Based on one of the largest studies of human mating ever undertaken, encompassing more than 10,000 people of all ages from thirty-seven cultures worldwide, The Evolution of Desire is the first work to present a unified theory of human mating behavior. Drawing on a wide range of examples of mating behavior—from lovebugs to elephant seals, from the Yanomamö tribe of Venezuela to online dating apps—Buss reveals what women want, what men want, and why their desires radically differ. Love has a central place in human sexual psychology, but conflict, competition, and manipulation also pervade human mating—something we must confront in order to control our own mating destiny.
David M. Buss is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, Austin, and the author of many books, including When Men Behave Badly, Why Women Have Sex, The Murderer Next Door, The Dangerous Passion, and the textbook Evolutionary Psychology, now in its seventh edition. Buss has been cited as one of the thirty most influential psychologists in the world. He lives in Austin, Texas.