This article was originally posted on RealClearScience.
One of the big problems with psychology and psychiatry is that diagnosing patients relies heavily upon subjective, qualitative observations instead of more rigorous quantitative methods. In fact, publication of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (known as DSM-5 and colloquially referred to as the “Bible of psychiatry”) caused a major controversy precisely because its recommendations made no effort to incorporate biological evidence. A field that refuses to incorporate quantifiable markers of disease is going to have a difficult time gaining credibility. Continue reading
The prevailing explanation for this is that women trust the decisions made by other women. A woman may subconsciously say to herself, “If he’s good enough for her, then he’s good enough for me.” If she then acts on this adulterous impulse, she is officially a “mate poacher.”