The study of human beings remained resolutely unreformed by these ideas until a few years ago. Every behavior is the product of an instinct trained by experience. To say otherwise is like saying that the area of a field is determined by its length but not its width. “There is no nature that exists devoid of nurture there is no nurture that develops without nature. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

Therefore, ancestral hermaphroditic animals were outcompeted by ancestral sexed animals.” Why do human beings have two sexes? Because in mobile animals hermaphrodites are less good at doing two things at once than males and females are at each doing his or her own thing. Why do his genes want to get together with her genes anyway? Because that’s the only way they can get into the next generation human beings have two sexes that must breed by mixing their genes. He’s free to ignore the dictates of his genes.

But you just said he’s in love because it is good for his genes. Why is that man a slave to his genes? He is not. Therefore, everybody is descended from men who preferred fertile women, and every person inherits from those ancestors the same preference.

Those who choose infertile mates leave no descendants. Why does he care about that? He does not, but his genes act as if they do. Why does that man care about fertility in his mate? Because if he did not, his genes would be eclipsed by those of men who did. Why does pretty matter? Because human beings are a mainly monogamous species and so males are choosy about their mates (as male chimpanzees are not) prettiness is an indication of youth and health, which are indications of fertility. “Why has that man fallen in love with that woman? Because she’s pretty.

Genome by Matt Ridley