do well to remain faithful; produce children together; secure ample economic resources; act kind, generous, and understanding; and attend to their mate's sexual and emotional desires. These actions do not guarantee a successful relationship, but they increase the odds substantially.

Fulfilling each other's evolved desires is one key to harmony between a man and woman. A woman's happiness increases when the man brings more economic resources to the union and shows kindness, affection, and commitment. A man's happiness increases when the woman is more physically attractive than he is, and when she shows kindness, affection, and commitment.

Worldwide, one of the most highly valued characteristics in a committed mate is kindness. It signals a willingness to engage in a cooperative alliance, an essential ingredient for success in long-term mating.

If women give sex to get love and men give love to get sex, then depriving a man of sex may be a reliable way to stop his love and hasten his departure.

Men's jealousy is especially attuned to rivals who have status and resources; women's jealousy is especially attuned to rivals who are physically attractive.

In short-term affairs, women can be very choosy because they have so many options to chose from.

Absence of jealousy signals lack of love.

Displays of love, commitment, and devotion signal a man is willing to channel his time, energy, and effort to her in the long run. Commitment is difficult and costly to fake, because commitment is gauged from repeated signals over time. Men who are interested only in sex are unlikely to invest this much effort.

Darwin hat a wonderful scientific habit of noticing facts that seemed inconsistent with his theories.

For every incremental gain in men's ability to deceive women, women evolve comparable incremental gains in their ability to detect deception.

Women marry believing that their husbands will change. Men marry believing that their wives will not change. They are both wrong.

As women age, husbands show less sexual interest in them and experience less happiness with their sexual relationship. Men who perceive their wives as quite attractive, however, maintain high frequencies of sex and higher levels of sexual satisfaction