The evolution of human mating: Trade-offs and strategic pluralism

During human evolutionary history, there were "trade-offs" between expendin g time and energy on child-rearing and mating, so both men and women evolve d conditional mating strategies guided by cues signaling the circumstances. Many short-term matings might be successful for some men; others might try to find and keep a single mate, investing their effort in rearing her offs pring. Recent evidence suggests that men with features signaling genetic be nefits to offspring should be preferred by women as short-term mates, but t here are trade-offs between a mate's genetic fitness and his willingness to help in child-rearing. It is these circumstances and the cues that signal them that underlie the variation in short- and long-term mating strategies between and within the sexes.