Isn’t science wonderful? Research scientists – by name David Buss, Cari Goetz, et al – inform us in a paper that women are programmed by evolution to be sexually unfaithful to their mate, as a “back-up” marriage plan.
The boffins say that females have always been aware that they might break up with one partner – so just as well to have another in the pipeline, as a spare. They call this “the mate-switching hypothesis”, which, let’s be honest, is just a fancy name for adultery.
This is hardly a new discovery. “Cheating”, as the Americans so disparagingly call it, is as old as the hills.
There’s a great old Jewish joke which alludes to this, and bears repeating. Moses comes down from the mountain carrying the Commandments: “My people,” he says, “I have good news and bad news.” Pause. “The good news is that I got Him down to 10. The bad news is – adultery is still in!”
What does this tell us? That adultery has always been a temptation for human beings – and to indulge without guilt always an aspiration for some.
Today’s scientists may not have made a new discovery – but they’ve put a new spin on Moses’s law. “Breaking up with one partner and remating with another – mate-switching – may more accurately characterise the common, perhaps the primary mating strategy of humans.”
A little less poetic than “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,” methinks. And the truth? Some people are tempted and stray; some aren’t; and many resist the temptation. I attended a wonderful 70th birthday party recently, in which the entire room was composed of intact families, children lovingly raised and cherished by their married parents, generations looking after each other.
Out in the real world, there are plenty of good people who do the right thing, and, I’ll bet, are all the happier for it.
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An impostor entered a bank, pretending to be the TV presenter Gloria Hunniford. On apparently thin evidence – she looked very unlike the original, to me – the woman left the Santander bank in possession of £120,000 of Ms Hunniford’s funds.
The bank has apologised and restored the money to Gloria’s account, promising to carry out more effective identity checks in future.
The best identity check that a bank (or any other authority) can do is to look at the human face watchfully. Get to know your customers. Familiarise yourself with their body language.
So much business is now transacted online – yes, we all go online and it can be very convenient. But it may mean face-to-face skills are declining.
Whole populations now walk around with their eyes focused on their screens: this must diminish their ability to analyse the human face.
There has never been a better security system than the village postmistress of old. She knew everything about every customer who walked in the door.
Maybe we don’t want quite that level of identity intrusion. But there is no substitute for the human skills of observation and watchfulness when it comes to sussing out imposters.
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I sometimes wonder if the many tender portrayals of adorable animals in children’s books are responsible for the increase in vegetarianism among the young. Animals are universally portrayed in children’s literature as sweet and appealing. After all those tales of baby lambs and dear little piggy-wiggies, the thought of digging into a nice mutton chop or sinking your teeth into a juicy bacon sarnie must seem quite cruel.
Most youngsters still accept fish – so they are pescatarians. But after taking my granddaughters to see Finding Dory, I fear that fish may be next off the menu. This computer-generated Disney cartoon is visually exquisite – the depiction of the seascapes and underwater life is wonderful – but it’s a dreadfully soppy yarn about a fish that gets separated from its parents.
After some years, and a “journey” (everything involves a journey) through the oceans, Dory is finally reunited with her aged parents, exclaiming her joy that she has a family again, so they can live together happily ever after. It might seem rather cynical to relish a wholesome supper of fish and chips after that.
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