wedrifid comments on Unknown knowns: Why did you choose to be monogamous? - Less Wrong

48 Post author: WrongBot 26 June 2010 02:50AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (651)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: wedrifid 27 June 2010 06:37:18AM 5 points [-]

I disagree, there is a lot of evidence that the quality of the relationship depends largely on the degree that the man has higher status (overall attractiveness).

To clarify the 'degree' relationship I should add that the relationship is not linear. The optimal status for the man to have is slightly higher but not too much. In fact, when the perceptions of status gap between the partners is too great the guy is well served by raising the girl's status or slightly lowering his own. People get insecure when they think they have no bargaining power at all, insecurity is dangerous.

Comment author: Blueberry 27 June 2010 10:44:21AM 2 points [-]

People get insecure when they think they have no bargaining power at all, insecurity is dangerous.

Yes, this is exactly what I meant when I said that "settling" for polyamory was a bad idea. I was thinking of a non-monogamous relationship I was involved in where my partner strongly preferred monogamy, but settled for non-monogamy out of insecurity. It didn't work out very well.