Grasp the Nettle

Came across this article a while ago, which claims that women have more orgasms if partners are wealthier according to an analysis they did of a survey.

The link between enjoyment of sex and partner’s wealth was statistically significant even when they took into account other factors such as age, education, happiness, the length of relationship and health. The scientists say the findings could be explained by bias in the study – that women who have frequent orgasms tend to overestimate their partner’s income, or that women with ‘high powered’ partners exaggerate how much they enjoy sex. ‘While we cannot rule out reporting bias, we note that the interviews took place away from the respondents’ home, without their partner present and with the respondents able to input their responses directly into the computer if they so wished,’ Dr Pollet said. It is also possible that women who are highly susceptible to orgasms select partners who are wealthy, he said. He added: ‘The third interpretation is that more desirable mates cause women to experience more orgasms,’ he said. If this is true, a woman’s ‘capacity for orgasm’ could have evolved to help her discriminate between males on the basis of their quality, he added. The link between enjoyment of sex and wealth has also been found in studies in Germany and America. Evolutionary biologists argue that every aspect of sex – from courtship to the quality of orgasms – is influenced by millions of years of evolution. Although many people find the idea that women enjoy sex more with rich partners offensive, some biologists argue that the instinct makes evolutionary sense. Women have to invest so much time and personal risk into each baby, it is crucial that they get the most successful and healthy partner so they can to improve the chances of their own DNA being passed on. A man, in contrast, can father hundreds, or even thousands, of babies in a lifetime and so invests less in each child. That means they do not have to be so choosy about whether their partner is socially successful. The result of this battle of the sexes is that women are more influenced by the social status, intelligence, quick wits and success of a partner than men are, scientists argue. Wealth is usually an obvious indicator of success.

Question: suppose I demonstrate that a woman exists who thinks anyone who “hoards excess wealth” is immoral, and finds sex with them repulsive. Does this refute a theory of biologically-driven sexual attraction which (somehow?) discriminates for wealth, while still being compatible with a theory that explains sexual attraction through memes? If not, why?

Another question: how would the hypothesized “instinct” even work? When one is rich, does one emit a pheromone of some kind?