Tens of thousands of men have answered questions about children, money, sex, marriage and many other issues that a popular men’s website is about to publish in a piece called “The Great Men’s Survey.” This report will be fully released in August, but some insighful information for all has been released this week. Roughly about 68,000 men participated in the survey when all was said and done.
Here are some key points. Younger men are more likely to have a problem dating a woman with children, 68% of the men said they believe in the institution of marriage and plan to get married someday, 92% of the men said they would be OK if their female partner or spouse made more money than them but about one third of men filling out the questionnaire said it was very important or somewhat important that their wife or future wife signed a prenuptial agreement.
About 47% to 50% of men under age 30 were fine with dating a woman with children, but almost half of the male respondents aged 15 to 28 were not comfortable with the idea of dating a woman with children. Men’s discomfort with dating a mom dropped with each additional decade of age, falling below 15% of men aged 50.
If they had to choose between having a child or a dog, men under age 20 would pick the dog by a tiny margin of 28% to 26%. Men between 35 and 50 wanted the child more than a puppy. About one-third of all men wanted both a child and a dog, while about 13% didn’t want either creature in their house.
If men could have only one child, apparently the desire for a boy was greater than that for a girl, but the older the men were, the less the gender of the child mattered.
To maintain a healthy relationship, about 12% of men under age 30 thought couples should have sex every day. More than 75% of men answering the survey thought couples should have sex several times each week. About 1% said sex once a month would be okay.
Some experts feel that the best way to understand male mating behavior is as the product of biological evolution. Evolution is only concerned about getting genes into the gene pool. It selects for genes that increase their own presence in the gene pool, and this is accomplished by having a large number of surviving offspring.
The elements of male sexuality are consistent with the pressure to have many offspring that reach reproductive age themselves. Men are biologically programmed to get have as many surviving offspring as possible, that is precisely the thing that evolution selects for. Note that this expresses the outcome that evolution selects for, but it doesn’t specify the mechanisms by which that happens, and does not compel men to act on the predisposition.
Commitment to a family is good: it helps the offspring reach adulthood, but the commitment is not necessarily exclusive. A wife’s womb is a bottleneck. More children outside of the marriage would increase reproductive success, as would more marriages, if the man can support them.
A man wants sex more often than a woman, on the average, and especially when the woman is occupied with pregnancy, lactation, and caring for children. Some feel menopause is nature’s way of telling a man to find someone younger. This encourages a man to seek out more than one woman.
Men commonly fantasize about sex with many women. Giving reasons for being unfaithful, men commonly report they are “bored” with sex with their wife or girlfriend, that they need “variety.” These are the ways natural selection translates into human experience.
For hundreds of insights into the male brain, click HERE at your own risk.
Written by Sy Kraft