Given all the changes that befall men and women over their lifetimes, it is remarkable that in fact 50 percent of them manage to remain together through thick and thin. The lifelong convergence of interests between two genetically unrelated individuals may be the most extraordinary feat in the evolutionary story of human mating. Just as we have evolved mechanisms that draw us into conflict, we have adaptations that enable us to live harmoniously with the other sex. My lab’s massive cross-cultural study, for example, found that as men and women age they place less value on physical appearance
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