I wasn’t sure if this belonged in GQ, GD or IMHO, but I’ll start in GQ and see where it goes.
I was just having a conversation with a coworker where we both agreed that someone who has physically appealing features will still not be attractive to us if we know that they have an ugly attitude or other negative personality traits. Conversely, she pointed out, you may not take notice of a person’s looks at all, but once you get to know them and like their personality, they may suddenly seem very attractive to you. I completely agreed.
From there, we tried to figure out where this would have an evolutionary advantage for humans. It’s fairly easy to see how someone who is intelligent would make a desirable mate in order to perpetuate those genes, but how does a sense of humor and charm factor into a survival benefit for future generations? Neither of us could come up with an answer, at least not on the spot.
Your thoughts?
“Sense of humour” and “charm” are manifestations of good social skills, right? The same kind of skills that are advantageous in convincing your tribe to take some action that will help their survival? So, even if at times these skills get used only to fatten the owner, even so, there are enough times that they help everyone that they survive. Especially if the funny, charming convincers are also intelligent.
Look at a peacock’s tail. At first blush, it looks like an evolutionary disadvantage. But, for whatever reasons, peahens just go nuts over all that bling-bling. So the dude with the big-ass tail gets the chicks-- or gets to make the chicks, if you will. Biologists think that the tail is the peacock’s way of telling the peahen that he’s got great genes, plus the mere fact that dude is still alive with that boat anchor tied to his ass says a lot about his, well, survivability!
It should be of no surprise, as **Sunspace **noted, that a highly social animal like H. sapiens would exhibit sexual selection for presonality triats. It’s not always the smartest guy who rules the roost, and like our chimp cousins we’ve learned that a good aliance with your fellow tribe members is often better than being the brainiest or brawniest guy if that guy has no friends. And don’t let me lead you think that I’m only talking about males. Females have their own hierarchies to worry about, and when it comes to finding and keeping a mate… guys get tired of the hot chick real fast if she turns out to be a royal pain in the you-know-what.
I basically agree. If social skills are heritable, I would want to have kids with somebody who had good social skills. Because my kids are then more likely to obtain the resources necessary for survival.
Back in the day, there was no 911 to call. If you couldn’t convince other people to help you when you needed it, you were hosed.
Interestingly, even most obnoxious people can usually find it within themselves to be somewhat agreeable when they are dealing with somebody who has power over them.