Sexual Selection Creates Status-Seeking Males and Unsustainable Economic Growth

Abstract The Neolithic Transition altered the social ecology of humans. Prior to the Neolithic Transition, individual males could not defend territories, but in its aftermath, farming and land ownership allowed for the development of male territoriality. This, coupled with the ability to inherit land, increased wealth inequality, increasing the variance in males as potential mates. This may have altered sexual selection by increasing the fitness payoff of female mate choice (or arranged marriages) based on male status. Here, I hypothesize that female preferences for status created a selective pressure on males favoring greater territoriality, competitiveness, and resource extraction and that this selective pressure acted on heritable variation in the testosterone system as well as cultural norms. The selection for male status created males that are adapted for competitive and unsustainable resource use, and I argue that the result is unsustainable economic growth. In other words, I propose that sexual selection has created directional selection for male wealth-seeking behavior and that this is a cause of our unsustainability.