Earlier I had a post about the cheating gene. This is a post that talks about its opposite, the monogamy gene…
Study traces origins of monogamous coupling
From an evolutionary standpoint, the key players in the mating game were males with poor fighting skills and females faithful to them.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-human-monogamy-20120529,0,7040060.story
Monogamy is really the core issue that really begs for explanation. Cheating is more or less what is successful in the bulk of the animal world and as mentioned in my previous post, even presumed mated-for-life pair bonds have been shown (through DNA) to be far from monogamous in reality.
Just as there are survival reasons for cheating (access to better genes _and_ better providers in the case of women and higher likelihood of ensuring your genes make it to the next generation and wider variety of partners for the men) there are survival reasons in monogamy for the ‘little guy’. Several DNA studies have bolstered the observational studies that show the non-dominant males can often slip a bit of gene transfer (sex) in on the side when the alpha male is battling it out with some other dewd. This behavior has been seen in many different species (not just mammals, but fish and insects as well), so clearly it is well established. As for why pairbonds are successful one need only look at it as a way to help ensure that the weaker male’s genes are passed on. If he stays with the female until his children reach reproductive age, he can be sure his genes have made it (as long as he keeps a close eye on his girl, of course). This is the most popular explanation for human pairbonds and one that also handily explains the relative lack of physical differences between men and women (meaning we men aren’t 3-4 times as big as our women).
For any activity to survive multiple generations it has to have some sort of payoff to the individuals who exhibit the activity. Just like cheating, monogamy has to have a payoff else it wouldn’t remain such an integral part of our behavior.
