Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire-- Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do

Quick Thoughts
  1. The writers bit off more than they could chew.
  2. The studies in are very interesting, as are the explanations that the authors come up with.  It's not too long into the book that you 'get' their idea.  Men and woman are different because of the possible number of children they can potentially have. Men can have 'thousands' and woman can have a few dozen.  Every conclusion they come from stems from this simple fact.  Unfortunately, it just seems too simple to really explain behavior.
  3. That said, it's neat when you read that every problem comes back to sex.  And sometimes they are convincing.  Other times they are ridiculous.  Its most amusing when they say their theory has 'answered' a bunch of question they posed against it, concluding that alternative views are incorrect.
  4. The writing style leaves a little to be desired.  They claim that most social scientists believe that all human behavior is due to culture (meaning that changing culture can 'fix' problems).  Then they use that claim as a straw man to knock over in order to build up their perspective.  Weak.
  5. I will call it a fun read.  Great if you like to read critically.  Because you'll find lots to be critical about while picking up the studies they site.  Enjoyable.
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