Mating Intelligence Unleashed: The Role of the Mind in Sex, Dating, and Love

Psychologists often paint a picture of human mating as visceral, instinctual. But that’s not the whole story. In courtship and display, sexual competition and rivalry, we are also guided by what Glenn Geher and Scott Barry Kaufman call Mating Intelligence--a range of mental abilities that have evolved to help us find the right partner. Mating Intelligence is at work in our efforts to form, maintain, and end relationships. It guides us in flirtation, foreplay, copulation, finding and choosing a mate, and many other behaviors.

In Mating Intelligence Unleashed, psychologists Geher and Kaufman take readers on a fascinating tour of the crossroads of mating and intelligence, drawing on cutting-edge research on evolutionary psychology, intelligence, creativity, personality, social psychology, neuroscience, and more. The authors show that despite what you may read in the latest issue of Maxim, Playboy, Vogue, or GQ, physical attractiveness isn’t the whole story. Human mating draws on a range of mental skills and attributes--from the creative use of pick-up lines, to displays of charisma, intelligence, humor, personality, and compassion. Along the way, the authors shed new light on age-old questions, such as: What role does personality play in mating? Which traits are attractive--and which traits repulse? How do people really choose mates? How do men and women deceive each other? How important is emotional intelligence? Why do people create art--and does it have anything to do with sex? Do nice guys really finish last?

Since Glenn Geher coined the term Mating Intelligence in 2006, it has drawn a great deal of media attention, ranging from a Psychology Today cover story to articles in the New Scientist, the Washington Times, the Huffington Post, and elsewhere. Now, in Mating Intelligence Unleashed, readers will have the first full account of this revolutionary new approach to dating, mating, and love.

Glenn Geher is Chair of the Psychology and Director of Evolutionary Studies at SUNY New Paltz, where he won the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Geher founded the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS) and is co-founder of the international Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) Consortium, funded by the National Science Foundation. He is particularly interested in how evolution can help us understand all facets of the human animal and his many publications help us move toward this goal. His work has been featured in many media outlets--ranging from Psychology Today to Cosmopolitan to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Scott Barry Kaufman is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University and co-founder of The Creativity Post. An award-winning authority on intelligence, creativity, and the arts, he is co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence with Robert J. Sternberg and The Psychology of Creative Writing with James C. Kaufman. His work has been covered in media outlets such as Psychology Today, Scientific American Mind and Men’s Health. Additionally, he blogs for Psychology Today, Huffington Post, Scientific American, and Harvard Business Review.