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Lex Fridman Podcast

#282 – David Buss: Sex, Dating, Relationships, and Sex Differences

Lex Fridman Podcast

Lex Fridman

Philosophy, Science, Society & Culture, Technology

4.713.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2022

⏱️ 219 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

David Buss is an evolutionary psychologist at UT Austin. He is one of the founders of the field of evolutionary psychology. His current research is on sex differences in mate selection, mate attraction, infidelity, and the emotions of jealousy, lust, and love. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
David’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/profdavidbuss
David’s Website: https://labs.la.utexas.edu/buss/
When Men Behave Badly (book): https://amzn.to/3y3bRVM
The Evolution of Desire (book): https://amzn.to/3kyBdTt
Evolutionary Psychology (textbook): https://amzn.to/3LExU9e
Derogation of Competitors (research paper): https://bit.ly/38G4LMa

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YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips

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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(08:04) – Sex vs Violence
(14:48) – Mating strategies
(26:44) – Social construct of beauty
(30:38) – Evolution of mating evaluation
(34:40) – Mating selection desires
(39:52) – Difficulties of monogamy
(46:16) – Importance of male appearance
(48:52) – Importance of wealth
(52:08) – Penis and breasts
(55:59) – Fashion
(58:58) – Body objectification
(1:06:33) – Wear sunscreen
(1:13:29) – Gender
(1:30:39) – What motivates humans
(1:32:29) – Dominance and submissiveness
(1:40:33) – Johnny Depp defamation trial
(1:50:24) – Jealousy
(1:58:45) – Mate poaching
(2:02:58) – Polyamory
(2:14:13) – Female vs Male sexuality
(2:23:11) – Pornography
(2:29:46) – Sex and Violence continued
(2:38:55) – Cancel culture
(2:50:38) – Elon Musk and Twitter
(2:59:02) – Serial killers
(3:04:55) – Advice for young people
(3:16:57) – Love
(3:22:57) – Mortality
(3:27:40) – Meaning of life

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The following is a conversation with David Busch, evolutionary psychologist at UT Austin

0:05.0

researching human sex differences in mate selection.

0:08.7

He is considered one of the founders of evolutionary psychology and has authored many exciting and

0:13.9

challenging books including the evolution of desire, strategies of human mating, bad men,

0:20.4

the hidden roots of sexual deception, harassment and assault, and the murderer next door,

0:26.3

why the mind is designed to kill.

0:29.2

We talk a lot about sex, dating, relationships and love.

0:33.4

I take these at times controversial topics very seriously, but I also try to inject humor

0:40.1

and ridiculousness throughout this conversation and all conversations I do.

0:45.9

Please do not mistake my silliness for lack of seriousness and my seriousness for lack

0:51.8

of silliness.

0:53.6

And above all, do not mistake my suit and tie or my PhD as a sign of intelligence or wisdom.

1:01.9

I barely know what I'm talking about on most days.

1:04.7

I'm simply curious and hoping to understand the way a child does, what the heck is going

1:09.9

on in this weird and wonderful civilization of ours.

1:13.1

If I say something stupid as I often do, I promise to learn and to improve.

1:18.8

As Mark Twain said, I do not want my schooling to interfere with my education.

1:25.2

Open-minded curiosity, I think, is the best guide for proper and fun, lifelong education.

1:34.2

And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor.

1:37.2

Check them out in the description.

1:38.5

It's the best way to support this podcast.

1:40.8

We've got Notion for Startups, ExpressVPN for Privacy, RELCA for Style, Onit for

...

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