Sam,
I listen to your podcasts, and enjoy them immensely.
Your recent guest Martie Haselton, to my mind, had difficulty objectively considering some of the issues she was researching. Instead of searching for truth, she seemed to only be considering some data while being careful to not go close to any area of controversy. One of these topics was one that got my attention years ago, that of the effect of birth control pills on a woman’s partner preference. She dismissed this partly by noting the effect was more in certain ethnic groups, to which I immediately felt an internal “Say whaaaa?” She clearly wanted to get off that topic. I’ve nothing against birth control pills; God knows I’ve benefited from them over the years as most men have. However, if there is an effect of a medication, is it not morally wrong to hide this from those who might use it? Further, there are options, perhaps, as she alluded to, even within versions of the pills.
Anyway…
When I first read about this study in 2009, I posted an article about it possibly contributing to increased divorce rates as women paired up with men to whom they afterwards found themselves no longer attracted. I noted that birth control pill use and divorce rates seemed to roughly correlate (I’ve not truly analyzed the data, only considered trends and timing of them in general) to evidence it. I’m think you’ll find it interesting.
Of course, in the polyamorous world you so embraced with Geoffrey Miller, maybe it doesn’t matter [chuckle].
James Hawkins