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Why do humans prefer to mate in private?
Anecdotal evidence suggests that human beings generally prefer to mate in private—but why? And why is it so rare? Other than humans, only one other species has demonstrated a preference for privacy during mating: Arabian babblers. To learn more, [anthropologist Yitzchak] Ben Mocha retrieved data from 4,572 accounts of cultural studies—ethnographies—and studied them looking for what he describes as normal sexual practices. Those involved were not trying to shock or avoid punishment for engaging in taboo practices such as incest—and were also not in the pornography business. He found that virtually every known culture practices private mating—even in places where privacy is difficult to find. He also looked for examples of other animals mating in private, and found none, except for the babblers. He also found that there were no explanations for it, and in fact, there were very few other people wondering why humans have such a proclivity. And, not surprisingly, he was unable to find any evolutionary theories on the topic.
Journal Reference:
Yitzchak Ben Mocha. Why do human and non-human species conceal mating? The cooperation maintenance hypothesis, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1330)
(Score: 2) by EJ on Thursday August 06 2020, @07:17PM (10 children)
What kind of strange doorknobs does your house have that don't include locks?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @07:46PM
It's too hard to operate the lock when you have Vaseline all over your hands, duh
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @07:46PM (2 children)
The only internal door in my house that has a lock is the bathroom, and that seems to be relatively normal in my experience.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @08:40PM
Where I live, almost every internal door has a "privacy" lockset not a "passage" lockset. Those are the ones where they lock from the inside but unlock them by sticking a 2 inch long object into the hole in the center of the outside side of the lock. As the name implies, they are for privacy rather than security and allow easy unlocking in case the occupant locks themselves in and cannot get out due to age or emergency.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @12:31AM
I've never been in a house that didn't have that same type of lock on the master bedroom's door.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday August 06 2020, @07:50PM (5 children)
Why would you lock your bedroom door? Accidentally lock yourself out when you get up to have a pee at 4 am, you're going to look pretty stupid breaking down the bedroom door to get your keys.
The neighbours won't appreciate the noise, and they may think something evil tm is going on and call public security.
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(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Thursday August 06 2020, @09:18PM
My neighbors know better than to call the cops when they heard strange noises from my bedroom.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Friday August 07 2020, @03:11AM
The locks for internal home doors are different, and without using an unusual procedure cannot be locked from the keyhole side. If the door is locked before closing it, it pops unlocked when the strike plate presses in the bolt. In addition, they can be unlocked with any object that can provide sufficient torque to the keyhole; a screwdriver will do.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Friday August 07 2020, @03:21AM (2 children)
Most locking bedroom door knobs can only be locked from inside the room, and have to be unlocked in order to open the door... They can typically also be unlocked from the outside just by sticking a small thin object into a hole in the middle of the knob to manipulate the lock internally, for safety reasons.
Though it's a moot point in my area: pretty much any single-family home, condo, duplex, etc. built after the 1930s was designed so the master bedroom has its own attached bathroom. (The lower-end apartments typically don't, though.)
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday August 07 2020, @12:59PM (1 child)
Both of those take time.
Easier to avoid locks. We were taught to knock on the bathroom door before entering. Simple solutions to simple problems. Same as I don't lock my front door when I'm out - if there's a fire, I would rather someone just open the door and let the dogs out than have to wait for fire crews to show up - they have more important priorities than saving two dogs.
Locks on internal doors? Why - don't you trust the people you live with? Did they grow up in a barn and not learn to respect other people's rooms as private?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @08:26PM
Thanks for letting us know that you don't lock the door when you use a public stall.