The Evolution of Commitment

Every year millions of couples say, “I do”. They do so against the odds: the fifty percent chance that they will not fulfill their sacred vows (Wright 288). These couples must be compelled by some very strong feelings of love and attachment in order to make a promise with a poor probability of fulfilling it. It is something much deeper than just words. Not just love influences such a decision; instincts compel us to join in this life-long commitment as well.

In order to reproduce naturally humans, like all other mammals, need a male and female. Humans, engage in these monogamous relationships just like the Ring Doves and many other animals (Buss 271). The difference is that humans have a much greater recourse, a fully developed frontal lobe. This portion of our brain helps us to bond and commit and engage in monogamous relationships. Because of this advancement, we have many more distractions that can pull us away and distract us from our mates. Evolution has created this concept of love, and ultimately ruined it (Wright 284).

Unlike more primitive animals, our biggest problems are not that our mate can’t reproduced and is therefore expendable like in Ring Dove, or a bigger more fit partner comes along like with male elephant seals (Buss 270 & 271). We also need to deal with the environmental influences around us, like the fact that men are greatly impacted by the images of Playboy models that influence their perceptions of women (Wright 286). We also have to deal with a woman’s attraction to richer partners that can lead to infidelity (Wright 287). Distractions like these fuel the fire of jealousy that inhabits our relationships (Buss 270). These natural feelings are magnified by our ability to think at a higher level.

Love between men and a woman is a universal natural thing (Wright 284). According to Wright, the key to correcting our immoral behavior is to realize that was just that, immoral; the thing is we have the potential to be moral. A combination of our instincts and our high capability to reason, we need to overcome the temptations of our society along with the ones already programmed into us. The institution of marriage still has a chance, humans just need to really consider their promise before vowing to spend their entire life with another individual.