In the case of men, as M-AA instead has a sexual nature, it is sexual competition that does not generate insecurity, ending up feeding the interest toward a woman that displays a high mating value so that many other men are also attracted-this is because the AAs generally get excited if they prevail in a competition. However, as regards the psycho-emotional sphere to which the social network pertains, men occupy it in a passive position (M-RA), and therefore they feel much less like competing in this regard, preferring situations of relational uniqueness and specificity that motivate their renounce to sexual variety. A woman showing an excessive propensity to the psychological compatibility both in a wide network of social connections and, especially, toward many possible male subjects, in addition to raising the suspicion of an overactive tendency in the sexual sphere, reduces the exclusivity value of the man’s psychological compatibility with that specific woman. In particular, as already remarked, this exceptionality must be pronounced enough to push men to give up to the value of sexual diversity so much appreciated by the M-AA. For women, a similar insecurity is related to the F-RA in the sexual sphere, and indirectly to the psycho-emotional sphere if the M-TU may be compromised by the psychological attraction toward another woman.
4.2.5. Evidence of Tie-Up of the Potential Partner
Knowing that a potential partner has tied-up to a subject represents a direct reward for the subject’s AA, all the more so the more the tied-up subject proves to be salient and worthy of attention for the AA. Finding a tied-up partner is a guarantee of enhanced stability for the future couple, and the TU corresponds to a further quality of the partner, as it makes more remote the possibility of being exploited, but on the reverse, it also makes a possible exploitation of the tied-up partner easier. For this reason, courtship played, and with all due qualifications still plays, an essential role in successfully passing this kind of filter test for males and today increasingly also for females. Historically, courtship has to do with socially conspicuous rituals (such as singing serenades, or giving flower gifts), and more generally with social displays of generosity and altruism .
Courtship may in fact be seen as a sort of mise-en-scene of a presumed TU, as well as of the value of the courting subject. The ritual of prescribed courtship behaviors is designed to enact the actions and the focus of interest that are representative of a tied-up subject who is worthy of attention. Accepting the courtship of a man and reciprocating with signals, such as smiles, glances, and explicit emotion, which in turn emulate the tie-up, may be a way for a woman to display her own interest and to communicate to the man that he has successfully passed the filter tests. In this sense, courtship e under incomplete information .
In other words, for men, being bonded to a single woman is no longer a mere issue of sexual conquest, rewarding for the M-AA, but becomes a problem of individuation of a partner, who is also and primarily psychologically compatible, with a uniqueness value that cannot be shared with others
This filter test is, however, the most insidious, as it is easily falsifiable when someone wants to simulate her/his own TU for manipulative purposes . Some rigor is therefore called for in testing, as it is symbolically well depicted in the popular culture of historical fairy tales, where the suitor that aimed at marrying the princess had to pass a number of very challenging trials-nothing else than filter tests in fact, which in addition to assessing qualities, such as intelligence and courage, were targeted at exposing the concealment of undesirable traits, such as greed or Machiavellianism; that is, traits that signaled a likely intent of exploitation of the partner in the absence of a D-TU.