If you guys are interested in this stuff, I highly recommend "The Red Queen" by Matt Ridley.

http://amazon.com/Red-Queen-Evolution-Human-Nature/dp/006055...

I disagree. The amount of DNA you have will affect the rate of mutation. Mutations are mostly a bad thing, however, in an environment where a species must constantly create defenses against parasites or disease, it's important to mutate new defenses. As a result, in a low disease/parasite environment it makes sense to get rid of "junk dna" to reduce the rate of mutation, while in a high disease/parasite environment it makes sense to increase "junk dna" to increase it.

Red Queen is a good read on this topic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_hypothesis

http://www.amazon.com/The-Red-Queen-Evolution-Nature/dp/0060...

I'm not the OP, and I haven't read these books, but many people swear by:

Influence: the psychology of persuasion, by Robert Cialdini

http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Busine...

The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Queen-Evolution-Human-Nature/dp/00...

One I HAVE read, and I strongly recommend is How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influenc...

Also, I've read many people mention a lot about Neuro-Linguistic Programming. I'm usually skeptical of this stuff, but I want to read about it.

I did read "The Game" by Neil Strauss... while it is not something I want to do, it is really intriguing, and he advocates NLP a lot in that book.

And while I'm nerdish/socially awkward, I have a long-term relationship with my girlfriend so I don't "need" to go picking up girls :) .

I look forward to the original poster's list :)

It does imply that. I know a lot of guys who have gone through a period in their life not being able to sympathize with women after learning about this. They would question why even bothering marrying a woman if she is just going to be a cheating whore?

The second point you make is very interesting and I have the perfect rebuttal. Unfortunately I don't have the book with me right now but a quote from a review on Amazon will suffice:

"And on pages 217-218 [Matt Ridley] explains why women cuckold their mates: "This is because her husband is, almost by definition, usually not the best male there is-else how would he have ended up married to her?" She wants the parental care of her husband and some other man's superior-she thinks-genes."

Here is the link to this book (one of the best I've read): http://www.amazon.com/The-Red-Queen-Evolution-Nature/dp/0060...

And although I haven't read this book (if you do, tell me what you think), I know that it talks more about how x% of children are not genetically related to their fathers: http://www.amazon.com/Sperm-Wars-Infidelity-Conflict-Bedroom...

An ad hominem attack with a dash of appeal to authority...enlightening. If you require proof of sexuality's impact on human behavior, I recommend reviewing the extant literature. Here are some examples:

1. http://www.amazon.com/Red-Queen-Evolution-Human-Nature/dp/00...

2. http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Animal-Science-Evolutionary-Psyc...

1) I'm not seeing any discussion of group survival. At an individual level, a lot of human behavior can look counterproductive, but makes sense at the group sense. If a genetic line evolves to support other members of the same (or similar) line, then that line as a whole has a better chance of lasting.

2) If anyone's interested in longer discussions of these (and they are interesting):

- _The_Red_Queen_ (why we sleep around) http://www.amazon.com/Red-Queen-Evolution-Human-Nature/dp/00...

- _The_Dark_Side_Of_Man_ (why we rape, kill) http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Man-Michael-Ghiglieri/dp/073...

Note that the 2nd tries to make political/policy conclusions which IMHO don't hold up. However, the scientific work in the text is pretty enjoyable.