Does The Peacock Theory Really Work?

For thousands of years, man has evolved and so his behavioral patterns have evolved and consolidated – tools of evolution have shaped the mankind – man and women. And thanks to that, we know how to get them. It is nice, but erroneous idea. Evolutionary biology [9, 10] “as is” is OK. In the following text, the criticized evolutionary biology corresponds to its popularization that focuses on relationships and seduction – there’s an error (and not just one;-). As you’ll notice later, we’ll get into e.g. etiology and sociology as well.

Peacock Theory

A popular example is Pickup’s Peacock Theory. Basically, you copy behavior of e.g. the mentioned peacock. Are we supposed to blindly accept that he is at the same evolutionary step as a human? ;-7 Their males have flashy, colored plumage to attract females. And for instance, in The Game book, Style recommends flashy, colorful outfit. I would say, he tells you to dress like idiots without a touch of elegance. I would say that all over the room, to all mercenaries and users, such outfit yells: “Hey, I am easy loot and if you use me, I’m even gonna be delighted by my belief, what a belter I am”. But I give another motivation – whose social behavior is more similar to human? Peafowl or wolves? Wolves. So, take your time and look at a wolf pair and you’ll see no peacocking there.

Pickup backs this theory with Handicap Principle [19]. Basically, it says that if the male survives, to female it is a demonstration of genes’ quality, as he can eat and not be eaten.

Speaking with the language of diplomats, the following text gives examples, which cast shadows of doubts upon the Pickup’s use of the handicap principle. If you would like to study signaling costs and their relationships with gene quality, you can start e.g. with [20].

Let us start with the ability to hunt a prey. What does a peacock eat? Well, the mentioned wolves are not his usual prey, perhaps. It would be something smaller like insects, plant parts, flower petals, etc. So, his coloring would not be such problem at all… But, it is logical – if the coloring would affect the success of getting food, those “promising” males would not survive and thus not pass their genes.

And now, let us continue with the ability to avoid predators. Where does a peacock live? You can meet him in a garden, zoo, somewhere they care about him. I omit this scenario since the predator either cannot get to him, or the peacock would stand no chance. Or do you thank that he could defend himself from e.g. a dog attack? Perhaps, in Chivava case;-) And how about the wildlife? No freely living predator, such as wolf, hunts down any animal in the reach. Clearly, the question of survival is given by conditions, under which he encounters a predator – and they will meet. The peacock’s colored plumage increases probability that a predator will notice peacock’s presence. But it does not mean that predator will start the hunt immediately once the peacock is discovered.

Peacock defends himself as he drastically changes his appearance, including loud sound. He tries to discourage the aggressor. And then a hungry predator came…

Peacock uses his colored plumage to attract females, to defend himself and it does not affect his food supplies – what handicap do you see? Handicap is a badly chosen naming as people already have the word associated with other meaning than it has here. Humor is an example of handicap as well – it is a way to demonstrate certain qualities too;-)

There is an interesting thing. Human and wolf – they are both predators. And their males and females do not distinguish with a coloring. In the sense of Peacock theory assumptions, Pickup puts you into the role of a prey. Do you remember, what I said about the outfit’s yelling right in the beginning?

However, if you would like to be able to comprehend consequences, you have to be able to face up the following – to a woman, you necessarily does not need to mean something more than a sexual toy for a night. Even if that could be a pleasant experience for you, you could be snared and used only.

Shortly given, so many times women have used the following sentence to their advantage: “Stroke his ego and he’ll do what you need.”.

Jewels

Thinking about the previous section, you might have noticed the following:

1. Pickup summed apples and pears to get gooseberries.
2. How do I explain e.g. woman wearing jewels as Miss Right does that?

Woman’s appearance participates in her overall ability to keep man’s interest – the one she already has, or the one she wants. Improving her look, e.g. staying thin, jewels or a dress, is a way of signaling, what we can expect from her. This goes for both sexes.

Consider a lonely truck driver that is hungry for a woman company for a particular reason. He can assess his options, while comparing at the road staying woman wearing a miniskirt with neatly dressed woman wearing an elegant costume, whom he saw crossing the street in a downtown. Both women have not chosen their outfits randomly, but they did it purposely.

Similarly, judging the outfit of men in a bar, woman can estimate, who is who and what she can get away with him. It depends, whom she wants and what’s her plan. Is she after a relationship with a gentleman, or is she going to use some naïve bighead? As you can see again, predator does not change the colors.

Full paper on the evolutionary biology applied to dating is available at someonecz.blogspot.com/2008/02/evolutionary-biology.html The references are given at the same site as well.