The Wilds: Not Just on the Savanna.

[niceguystillalone]

Before I start this, I am going to point out that it is not my intent to offend anyone. However, this article is being written in a satirical manner with and over dramatization of things and playing on stereotypical ideas. Hence, it may offend some people.

Introduction: I keep seeing the question asked, “Why do ____ always like jerks?” I examined things and came up with an answer using my 25 years of experience in life, my one and only psychology class (Note: this fact should point out to you that I am NOT a Psychologist, nor do I claim to be one.), and several different animal shows on Discovery. I hope this answer will provide insight to the question. It is not, however, my intent to say that this is the only possible answer, nor that it is true every time. This is solely based off my opinions and observations.

Part 1: A psychological description of positive and negative feedback to a situation by way of example.

Positive feedback is when someone is rewarded for his/her response. Example: You get an A on your homework assignment and get taken out for pizza.

Negative feedback is a punishment for a response. Example: You get an F of your homework and get grounded.

Both of these practices are used in a means to teach people (or animals). A mouse is put into a cage with two options (Button A and Button B). When the mouse pushes Button A with its nose a small bit of cheese is dropped into the cage. When the mouse pushes Button B with its nose it gets a small electric shock (No animals were harmed in the writing of this paper.) With continual feedback to pushing the buttons, the mouse will stop pushing Button B all together and only push Button A. When the mouse is put into another identical cage, but with Buttons A and B switched, the mouse will still push Button A and get a shock. This is called Conditioning.

Positive Conditioning is using positive feedback to teach someone.

Negative Conditioning is using negative feedback to teach someone.



Part 2: A Documentary on a male, referred to as “Lad” in his attempts to find a date.

Join your host “Dr. McNutjob.”

Today we are going to observe a human male called “Lad” as he attempt to get a Date.

Lad is your typical teenage male. Here we observe Lad in what is called a “school” as he observes the other males of his species interacting with the females.

Take note, Lad seems to be paying particular attention to the female in the blue shirt. Oh! Look! Another male of the species is approaching the female in the blue shirt. This male seems to be of what would be called in the human language a “nerd.” Ooh! And he was rejected! Lad is taking special note of this situation.

Another male is coming up to Blue Shirt. He is what is commonly called a “bad boy.” Oh, Blue Shirt is giggling. Note her slight redness in her cheeks. Bad boy is accepted and Blue Shirt is letting him sit by her.

Poor Lad. Note his sadness and hanging of his head to denote disappointment. He now turns his attention to another girl in a yellow dress. Let us watch what he does. He’s approaching her. Oh no! He’s intercepted by another male. This one is again what is called a “nerd.” Lad seems to be paying very close attention. Oh, the other male is rejected. Look how Lad seems to be recalling this is what happened to the earlier nerd.

Lad continues to approach Yellow Dress. He’s introduced himself. Oh look, he’s going to try acting like Bad Boy did with Blue Shirt. Yellow Dress is smiling. She asks him to sit. Lad has done it! He has gotten a date!

Join us next time when we example the exciting thing know as “The Mall!”

Part 3: An inductive answer to the question.

From Part 2, you can see that in this case Lad was seeing negative feedback in the case of the two “nerds” and positive feedback in the case of “Bad Boy.” Hence, this conditioning told him that he would have more luck getting a girl acting like a bad boy then a nerd. This can be extrapolated out to a larger number of people. If a person sees the table full of lonely guys, he is going to take note of their characteristics. When he then sees the table full guys with girls, he will also take note. He will quickly figure out how to act accordingly to get a girl.

This situation can be applied to the “jerk” females always getting the guy.

Part 4: Why it appears that girls like the bad boy.

The explanation of this is not simple. However, I will do my best to give my thoughts on this manner.

The first thing you have to understand is that no matter how much you wish to deny this fact and try to refute it, humans ARE animals. We follow the same kind of basic animalistic behaviors as any other animal.

In an attempt to describe this situation, I am going to use an example of the peacock.

The male peacock’s plumage is displayed in attempts to attract a female. The female peacock will judge the males based on their tails and the male with the best looking, flashiest, healthiest, and biggest tail will be chosen as the female’s mate.

Human’s use this same concept when looking for “mates.” However, we are not just looking at one particular aspect or quality of another person.

Now you must also note that humans are controlled by hormonal forces.

Combining this with the above, you get the fact that the bad boys process aspects that attract females based on these hormonal instincts and through a biological idea of what qualities will produce the best offspring. (The tail of the male peacock.) It is this fact that helps explain why females go after this type of male.

Another reason why is the bad boy has an element of excitement to him and this seems interesting and fun. It is not hard to figure out that a person would rather date another person who appears to be exciting over a person who appears to be boring.

A fourth reason is that generally during a first meeting, the initial impression of the other person will be based off of looks. So going back to the male peacock, you can see that if the guy has a specific look he betters his chances. Personality is not something that can easily be seen early on.

A final explanation again uses the concept of conditioning, combined with the male peacock tail reasoning. A male who is given constant positive feedback from women will at times get an overly inflated ego and believe he is, “God’s gift to women.” This fact will hence make him cocky, arrogant, or otherwise a jerk.

Again, the above can be reversed for female jerks.

Conclusion: First off let me start by saying that it is not my intention to say that all guys girls are attracted to are indeed bad boy types and that all guys who have the physical qualities that females like will be a bad boy. The above is a stereotypical generalization and does not mean that it is an absolute.

Second, the combination of conditioning, hormones, and the desire to pick a mate based on trying to produce the best offspring, are possible reasons behind why “_____’s always date jerks.” Again, this is not a definitive answer and is not meant to be the end all be all.

[eldamien]

Your reasoning is faulty. You're using correlation to imply causation, which is false logic.

Behaviour is largely set by the time we turn 7. That is proven. So saying that a "non-jerk" (Lad) can watch other "non-jerks" and adjust his behavior is a fallacy. He may be able to adjust his APPROACH, but behavior will not change. He will not be "a jerk". The jerks are attractive not because they're jerks but because of the conditions that contribute to that attitude.