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In my book The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption, I provide a synthesis of the ways by which Darwinian theory is relevant in understanding our consumption acts. In so doing, I define consumption in a very broad sense such that we consume products and services, family relationships, friendships, mates, religious narratives, and other cultural products. Viewed from this perspective, perhaps the most important of all consumption decisions is our choice of a mate, a topic that I tackle in chapter 3 of my book.
One mating phenomenon that has been studied by evolutionists is the notion of shopping for good genes. Such terminology is particularly à propos for my work given that I operate at the nexus of consumption and evolutionary theory. One instantiation of such gene shopping is the fact that women are more likely to cheat on their long-term partners around ovulation, they are less likely to insist on using protection during such dalliances, and they typically cheat with a man who possesses superior phenotypic quality as compared to their long-term partner. All of these findings have been interpreted by evolutionists as consistent with the notion that in this case women are literally shopping for good genes. Another instantiation of shopping for good genes can be seen in the attributes that women seek in prospective sperm donors (see the work of Joanna E. Scheib at UC-Davis).
A study appearing in the May-June 2009 issue of Intelligence coauthored by Rosalind Arden, Linda S. Gottfredson, Geoffrey Miller, and Arand Pierce adds a new and intriguing twist to the story. Using a sample of 425 American army veterans from the Vietnam era who had taken part in a 1985 study commissioned by the US Centers for Disease Control, Arden and her colleagues explored the links between men's intelligence (as gauged via a battery of psychometric tests) and the quality of their sperm. Specifically, they looked at three quality metrics namely sperm concentration, sperm count, and sperm motility. They also controlled for several potentially confounding covariates including age, BMI, number of days of sexual abstinence, service in Vietnam (possible source of exposure to harmful toxins), and consumption of alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs. All three correlations between intelligence and the sperm quality metrics were positive and highly significant. This puts a new spin on the lyrical excerpt from the Sugarhill Gang’s iconic hip hop song of the 1970s titled Rapper’s Delight: “…I can bust you out with my super sperm.”
There are two general explanations that might explain such correlations. The environmental-based mechanism would posit that intelligent men are more likely to make informed health choices, some of which might yield a beneficial effect on the quality of their sperm. In a sense, the covariates that were controlled for by Arden et al. seek to account for such possible effects. The second and perhaps more intriguing explanation is that several fitness-related traits should correlate to the extent that some individuals are indeed superior catches on the mating market. This is in line with my earlier post wherein I discussed two studies that have demonstrated a link between a man's dance abilities and his phenotypic qualities (e.g., body symmetry).
Please do not post comments of the following type: "This research is BS. How do you explain then the fact that my uncle Joe has an IQ of 140 and yet he is infertile?" Answers to such idiosyncratic cases have been tackled in my earlier post here.
My next post: Good looking men and sperm quality. Stay tuned.
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