What about couples’ need to go unnoticed during sex? Research by a researcher shows that this is actually a cross-cultural phenomenon and therefore probably a typical behavior of humans. A similar hiding is so far only known from one socially living bird species. As an explanation of the function of behavior, the biologist presents the so-called maintenance of cooperation hypothesis: According to this, sex should secretly maintain control over the partner and avoid social conflicts in the community.
Curtains are drawn, doors closed or the partners find a secluded spot: It seems to be typical for humans that couples take precautions to hide the sexual intercourse from others. This also applies to socially legitimate partnerships, where the behavior should not actually be hidden from others. Yitzchak Ben Mocha from the University of Zurich reports that this is a phenomenon that has so far hardly been scientifically investigated. For the first time, he has dedicated a comprehensive study to the topic.
Audience undesirable
First, he investigated the extent to which hiding behavior is actually spread across cultures. He analyzed numerous sources from which information about the sexual behavior in 249 different cultures of the world emerged. As Ben Mocha reports, despite the great cultural differences in dealing with the topic of sexuality, it is becoming apparent that couples have a need to remain as unseen and unheard as possible when it comes to intimacy. Even in cultures in which people live in very close contact with one another, there are corresponding behaviors, according to the research. It is therefore obvious that the phenomenon is a basic human behavior.
As part of the study, the researcher also took a look at the animal kingdom. As he reports, animals that live in social groups usually only hide their sexual behavior when they face sanctions from higher-ranking conspecifics. Dominant individuals, on the other hand, mate openly in the field of view of the group members. This also applies to our closest relatives in the animal kingdom – the great apes.
According to Ben Mocha, behavior similar to that observed in humans has so far only been observed in one social bird: the gray thrush (Turdoides squamiceps). These desert birds live in stable territorial groups of up to 22 individuals and are known for their complex cooperation behavior and the rearing of young animals together. According to the observations, there are fixed pairs in the groups who seek out places to mate where they are not visible to other group members. This shows interesting parallels between humans and these unusual birds, reports Ben Mocha.
Avoiding envy and conflict
But what role could concealment behavior play in the context of social lifestyle? Ben Mocha presents the so-called cooperation maintenance hypothesis as an explanatory approach. It says that people, as well as the gray sparrows, hide their mating behavior to avoid sexual arousal among witnesses, which could lead to conflicts in the group. As he explains, people in all cultures develop relationships in which both try to restrict their partner’s sex with others in one way or another. This distinguishes us from the sexual behaviors of the great apes, which rely on other reproductive strategies.
In humans, a public mating between permanent partners in a group could lead to the following consequences: There is sexual arousal among group members (male or female), who could then try to win over one of the partners. The “betrayed” could then react with aggression, causing the social fabric within the group to suffer. Thus, hiding the pairing could be a simple way to avoid unnecessary conflicts in the group. This de-escalating behavioral tendency could have been particularly important for humans, since its evolutionary success is based intensively on complex social behavior and the ability to cooperate. The same obviously applies to the gray horse, says Ben Mocha.
The author now calls on biologists to look for hidden mating behavior in other socially-living animal species, because it may be a previously overlooked phenomenon. Further evidence could then also show whether the cooperation maintenance hypothesis still appears plausible as an explanation, writes Ben Mocha.
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B, doi: 10.1098 / rspb.2020.1330