#bateman's principle

[arcticdementor]

When the two proposals that arise from an issue where modern institutions conflict with (well-established) human behavior (which extends well beyond humans, or even mammals, and has sound evolutionary explanations) are:

Evolution, shmevolution, there is no “human nature,” everything is socially constructed, we just need to figure out the right social pressures to reshape people to behave the way we need them to; or

Yes, this isn’t amenable to any mere social pressure… so we need to get >50% of all reproducing couples to use IVF (and somehow find a way to pay for it) to adjust the population balance…

[principleofplenitude]

[tab-a-day]

In biology, Bateman's principle suggests that in most species, variability in reproductive success, or "reproductive variance," is greater in males than in females. This is ultimately a consequent of anisogamy. Females, especially mammalian females, almost always invest more energy into producing offspring than males invest. Bateman's principle anticipated and is consistent with Robert Trivers's theory of Parental investment—in most species females are a limiting factor over which males will compete. This competition results in some males being more successful than others, leading to greater reproductive variance among males than females. It is named for English geneticist Angus John Bateman (1919–1996).