+

Male Behavior and Female Reproductive Strategies

Brandon Ikeda, Mari Kawakami, and Andrew Satnick

+Article Information

Evidence to suggest that nightclubs function as human sexual display grounds

Citation: Hendrie, C. A., Mannion, H. D., & Godfrey, G. K. (2009). Evidence to suggest that nightclubs function as human sexual display grounds. Behaviour, 146(10), 1331-1348. doi:10.1163/156853909X427704

+What are the strategies that males and females use?

Do they differ?

Are the men attracting the females or visa versa?

Where can we see these strategies in action?

+Nightclubs

Article: “Evidence to suggest that nightclubs function as human sexual display grounds” Examined differences in male and female strategies of

attracting a mate Focused on female strategies (what attracted males)

+Methods

Observers watched people from balcony as they danced on the dance floor Took note of male and female behavior

Style of dancing, clothing, dance initiation Behavioral invitations to approach – eye contact, smiles,

and hand gestures not recorded Intrinsic variations in physical beauty were not recorded

+Female Strategies

From the study, researches examined female behavior in terms of:

Body Exposure

Breast Exposure

Dancing Style

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This table shows the ~50% increase of couples leaving the nightclub, Suggesting that nightclubs are a common place to meet and use their strategies to find a mate

Results

+Body Exposure

+Breast Exposure

+Dance Style

+Male Strategies

Men were more likely to approach women Of 126 observed dancing, 105 were initiated by a man

approaching a woman Major sex difference in approach behavior Males more stimulated to approach due to three factors Men essentially offer themselves for selection

+Approach

+Conclusion

Nightclubs function as leks, or places to seek access to mates Couples walking out of the club 50% higher than couples

who walked into the club (see Table 1) Women dress to impress, dance with few inhibitions There is a threshold of flesh exposure beyond which

further exposure no longer increases attractiveness to males

+Conclusion

Initiating dance Mostly men initiated dancing with females after they

were attracted to them Thereby placing females in competition with each other

to attract male approaches Female competition is not physical

Differs from male intrasexual selection, which is normally violent

+Critical Review

Interesting Points

The Chart (Table 1) – This table shows, on average, there is a 50% increase in the number of couples leaving nightclubs in comparison to the number of couples originally arriving at the nightclub.

The article places the burden of “intrasexual selection” on human females – that is, women are competing for access to human males, whereas it usually male mammals that must compete for access to females (i.e. male elephant seals).

There is a threshold of flesh exposure beyond which further exposure no longer increases attractiveness to males.

+Critical Review (Continued)

Weak or Confusing Points

Observer bias: observers making assumptions, thinking interactions are significant when it may not be, misinterpreting flirting, etc.

The observers only consider the physical interactions and do not consider the explicit verbal communication that occurs between men and women.

Among other things, the observers only collect data on the apparent net amount of couples leaving the nightclub; however, they do not explain or seem to consider the gross amount of approaches and rejections occurring over the span of the night