Show Notes
Evolutionary psychologist, Doug Lisle, PhD discusses listener questions with co-host, Nathan Gershfeld. 0:00 Teaser Clips & Intro 01:35 Q1: I'm pretty but my ugly competitors are getting plastic surgery! 19:05 Q2: My big, expensive wedding is coming up… but I don't want to get married anymore 27:59 Q3: Can I increase my estrogen to get more beautiful? 44:28 Final thoughts Q1: You say that a woman's physical appearance is the most important aspect of her attractiveness when attracting a mate, but we now live in a time when natural beauty has no value anymore due to the prevalence of plastic surgery. I have personally seen women go from a 4 to a 9 with tens of thousands of dollars in plastic surgery. This is pretty common nowadays, at least where I live. With the recent advancements in plastic surgery, it is becoming increasingly difficult to detect who is fake and who is natural. As someone who was born naturally pretty, I find this very frustrating and makes it less special for those who have won the genetic lottery. How will the prevalence of well done plastic surgery change the dating landscape in the future? Will men only realize that their wife was actually born ugly when their children come out ugly?
Q2: My fiance and I have been together for five years and our big, expensive wedding is coming up in few weeks, but I don't want to marry him anymore. We have a destination wedding in Rome, Italy and we paid 250,000 euros in total for it and it is non-refundable. Also, we have 300 guests coming who already booked flights and accommodations from US to Rome, which are also expensive and non-refundable. We obviously can't cancel it and waste money ourselves and waste our guests money. We booked the venue a year ahead of time and at the time I was 100% sure I wanted to marry him. Now I don't want to anymore. I'm just not attracted anymore, and I discovered some differences in core values that I didn't know of before. I told my fiance and he said it doesn't matter what I want, we have to go through with it and make it work and not get divorced so as to not embarrass ourselves in front of our friends and family. He said if we get married and get divorced or annulled right after I would be considered a failure by everyone and lost 250, 000 euros for nothing. What should I do?
Q3: You say that women with higher estrogen levels are more beautiful. Is there a way for a woman to increase her estrogen levels either naturally or artificially and become more attractive? Or would this be unsafe?
X: @BeatYourGenes Web: www.beatyourgenes.org Doug Lisle, PhD www.esteemdynamics.com Nathan Gershfeld, DC www.fastingescape.com Intro & outro song: City of Happy Ones • Ferenc Hegedus Licensed for use Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast
More from Beat Your Genes Podcast
A listener rates himself an 8 out of 10. He gives himself a 75% chance with two 8s and a 30% chance with two 9s, and he wants to know which way to go. Dr. Lisle says the math is beside the point. Those odds measure whether you'd be accepted, not whether the love instinct would fire in both of you. Finding that even once in a lifetime is rare. Dr. Doug Lisle explains why attractiveness is distributed on a bell curve, which makes the scale linear and not logarithmic. He also explains why the top few percent of people are functionally interchangeable on looks. He and Nathan discuss the difference between looking at women through "male glasses" and actually thinking like someone seeking a pair bond. Dr. Lisle explains why appearance matters so much more to the male brain than to the female brain, and why that isn't superficial from a gene survival standpoint. He also tells the story of a college assistant coach who went home to marry a "nice girl," and uses it to show the difference between gold and bronze in a relationship. 0:00 Who should you pursue first? 0:47 Dr. Lisle's new book: Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Life 1:51 Listener question: two 8s or two 9s? 2:42 Is attractiveness linear or logarithmic? 5:15 Why your odds mean nothing until you really know her 9:26 Gold vs. bronze: the "nice girl" problem 12:29 Why looks matter so much to men 15:41 Dr. Lisle's verdict: start at the top and rule them out Pre-order Dr. Lisle's new book, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Life, at SherlockSecret.com. Use code BYG20 for 20% off. Beat Your Genes is co-hosted by evolutionary psychologist Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD and Dr. Nathan Gershfeld, DC. New episodes every other week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-your-genes-podcast/id1137772216 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6TsmRx1vmGL88ORlcXd3PV https://www.beatyourgenes.org Doug Lisle: https://www.esteemdynamics.com Nathan Gershfeld: https://www.fastingescape.com Intro and outro: City of Happy Ones. Ferenc Hegedus. Licensed for use. Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast #EvolutionaryPsychology #DatingAdvice #BeatYourGenes
When something terrible happens, most people assume the damage lingers for years, buried in the unconscious and quietly running their life. Dr. Lisle says the nervous system doesn't work that way. It is built to be present and future oriented, so if you're still suffering years later, the cause is almost always in your life right now. A 45-year-old listener in Germany writes in after being convicted of a crime he says he didn't commit. Years later, he's sleeping less, he feels his wife has had enough of him, and he wonders whether there's an open loop he can't close. Dr. Lisle walks through how he would approach the case clinically. He explains why depression is failure feedback, why the Freudian idea of repression is a catastrophic misunderstanding, why consciousness works like a penlight in a dark library, and why most suffering comes from the esteem discrepancy: the gap between the esteem you're getting and the esteem you believe you deserve. The conversation continues in the next episode. 0:00 Why your feelings come with instructions 0:31 Listener letter: convicted of a crime he says he didn't commit 5:04 Depression is failure feedback, not a lingering wound 8:41 Why your unconscious isn't hiding anything from you 19:52 Why lifelong revenge only happens in Hollywood 29:48 The esteem discrepancy: what you get vs. what you deserve 40:30 The clinician's real job: closing the gap Beat Your Genes is co-hosted by evolutionary psychologist Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD and Dr. Nathan Gershfeld, DC. New episodes every other week. Pre-order Dr. Lisle's new book Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Life https://www.SherlockSecret.com Use code BYG20 to get 20% off YouTube: youtube.com/@BeatYourGenes beatyourgenes.org Doug Lisle: esteemdynamics.com Nathan Gershfeld: fastingescape.com X: @BeatYourGenes Intro and outro: City of Happy Ones. Ferenc Hegedus. Licensed for use. Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast
Can you talk your way out of the friend zone? Evolutionary psychologist Dr. Doug Lisle says no, because there is nothing you said that put you there. A woman's brain runs one of the most sophisticated mating assessments in nature, weighing your genetic appeal against the resources you can provide and your willingness to provide them. In Part 2 of our friend zone episode, Dr. Lisle covers the rare case where real interest hides behind muted signals, and why pickup artist tricks misunderstand what women can see. He explains the age asymmetry that makes things tougher for young men, and why the mating game is like a poker tournament where you can't wait for perfect cards. He also offers his definition of falling in love: the feeling that you are getting 10% more than you deserve, with the other person feeling the same way. He closes with a direct message for anyone decoding mixed signals: if you qualify, there is nothing more important to that person than staying in contact with you. Watch Part 1 here: [link] Chapters: 0:00 Nothing you said put you there 2:11 When mixed signals hide real interest 9:21 Why pickup artist tricks fail 12:14 Can an 18-year-old guy compete? 19:51 Why you can't wait for good cards 23:55 Her brain's mating analysis 27:44 Falling in love: the magic 10% 30:20 If you qualify, he shows up Dr. Lisle's new book, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Life, is available at sherlocksecret.com. Use code BYG20 for 20% off. Free shipping in the U.S. Have a question for Dr. Lisle? Submit it at beatyourgenes.org and it may be answered on a future episode. Beat Your Genes is co-hosted by evolutionary psychologist Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD and Dr. Nathan Gershfeld, DC. New episodes every other week. beatyourgenes.org Doug Lisle: esteemdynamics.com Nathan Gershfeld: fastingescape.com X: @BeatYourGenes Intro and outro: "City of Happy Ones," Ferenc Hegedus. Licensed for use. Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast #FriendZone #EvolutionaryPsychology #DatingAdvice #BeatYourGenes #DougLisle
Is the friend zone real, and can you get out of it? Evolutionary psychologist Dr. Doug Lisle explains what is actually happening when a woman sees you as "just a friend," and why it has nothing to do with saying the wrong thing. In Part 1 of this two-part episode, a listener asks about his 16-year-old nephew, who worries that being friends with a girl he likes will make him look pathetic. Dr. Lisle explains why time spent together works in one direction only. A man's assessment of a woman's attractiveness is fast and stable, and what changes is his perceived probability of success. A woman's assessment of a man is built to project reliability over a 10-year horizon, so the longer she knows a good man, the more his mate value can rise. He also covers why attraction can't be hidden, why mixed signals exist, and why waiting quietly on the sidelines is usually a losing strategy. Dr. Lisle's new book, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Life, is available at sherlocksecret.com. Use code BYG20 for 20% off. Free shipping in the U.S. Chapters: 0:00 Intro and new book announcement 3:50 Listener question: the friend zone 8:29 Why she suddenly seems more attractive 11:50 Why a man's mate value grows over time 19:07 Why When Harry Met Sally is a tragedy 23:09 Friend zone feedback and mixed signals 26:25 Why waiting on the sidelines fails 33:59 The friend zone is not bad luck
Dr. Doug Lisle wraps up the three-part series on Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Life by explaining why almost no one has ever filmed a real, unscripted therapy session, why he chose to tell this book as a dialogue between Holmes and Dilbert Peabody rather than a standard chapter-by-chapter self-help format, and why he's now ready to go back to live demonstrations now that the underlying theory is finally written down. He traces his own intellectual lineage from Darwin to Richard Dawkins to Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, explains why he considers evolutionary psychology the most significant revolution in the history of thought, and talks through who this book is really written for. Nathan closes out the series with ordering details for the book. Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Life is available now for pre-order at https://www.SherlockSecret.com with a 20% discount using code BYG20. Timestamps: 00:00 Evolutionary psychology in action, and the sparse history of real psychotherapy on video 02:42 The first time psychology becomes consilient with biology 05:33 Who this book is actually written for 11:16 The real core of human dissatisfaction: esteem and social ecology 16:42 Why the book reads as a dialogue instead of a standard self-help format 22:52 Why clinicians remember a case, not a definition 30:08 The goal: saving clinicians and readers a lifetime of frustration 32:06 Where to order the book and the BYG20 discount code Beat Your Genes is an evolutionary psychology podcast co-hosted by Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD, and Nathan Gershfeld, D.C. Submit your question for Dr. Lisle at beatyourgenes.org and it may be answered on a future episode. Subscribe: youtube.com/@beatyourgenes https://www.beatyourgenes.org Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-your-genes-podcast/id1137772216 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6TsmRx1vmGL88ORlcXd3PV Doug Lisle: esteemdynamics.com Nathan Gershfeld: fastingescape.com X: @BeatYourGenes Intro and outro: "City of Happy Ones," Ferenc Hegedus. Licensed for use. Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast