Most of our Fathers were Mothers

Larry Block has a novel called A Long Line of Dead People, as in "I am descended from a long line of dead people." But who are our ancestors? Mostly women? Or mostly men?

Trick question. The answer is not 50-50. The point is that sexual intercourse is a competitive sport, and over history, most men never got their jersey. Roy F. Baumeister expands on the point:

True, about half the people who ever lived were women, but that’s not the question. We’re asking about all the people who ever lived who have a descendant living today. Or, put another way, yes, every baby has both a mother and a father, but some of those parents had multiple children.

Recent research using DNA analysis answered this question about two years ago. Today’s human population is descended from twice as many women as men.

I think this difference is the single most underappreciated fact about gender. To get that kind of difference, you had to have something like, throughout the entire history of the human race, maybe 80% of women but only 40% of men reproduced.

All this is from a fascinating article called "Is There Anything Good About Men?" and with a title like that, you may be able to guess the answer (link). Hint: think Six Sigma.

H/T: Prerna Mankad at FP (link).