Joe Rogan Experience #1959 - David Buss

David Buss walks Joe Rogan through Darwin's theory of sexual selection and how its two pathways, same-sex competition and mate choice, shape human behavior. He details large, cross-culturally replicated sex differences in mate preferences, sexual variety, jealousy, and the motivations behind infidelity, including his shift away from the 'good genes dual mating' theory toward a 'mate switching' hypothesis. Much of the conversation examines how evolutionarily novel technologies like Instagram, OnlyFans, pornography, dating apps, and birth control pills are disrupting modern mating. Buss repeatedly argues that ideological 'sex difference denialism' has infected universities and even harms women, citing examples from sexual harassment law and medicine.

• Buss reveals he changed his mind, abandoning the 'good genes dual mating' theory of female infidelity after replication failures and finding 79% of women fall in love with their affair partner.
  00:21:24
• He now backs the 'mate switching hypothesis' that women use affairs to exit a failing relationship or trade up to a more desirable partner.
  00:28:43
• Men's affairs are driven mainly by desire for sexual variety, and unlike women, men who cheat are not less happy in their relationships.
  00:31:48
• Buss describes mate-guarding behaviors and the uncomfortable hypothesis that intimate-partner abuse is sometimes 'functional' at deterring infidelity and defection.
  00:51:33
• Studies show men repeatedly exposed to sexualized images of women decrease commitment to their current partner.
  01:18:30
• Sex differences are actually larger in gender-egalitarian countries like Norway and Sweden, contradicting social role theory.
  01:58:15
• Buss reveals he felt compelled, for the first time in his career, to get his department chair's backing before teaching biological sex differences.
  02:13:26

• Darwin wrote that 'the sight of a peacock gives me nightmares' because its plumage defied his survival-based theory of natural selection.
  00:04:13
• Minimum obligatory parental investment is one act of sex for men versus nine months of pregnancy for women.
  00:16:13
• Estimates suggest 20-40% of women have affairs even in committed long-term relationships.
  00:17:15
• Buss hypothesizes psychopathy has increased over the last 10,000 years as cities and migration reduced reputational costs of exploitation.
  00:36:27
• Only about 3-4% of the 5,000+ mammal species show any long-term pair-bonded, male-investing strategy.
  00:47:27
• Pregnant women avoid foods like broccoli and coffee because they contain minute teratogenic toxins that could harm the fetus.
  00:59:50
• Ancestrally a person met only a few dozen potential mates in a lifetime, versus millions visible today online.
  01:17:28
• At UT Austin the undergraduate ratio is roughly 54% women to 46% men, part of a global education reversal favoring women.
  01:50:58
• Women are far more sensitive to Ambien than men even correcting for body weight, causing harm when given identical doses.
  01:48:56