The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative

Proper Hero Dads and Dark Hero Cads: Alternate Mating Strategies Exemplified in British Romantic Literature

225 Proper Hero Dads and Dark Hero Cads: Alternate Mating Strategies Exemplified in British Romantic Literature Daniel J. Kruger, Maryanne Fisher, and Ian Jobling Contemporary literary research is generally not held to the standard of scientific responsibility. Although theories of human behavior in the sciences are adopted only after being supported by empirical testing, many literary researchers are not overly concerned with the empirical viability of the theories of behavior on which they base their work. Some appear to prefer one theory to another for subjective, political, or practical reasons. Many theories of behavior popular in contemporary literary research, such as Freudianism and Marxism, have been abandoned or have never been adopted in the human sciences because their premises are inconsistent with empirical evidence.1 It is the constant testing of scientific theories against the facts of the real world that leads to real, if often frustratingly slow, progress in the human sciences. Scientific progress is cumulative ; scientists seek to continually enhance the accuracy of ideas and sophistication of understanding through empirical research. On the other hand, literary scholarship is not, for the most part, considered a cumulative discipline. But can it be? At the least, we propose that literary researchers could develop their theories of human cognition and behavior out of the best contemporary research on these subjects. At best, they could find ways of testing their interpretations of literary texts empirically. Because literary researchers are generally not trained in scientific methods and will continue not to be in the foreseeable future, it will be necessary for the time being for them to form partnerships with behavioral and social scientists (or to learn such methods themselves). Such collaborations are not useful only for literary researchers but also for behavioral and social scientists in that literature affords rich possibilities for testing and developing psychological theories. This article is the product of one such mutually productive collaboration. It provides an example of a scientifically grounded approach to literary study by empirically testing a specific literary interpretation that was, itself, derived from evolutionary theory on human sexuality. Dad and Cad Mating Strategies Recent research on human sexuality has suggested that humans, depending on context, have evolved to pursue either short-term or long-term mating strategies. There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that, unlike most mammals, humans are designed for long-term sexual relationships with substantial male parental investment in children. Human infants require a great deal of parental care, and children reared in father-absent households suffer much higher mortality rates than those who are reared in father-present homes, especially in preindustrial societies .2 The sexual psychology of women also indicates that human sexuality has been shaped by long-term sexual relationships. A number of studies both in the United States and cross-culturally have shown that women regularly report being attracted to men who are socially respected, financially well-off, ambitious, industrious , dependable, emotionally stable, and romantic, all qualities that indicate the ability and willingness to sustain long-term, parentally investing relationships.3 However, there are also aspects of both men’s and women’s sexuality that show that we did not evolve exclusively to pursue long-term mating. The evidence for the importance of short-term mating in human evolution is most obvious in men who consistently demonstrate a marked desire for sexual variety.4 Men are more likely than women not only to fantasize about having sex with multiple partners,5 but also to seek out sex with multiple partners.6 The fitness advantage of short-term sexual relationships is obvious for men: there is a linear relationship between the number of women with whom men have sex and the number of potential offspring. However, the disadvantage of this strategy, in human mating, is that the children of nonpaternally investing men would have a much higher mortality rate than the children of paternally investing men (especially in ancestral environments). Nevertheless, a successful philanderer would have been likely to sire a large number of children, some proportion of whom would likely survive, especially in a resource-rich environment. This strategy is known as the “cad” strategy among evolutionary theorists. It has been shown to be successful in some circumstances, such as when there is a small effect of male parental investment on female reproductive success due to the local ecology.7 It takes two to tango, and so, for a cad mating strategy to evolve in men, it would have...