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Practically speaking, we are not dealing with truth vs. belief. Even if we were to monitor chemical synapses of their brains before, during, and after cheating, we would never know the truth; The reasons for cheating on a partner is not the color red. This is the very point that I made in my initial reply. Even the cheater has to often regress and think of 'why' he/she cheated (for that particular time period, people involved, etc . . and later on, their perceptions OFTEN change . . .). We're working with 100% perception. And in this thread, all we have to go by are the beliefs of several posters. Far from ignoring them, I am focusing ONLY on their testimonials.
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We are designed to find a partner, fuck them, have kids, and stick around so you can have more kids (you don't need to look around for another available mate) and also stay to teach and raise your kids, increasing their chances of passing on your genes.
I thought you were the king of citing research and backing up statements? There are way too many studies that refute the above statement.
I think I can agree with you at the start, things are only certain with hindsight and even hindsight is in-accurate and riddled with mis-perception. As for women who are cheaters by nature, they're fewer in number and usually it's for some very obvious reasons and they can be marked out and avoided long before any you even consider them for a relationship of any sorts.
As to the second part. I've mis-phrased it horribly.
There are studies that show infidelity in mammals and that their are few true monogamous animals, us not being one of them. But compared to many other animals we are less polyamourus, becuase we have to be, snakes will fuck and leave the mum with her eggs, the eggs hatch and the mum doesn't really have to do much outside of incubate. The parents don't need to really parent as a neo-natal snake is pretty much a fully functioning snake but smaller.
Wolves, a bit more is needed but again the alpha male doesn't need to do much apart from fight of the other beta males with the help of his second in command and then help get a kill in the hunt when the kids need fed. Outside of that, wolf pups don't need much help, just protection until they are strong enough and a bit of help getting the basics of hunting and fighting down.
Chimps, we go a step up, we're getting more "partnerships" appearing as now the younger chimps need to learn about tools, landmarks, social infrastructure, diet choice.
Us.
We need one to one partnerships alot more for kid rearing, in the human world 100 single mum children will be out performed by the 100 partnered children. Parents in the human world have a much bigger role, from teaching the kid how to eat with a knife and fork, to filling out a cheque.
The way we interact with the world and the way we grow is far more cognitively based than other animals, we can't leave our kids to learning via instinct forever. At some point we need to teach him/her their ABC's.
Thats why permanent relationships focusing between two people are far more the norm.