Trade-offs, the allocation of reproductive effort, and the evolutionary psychology of human mating

This response reinforces several major themes in our target article: (a) th e importance of sex-specific, within-sex variation in mating tactics; (b) t he relevance of optimality thinking to understanding that variation; (c) th e significance of special design for reconstructing evolutionary history; ( d) the replicated findings that women's mating preferences vary across thei r menstrual cycle in ways revealing special design; and (e) the importance of applying market phenomena to understand the complex dynamics of mating. We also elaborate on three points; (1) Men who have indicators of genetic f itness may provide more direct benefits when female demand for extra-pair a nd short-term sex if very low; (2) both men and women track ecological cues to make mating decisions; and (3) more research on female orgasm is needed .