Given that natural selection works to promote successful ...

[moongchi]

Given that natural selection works to promote successful reproduction, why is a substantial portion of the population homosexual?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Research has demonstrated that females prefer an unattractive male in a business suit to an attractive male in a fast food uniform. How might evolutionary theory explain this?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

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Answer to Question 1

Answer: One possibility is that homosexuals traditionally help their families raise offspring. Consistent with this is that homosexuals tend to be later-born children in large families. Another possibility is that whatever genes predispose homosexuality carry benefits in their nonhomosexual relatives (e.g., relatives have more sexual partners or more offspring).

Answer to Question 2

Answer: It can be explained by considering the adaptive advantage that women may have had by mating with males with resources and status, even at the expense of some attractiveness. That is, women have enhanced the likelihood that they and their offspring would survive by finding males with the resources and status to protect and support them.