Size did not matter: An evolutionary account of the variation in penis size and size anxiety

4.1. Parental control over mating

The genus Homo appeared on earth approximately two million years ago, and for most of this period our ancestors were living in small bands which based their subsistence on hunting and gathering (Lee & Devore, Citation1968). Approximately 10,000 years ago, the agropastoral revolution took place, which resulted into the eventual transition of most human societies to a sedentary life and subsistence based on agriculture and animal husbandry (Bellwood, Citation2004). Accordingly, most of human evolution took place in a pre-industrial context where subsistence was based on hunting and gathering and on agropastoralism (Lee & Devore, Citation1968; Tooby & Cosmides, Citation1990).

In order to assess the strength of female choice in these societies, knowledge about their mating patterns is required. Ancestral foragers did not leave behind any written records, but the anthropological record on modern hunting and gathering societies can be a useful source of information. The way of life of modern foragers approximates the way of life of ancestral ones, meaning that the typical patterns of mating in the former are likely to reflect the typical patterns of mating in the latter (Apostolou, Citation2014; Ember, Citation1978). In the same vein, the anthropological record of modern agropastoral societies can be used to reconstruct the way of life in ancestral agropastoral societies.

Anthropological and historical evidence indicates that in a pre-industrial context mate choice is regulated, with arranged marriage being the typical mode of long-term mating (Broude & Greene, Citation1983; Stephens, Citation1963). In more detail, one study collected evidence on mating patterns from a sample of 190 contemporary foraging societies (Apostolou, Citation2007). It was found that the most frequent mode of long-term mating, in approximately 70% of cases, was arranged marriage, where parents choose spouses for their children. A subsequent study revealed similar patterns in contemporary pre-industrial societies, which base their subsistence on agriculture and animal husbandry (Apostolou, Citation2010). Similarly, one study coded for the mating patterns of 16 historical agropastoral societies (Apostolou, Citation2012) and it found that in all societies but one, the primary mode of long-term mating was arranged marriage, where fathers and other male relatives dominated marriage arrangements, and daughters were controlled more than sons.

In a pre-industrial context, there is considerable space for women to exercise choice. To begin with, they can engage in sexual relationships before their parents arrange a marriage for them (Apostolou, Citation2014). Women can also exercise mate choice through engaging in extramarital relationships, which are found in almost all pre-industrial societies (Broude, Citation1980). Last but not least, women can exercise choice in later marriages, when they are less dependent on their parents or their parents are absent due to death or are physically too weak to impose their will (Apostolou, Citation2014).

The evidence from the anthropological and historical records indicates that during most of the period of human evolution, female choice had been relatively weak as women’s mate choices were predominantly controlled by their parents (see also Walker, Hill, Flinn, & Ellsworth, Citation2011). However, because women had space to exercise mate choice, female choice has been a significant selection force.

4.2. Ancestral preferences

Mate and in-law preferences are not rigid but adjust to local conditions (Apostolou, Citation2014; Buss, Shackelford, Kirkpatrick, & Larsen, Citation2001). In this respect, the mate and in-law preferences we observe today in post-industrial societies are also likely to have been present in the ancestral ones, but it is also likely that they had different weights ascribed to them.

More specifically, the low technological development in ancestral human societies made food resources scarce and unpredictable. Furthermore, in ancestral human societies there were no social protection systems, such as the police and a well-developed welfare state. Consequently, individuals had to rely heavily on each other for their survival. Accordingly, in the ancestral context, parents as well as their children were likely to have valued traits that predict resource provision, such as industriousness and good family background, more than traits that predict intimacy and sexual satisfaction.

In post-industrial societies, technological developments and the resulting increase in wealth, along with the existence of the welfare state have changed marriage and intimate relationships in general: they are no longer seen as a means to promote an individual’s survival but instead as a means to receive intimacy and satisfaction (Coontz, Citation2005). In more detail, individuals in post-industrial societies are likely to have a job that affords them adequate resources for their subsistence, and they can rely on the welfare state if something goes wrong. Thus, when they look for mates, they look for ones who can provide them with more intimacy and sexual satisfaction than resources required for subsistence. For example, Finkel, Hui, Carswell, and Larson (Citation2014) argued that preferences for marital partners have drastically changed in the last decades in the USA, so that more value is being placed on traits associated with intimacy. Therefore, the value people ascribe to sexual satisfaction today is probably an overestimate of the value placed in ancestral human societies.

Overall, there are reasons to believe that both mate and in-law seekers are likely to have placed less emphasis on traits related to sexual satisfaction and more on traits related to survival. This hypothesis, combined with evidence that in ancestral human societies mate choice was regulated by parents, predominantly fathers, who value such traits less in an in-law than their children in a spouse, would suggest that negative selection pressures on these traits would be relatively weak, allowing for a higher prevalence rate. This dimension i.e. the difference between modern and ancestral preferences, has not been considered in previous formulations (Apostolou, Citation2015a,b).

4.3. Long-term and short-term mating strategies

It has been argued that men can follow two primary mating strategies, namely a short-term one which involves high mating effort, multiple casual mates, and low parental investment, and a long-term one which involves low mating effort, few long-term mates, and high parental investment (Buss, Citation2003; Buss & Schmitt, Citation1993). The former strategy emphasizes more on providing sexual satisfaction, while the latter emphasizes more on providing resources that are required for raising a family (Apostolou, Citation2015b). If ancestral conditions favored a short-term strategy, then selection pressures on the size of penis would be stronger than if they favored a long-term strategy.

Evidence from anthropological and historical resources indicates that although both strategies are present, the long-term is the dominant one: individuals tend to establish long-term committed intimate relationships with the purpose of having and raising children (Apostolou, Citation2014; Coontz, Citation2005). The higher prevalence of the long-term mating strategy is also corroborated by comparative analysis of penis morphology in primates, demonstrating that in size and complexity the human penis is more similar to monogamous and polygynous primates than to those with promiscuous mating systems (Dixson, Citation2009). Overall, a long-term mating strategy is likely to have been prevalent during human evolution, which suggests weak selection pressures on penis size.

5.1. Variation

The proposed theoretical framework, and particularly the ancestral neutrality model discussed above, can be applied in understanding the observed variation in penis size. More specifically, female choice has been identified as one main selection force responsible for shaping the human penis. Evidence indicates that this selection force operating on penis size in ancestral human societies had been weak so, alleles that predispose for a larger or smaller than an assumed optimal size would experience weak negative selection pressure and would remain in the gene pool. This predicts that the size of the human penis would exhibit considerable variation.

Consistent with this prediction, several studies find that the penis exhibits substantial variation (Khan et al., Citation2012; Ponchietti et al., Citation2001; Veale et al., Citation2015). It has to be said at this point that height, and body size in general, exhibits considerable variation; so, the penis, being a part of the body, will also exhibit such variation. Accordingly, there is positive correlation between height and penis size, but this correlation is weak (Lever, Frederick, & Peplau, Citation2006), which means that the variation in body size explains only a small proportion of the variation in penis size.

Predispositions for deviations from the optimal size would experience weak selection pressures; however, as these deviations become more extreme, the negative selection pressures would increase considerably. For instance, alleles that predispose for very small penises would be eliminated by selection forces relatively quickly, as men who carry them would face difficulties not only in sexually satisfying but also in impregnating their partners. Similarly, men with very large penises would not provide satisfaction to their partners and would also be likely to injure them. On this basis, it is predicted that there would be very few instances of men who have very small and very large penises. These instances would be predominantly the result of mutations that selection forces did not have time to remove from the gene pool. Accordingly, approximately 2.3% of the male population is estimated to have an abnormally small penis (Wessells, Lue, & McAninch, Citation1996; see also Kumanov, Robeva, & Tomova, Citation2007). To the knowledge of the authors there are no estimates of the prevalence rates of abnormally large penises.

This framework predicts also cross-cultural variation in size. In particular, parental choice is stronger and female choice weaker in pre-industrial societies which base their subsistence on agriculture and animal husbandry than in societies which base their subsistence on hunting and gathering (Apostolou, Citation2010, Citation2012). On this basis, it can be predicted that penis size would exhibit more variation and a smaller mean size in the former than in the latter type of society. This prediction should be tested by future research.

On this basis, it can be argued further that the transition from a mode of life based on hunting and gathering to a mode of life based on agropastoralism, that took place approximately 10,000 years ago, would have weakened female choice (Apostolou, Citation2014). As a consequence, the penis would tend to exhibit more variation; this trend would have been reversed by the transition to post-industrialism and the strengthening of female choice, which places emphasis on intimacy and on receiving sexual pleasure. In evolutionary terms, the transition from pre-industrialism to post-industrialism has only taken place recently. This means that the allele frequencies for specific traits involved in mating are not optimal for modern conditions, as selection forces did not have adequate time to remove from the gene pool the ones that predispose for non-optimal variation. Therefore, the frequencies will be changing: since women prefer larger to smaller penises, the mean size of the penis is predicted to increase. In addition, since female choice is stronger now than it had been in the past, it is further predicted that the variation in size will decrease. Future studies need to examine whether such effects are present.

5.2. Size anxiety

As opposed to ancestral human pre-industrial societies, women in modern post-industrial societies are freer to exercise mate choice, and they would prefer mates who give them sufficient sexual satisfaction. Consequently, one’s capacity to provide sexual satisfaction is valued more in the mating market.

Thus, this difference between ancestral and modern conditions indicates that part of the variation in penis size allowed by selection forces in the past, may not be optimal for the present: men who carry alleles predisposing them for sizes that compromise their capacity to provide sexual satisfaction to women, in ancestral human societies, where this capacity was less important and women had limited space to exercise choice, would not face any or would face few intimate relationship problems. On the other hand, in post-industrial societies, where this capacity is more important and where women can exercise mate choice, this variation is likely to have more adverse effects on men’s mating success. In turn, reduced mating success has adverse consequences on reproductive success, which would result into the activation of mechanisms, such as feelings of anxiety that will prompt corrective action (Frank, Citation1988).

Accordingly, it is predicted that in modern post-industrial societies, a considerable part of the adult male population exhibits concerns about penis size. Consistent with this prediction, men frequently complain about the size of their penis (Lever, Frederick, & Peplau, Citation2006). In one study in the Middle East, when men were asked “Are you satisfied with the size of your penis?,” 30% answered “no” (Shaeer et al., Citation2012). Similarly, men worry that their romantic partner may not be satisfied with the size of their penis (Alter, Citation1995; Van Driel, Weijmar Schultz, Van DE Wiel, & Mensink, Citation1998).

Women indicate a preference for larger penis size (Lever et al., Citation2006; Shaeer et al., Citation2012), suggesting that most of the variation which is not optimal refers predominantly to smaller than larger sizes. This observation leads to the prediction that men’s concern would be directional toward larger size: they would predominantly worry that their penis is not large enough rather than it is too large. Consistent with this prediction, one Internet survey of 52,031 heterosexual individuals of both sexes found that 55% of men were satisfied with their penis size, 45% wanted to be larger, and 0.2% wanted to be smaller (Lever et al., Citation2006).

This reasoning also predicts that a considerable proportion of women would not be satisfied with the size of their partner’s penis. This is because there is variation in the population which is not satisfactory to women, but it has remained present due to weak selection pressures in ancestral societies. The second prediction is that the lack of satisfaction would be directional, with women preferring their partner to have larger rather than smaller penis. Consistent with these predictions, the large Internet study found that 16% of women in the sample were not satisfied with the penis size of their partner, 14% wanted their partner to be larger, and 2% wanted their partner to be smaller (Lever et al., Citation2006).

The direction of the difference mirrors men’s difference in concern where they want bigger and not smaller penises. The proportion of unsatisfied women does not mirror, however, the proportion of unsatisfied men. In particular, 14% of female participants wanted their partners to have large penises, but 45% of male participants wanted to have larger penises. One possible reason for this discrepancy could be that women underreport their lack of satisfaction. Another possibility is that men may not properly assess what size women prefer and how they fair with respect to other men. For instance, one study found that the majority of men who seek penile lengthening procedures have average length penises (Mondaini et al., Citation2002). This bias could be due to cultural factors, such as the consumption of porn, which may make men underestimate the size of their penis as they have biased reference points. It has also to be considered that this study was posted on MSNBC.com, and participants were self-selected. Future research needs to examine these differences more thoroughly.

The proposed framework predicts further that there will be cross-cultural variation in the concern men exhibit about size. In particular, in societies where mate choice is more regulated and women have a lower capacity to exercise choice, men would exhibit less concern about their size than in societies where mate choice is less regulated. Cross-cultural research needs to test this prediction.