杏吧原创

MODERN man. Is he a lying, scheming philanderer or a protective, fatherly companion? It turns out he鈥檚 all of the above: he鈥檚 your typical animal.

Although, if I鈥檓 reading correctly, he鈥檚 an animal that missed out on the really good stuff when it comes to sexual performance. He lacks the potent delivery system of the polyclad flatworm, a ribbon-like sea dweller whose acidic semen burns its way through to its target. He lacks a penis bone, which means that, unlike the walrus, he cannot be 鈥� well 鈥� ever ready. He also lacks the staying power of stick insects, which are capable of maintaining intercourse for months. And he doesn鈥檛 even come close to his primate cousins: 鈥淎 chimp boasts testicles twice the size of a man鈥檚 and a sperm count that makes ours look dismal.鈥�

It鈥檚 enough to make you wonder how the human species managed to successfully reproduce at all, much less overrun the planet. The Score doesn鈥檛 really address that question, but it makes a good case that, in a social species like our own, corrosive semen isn鈥檛 nearly as effective a strategy as conniving one鈥檚 way into the bedroom. To emphasise the point, the book centres on a , a seminar for which men pay more than $2000 to learn techniques for bagging attractive women.

Here are a few tips from the book for men: Enter a bar with female friends, so as to look extra-desirable. Be mildly rude to the woman you鈥檝e targeted. Improve on your natural looks. In Flam鈥檚 account, the boot-camp instructor wore boots with three-inch soles in order to bring his height above six feet. This made me wonder whether his chosen targets were startled when he stripped for bed and suddenly dropped closer to the floor.

Sexual deception is not a uniquely human practice. I鈥檝e always admired ethologist Peter Marler鈥檚 work with chickens, which showed that roosters routinely lie to hens in order to improve their sexual odds. Chickens use a series of simple calling sounds to communicate information, from predator sightings to food locations. Marler found that males will sound a food call, even when there is no food in sight, just to lure a choice hen close enough to be jumped. Apparently it works like a charm.

鈥淪exual deception is not a uniquely human practice鈥�

I mention his work not because of the annoyance factor 鈥� why can鈥檛 those females learn? 鈥� but because it illustrates a central point when it comes to discussing the evolution of human behaviour and the influence of sexual selection: we are best understood in context. The most illuminating research helps locate our place in the natural world, explores what we share with other species and what we鈥檝e carved out for ourselves.

This is hardly revolutionary; Charles Darwin expressed it far better in The Descent of Man. Thus the flatworm, the stick insect, the chimpanzee and the walrus are among many other species in Flam鈥檚 book 鈥� a menagerie that helps us to see just what kind of an animal man really is.

The Score is at its best when it is exploring the advantages or peculiarities of other species. The author is charmingly entertained by subjects like the corkscrew-esque penis of the Argentine lake duck. But Flam seems to find human males less endearing (barring her boyfriend, who provides 鈥渓iving proof that men are not pigs鈥�), and it shows. Of course, this may be inevitable, deriving from her decision to illustrate the eponymous 鈥渕odern man鈥� with the wannabe studs from the seduction clinic.

If those guys are the end point of human sexual selection then, please, sign me up for a few months with a stick insect.

Love 鈥� Learn more about the science behind it in our comprehensive special report.

Evolution 鈥� Learn more about the struggle to survive in our comprehensive special report.