Book Seduction

[Lahoma Jenkins]

Strategiesof seduction include conversation and sexual scripts,[1] paralingual features,[2] non-verbal communication,[3][4] and short-term behavioural strategies.[5] The word seduction stems from Latin and means literally "leading astray".[6] As a result, the term may have a positive or negative connotation. Famous seducers from history or legend include Lilith, Giacomo Casanova, and the fictional character Don Juan. The emergence of the Internet and technology has supported the availability and the existence of a seduction community, which is based on discourse about seduction. This is predominantly by "pickup artists" (PUA). Seduction is also used within marketing to increase compliance and willingness.[7]

Seduction is a popular motif in history and fiction, both as a warning of the social consequences of engaging in the behaviour or becoming its victim, and as a salute to a powerful skill.[9] In the Bible, Eve offers the forbidden fruit to Adam. Eve herself was verbally seduced by the serpent, believed in Christianity to be Satan; later, Chapter 7 of Proverbs warns of the pitfalls of seduction. Sirens of Greek mythology lured sailors to their death by singing them to shipwreck; Cleopatra beguiled both Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, Dionysus was the Greek god of seduction and wine. Famous male seducers, their names synonymous with sexual allure, range from Genji to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester[10] and James Bond.

In biblical times, because unmarried females who lost their virginity had also lost much of their value as marriage prospects, the Old Testament Book of Exodus specifies that the seducer must marry his victim or pay her father to compensate him for his loss of the marriage price: "And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins."

The Book of Judges in the Old Testament describes Delilah seducing Samson who was given great strength by God, but ultimately lost his strength when she allowed the Philistines to shave his hair off during his slumber.[11]

Males and females both implement the strategy of seduction as a method of negotiating their sexual relationships.[12] This can often involve manipulation of other individuals. This is primarily based on desire, normally physical, as well as attraction towards them. Popular phrases often used include; 'the language of love is universal'.[13] These phrases help to demonstrate the extensively pervasive and ubiquitous strategy use within love and relationships amongst humans. Individuals employing such strategies often do so subconsciously and will merely report the feelings and thoughts that they subjectively experienced and are colloquially comparable to 'attraction'[14] or 'love'.[15]

Research has indicated that seduction could substitute or equate to a form of collapsed or condensed courtship.[5] Evolutionary psychology suggests that this form of sexual enticement can be used in order to cajole desired individuals to engage in sexual intercourse and ultimately reproduce. This behaviour is also aimed at persuading someone to develop a short-term or long-term sexual relationship with them. Males declare that they adopt the strategy of seduction statistically more frequently than females.[12] From an evolutionary perspective this is due to females' higher parental investment and the lack of guarantee of male parental investment.[16] Females therefore need to be seduced more prior to engaging in sexual intercourse. Men more commonly wish to engage in more frequent short-term mating,[17] which may require this strategy of seduction used to access the female for intercourse. However, this finding has been contradicted by non-verbal seduction results which indicate that females have more control within this area.[13] Other potential strategies individuals employ to gain access to a mate include courting or having relatives select mates for socioeconomic reasons.[13] Ultimately, both males and females have reported preferring seduction above all other strategies, such as the use of power or aggression, for making a potential partner agree to sexual intercourse.[12][13]

Seduction is related to human mate poaching.[18] Human mate poaching refers to when either a male or female purposefully entices another individual who is already in an established relationship into sexual relations with them. This is akin to the definition of seduction in the introduction. This is a psychological mechanism which had unconscious and conscious manifestations, that in relation to evolutionary psychology has been adaptive to our ancestors in the past and has continued to be functional in modern society.[18]

Human mate poaching is a form of seduction, and can be used as a short-term and long-term mating strategy among both sexes. Moreover, there are associated costs and benefits to poaching. Schmitt and Buss (2001)[18] investigated the potential costs and benefits across sexes in relation to human mate poaching. Costs for engaging in poaching behaviours include unwanted pregnancy, transmitted infection and diseases, and insecurity about provisions (shelter, food, and financial security) and/or resource depletion, violence and aggression from the current partner, who takes part in human mate guarding behaviours (behaviours used to protect their mate from other potential males or females). However, the associated benefits include emotional support that may not be received from a current partner, and access to 'good genes', such as facial symmetry.[19] The associated benefits also include increased sexual variety, access to physically attractive mates, and non-committal copulations.

Evolutionarily speaking, we are descended from our reproductively-successful ancestors who managed to solve the adaptive problem of finding a mate with the required characteristics needed at that time in their lives, e.g., plenty of resources, physical attractiveness, and showing signs of honest fertility. Therefore, our ancestors would have deployed this tactic (for enticing a suitable mate), which remains in our psychology. Some evolved poaching behaviours may not be suitable for current environmental problems. Leftover by-products from human evolution, such as preferences for fat and sugar,[20] are not adaptive in western cultures at present, and thus similar poaching behaviours could still remain.

Short-term strategies involved in seduction are associated with the dark triad,[21] however predominantly in males. Short-term strategies are those used by an individual to obtain a mate for a short term sexual encounter.[22]

The dark triad is made up of three personality traits, psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism and was proposed by Paulhus and Williams (2002).[22] The three traits are exploitative in nature and are used for sexually coercive behaviours, useful in the seduction process. Typically these three traits are deemed maladaptive for the individual and society. Nevertheless, these traits have been found to be adaptive in an exploitative strategy in short term mating.[23] Dark triad traits are adaptive for an unrestricted sociosexuality and promiscuous behaviours.[22] The three traits are associated with impulsivity, manipulative behaviours and lack of empathy. These personality traits would be useful in seducing a partner for a short term encounter.[23] From an evolutionary perspective, these would have been particularly beneficial to our ancestral males who wanted to increase their reproductive success, through seducing many women and therefore increasing their chance of passing on their genes. These particular traits may be used as a tactic for increasing success in mating.

The dark triad traits are seen more in males where the parental investment is lower. Having numerous copulations with many women increases the likelihood their genes will be passed on. Comparatively, a woman has to invest time and a lot of energy in carrying an infant and looking after him/her for many years subsequently.

The triad of traits ancestrally would not have been adaptive for women, because females were and still are less likely or less willing to engage in casual sex,[24][25] because of the lack of certainty of resources to provide for her and her offspring.

Additionally, there are other potential considerations of the implication of short-term strategies. Males cannot employ such strategies without there being willing females to engage in sexual intercourse within a short-term relationship with them. Therefore, benefits from engaging in multiple short-term mating must also exist for females. These matings enable females to practice and enhance their skills, specifically within attraction and seduction.[26] This often occurs during extra-pair mating when females have sexual intercourse with males other than their husband.[26] There are potential benefits for females to engage in these matings, including the ability to acquire more resources. For example, females are better able to access meats, goods or services in exchange for sexual intercourse or if she were to give birth to a child whose father has better genes than her husband.[27] Females use these short-term matings to hone their mating and seduction skills and increase their protection. This is because males often provide increased protection against other males exploitation or from non-humans for the females they mate with and their offspring.[28] However, this willingness to make the first move towards seduction and engage in a sexual relationship may be subtle.[29] For example, females may simply stand close to their target.[30]

Improving attraction and seduction skills can also help a female with acquiring a better or more desirable male according to the 'Mate Switching Hypothesis'.[26] This is because, females are able to assess their potential mate before committing to a long-term relationship.[17] Alternatively, according to this hypothesis females are also able to get rid of an unwanted husband through mate expulsion using short-term strategies, such as by seducing another man into a short-term sexual relationship.[27] Females may also be more equipped at deterring male partners from future infidelity, demonstrated by the 'Mate Manipulation Hypothesis'.[26] This hypothesis suggests that females are able to use revenge to deter future infidelity. This can be achieved by a female partaking in a short-term affair, incorporating the use of seduction, with another male as a revenge tactic for her husband's previous affair, which aims to increase commitment of her intended long-term mate.[27][31] These hypotheses indicate the benefits for females of developing and expanding on their seduction skills within sexual relationships.

3a8082e126