Wednesday - November 01, 2006
Man Crush
Sarah accuses me of having a man crush on Hugh
Laurie. Who can blame me: he's a great actor, and his House character is
always mind blowing. I realize some of that is writing and production, but I
can't think of anyone else who could play the roll as well as Laurie does. But
I don't want to blog about House; I want to blog about the psychology of the man
crush.
What do I mean by man crush? It's when one man admires another from a distance. It's related to the concept of hero worship, but the man crush concept covers more situations. For example, a man could have a man crush on someone who isn't a hero, but rather just someone he wishes to emulate. And I think that this is the key: men admire other men who behave in ways they would like to emulate. But why, ultimately, do men wish to emulate their crushes? I propose a speculative evolutionary explanation.
Suppose at some point a creature in the evolutionary lineage of modern humans, call it a protohuman, didn't have man crushes. Suppose, then, through random variation that a protohuman appeared who was genetically predisposed to man crushes. This protohuman had a man crush on someone who he wanted to emulate. In such a society, the conspecific this protohuman would most likely want to emulate would be the group leader. As this protohuman strove to emulate his leader, he took on some of the qualities that earned the leader his position, thus leading the protohuman to improve his own position, leading to greater reproductive fitness. Over generations, the difference in reproductive fitness led to increase distribution of the causing genes, leading eventually to a population of protohumans (or humans, if it occurred late enough) where all males could have man crushes.
Of course, this is supposing that man crushes were caused by a particular genetic variation. The man crush behavior could very well have be a secondary effect of a primary selected behavior. The man crush may not be serving any purpose other than to be a side effect of something else. Evidence against this includes man crushes that reduce reproductive fitness. We would have a better idea if we knew just how useful man crushes are.
What do I mean by man crush? It's when one man admires another from a distance. It's related to the concept of hero worship, but the man crush concept covers more situations. For example, a man could have a man crush on someone who isn't a hero, but rather just someone he wishes to emulate. And I think that this is the key: men admire other men who behave in ways they would like to emulate. But why, ultimately, do men wish to emulate their crushes? I propose a speculative evolutionary explanation.
Suppose at some point a creature in the evolutionary lineage of modern humans, call it a protohuman, didn't have man crushes. Suppose, then, through random variation that a protohuman appeared who was genetically predisposed to man crushes. This protohuman had a man crush on someone who he wanted to emulate. In such a society, the conspecific this protohuman would most likely want to emulate would be the group leader. As this protohuman strove to emulate his leader, he took on some of the qualities that earned the leader his position, thus leading the protohuman to improve his own position, leading to greater reproductive fitness. Over generations, the difference in reproductive fitness led to increase distribution of the causing genes, leading eventually to a population of protohumans (or humans, if it occurred late enough) where all males could have man crushes.
Of course, this is supposing that man crushes were caused by a particular genetic variation. The man crush behavior could very well have be a secondary effect of a primary selected behavior. The man crush may not be serving any purpose other than to be a side effect of something else. Evidence against this includes man crushes that reduce reproductive fitness. We would have a better idea if we knew just how useful man crushes are.