O segredo da felicidade conjugal

Li ontem o capítulo Battle of sexes, de O gene egoísta, do Richard Dawkins. Algumas passagens explicam tudo – como esta, sobre a felicidade conjugal:

The simplest version of the domestic-bliss strategy is this. The female looks the male over, and tries to spot signs of fidelity and domesticity in advance. There is bound to be variation in the population of males in their predisposition to be faithful husbands. If females could recognize such qualities inadvance , they could benefit themselves by choosing males possessing them. One way for a female to do this is to play hard to get to a long time, to be coy. Any male who is not patient enough to wait until the female eventually consents to copulate is not likely to be a good bet as a faithful husband. By insisting on a long engagement period, a female weeds out casual suitors, and only finally copulates with a male who hasproved his qualities of fidelity and perseverance in advance. Feminine coyness is in fact very common among animals, and so are prolonged courtship or engagement periods. As we have already seen, a long engagement can also benefit amale where there is a danger of his being duped into caring for another male's child.