Why Do Politicians Cheat On Their Wives?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in General Politics, Science
I know, I know, it’s sexist to suggest that all politicians are men, but all of our Presidents have been men and most world leaders throughout history, so for the purposes of this post let’s just go with it.
Here’s why powerful men do stupid things, courtesy of Psychology Today…
On the morning of January 21, 1998, as Americans woke up to the stunning allegation that President Bill Clinton had had an affair with a 24-year-old White House intern, Darwinian historian Laura L. Betzig thought, “I told you so.” Betzig points out that while powerful men throughout Western history have married monogamously (only one legal wife at a time), they have always mated polygynously (they had lovers, concubines, and female slaves). With their wives, they produced legitimate heirs; with the others, they produced bastards. Genes make no distinction between the two categories of children.As a result, powerful men of high status throughout human history attained very high reproductive success, leaving a large number of offspring (legitimate and otherwise), while countless poor men died mateless and childless. Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty, the last Sharifian emperor of Morocco, stands out quantitatively, having left more offspringâ€â€?1,042â€â€?than anyone else on record, but he was by no means qualitatively different from other powerful men, like Bill Clinton.
The question many asked in 1998â€â€?”Why on earth would the most powerful man in the world jeopardize his job for an affair with a young woman?”â€â€?is, from a Darwinian perspective, a silly one. Betzig’s answer would be: “Why not?” Men strive to attain political power, consciously or unconsciously, in order to have reproductive access to a larger number of women. Reproductive access to women is the goal, political office but one means. To ask why the President of the United States would have a sexual encounter with a young woman is like asking why someone who worked very hard to earn a large sum of money would then spend it.
So it goes hand in hand with being powerful? I guess if we accept the conceit that all men are motivated by sex it makes perfect sense. But are we ultimately motivated by sex and that’s it? That’s what it all leads back to? Fellas, weigh in here. Personally I don’t think so because reproduction also means responsibility and how many kids do these politicians really want to be responsible for? I’m guessing not to many. And by the way, Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty? Sounds like he was thirsty for a lot more than blood.
In any event, if you have some time today, click over and read the entire article. It proposes 10 politically incorrect “realities” about human nature. I don’t know if they’re true or not, but if you read the whole thing, come back here and comment.
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 7th, 2007 and is filed under General Politics, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 7th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
I wonder how Laura Betzig might rationalise the leadership of such people as Indira Ghandi, Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher and others…
July 7th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Good men do bad things and good women do bad things. Sex happens to be one of those carnal pleasures that can get the best of all of us, but not necessarily. Not all men are led by their genitalia. Bill Clinton has a teenage mentality. Using the oval office for a personal extramarital affair was stupid but ultimately not of any real consequence. It’s the fact that Clinton lied about it to all the American people and he seemed to think that was a perfectly acceptable course of action. He should have admitted his mistake and then the American people could have actually accomplished something productive with that time. But it didn’t happen that way. I used to be a registered Democrat but I no longer believe either party has Americas best interest in mind. Money permeates the our political system to such an extent that greed comes before Americans.
I’m not sure what can be done about the dismal state of our government but for me at least, who a president is doinking could really mean no less to me.
July 9th, 2007 at 8:53 am
In the long run, sex is the ONLY thing that matters to the species, since it ensures survival. However, we are intelligent beings (sometimes) and thus can use foresight to recognize that overpopulation will be a detriment to the long-term survival of homo sapiens (as well as other species). So we have the capability to override instinct, if we would just do so.
July 11th, 2007 at 8:45 am
If widely available data is correct, lots of people cheat on their spouses. There’s little non-anecdotal evidence, at least that I’m aware of, to suggest that powerful men are more inclined to do so (although I suspect they have more opportunities).
The author of that piece, by the way, should not be trusted. See Andrew Gelman’s (stats god, Columbia University) post and letter.