The queuing claim is only the latest in a welter of theories in the field of evolutionary psychology. In the last few years evolutionary psychology has been used to explain everything from consumer behaviour in supermarkets, to management theory, sexual attractiveness, divorce, war, football, road rage and even a supposed male propensity to rape. According to the theory, people eat too much because, as cavemen, we never knew where the next meal was coming from. Possibly there were Neanderthals who counted the calories, but the chances are they died out during the frequent famines of stone-age life, having failed to build up enough fat. Self help Likewise, according to the theory, early men learned to lust after women displaying the physical signs of fertility - thus ensuring the genetic traits which made women look fertile in the first place.
Husbands are unfaithful because spreading their seed helped men reproduce their genes.
It is also claimed that the supposed modern female preference for physically strong men has similar ancient, biological roots. The caveman within Businesses which recognise the essential caveman hiding within their staff and customers do better than those who delude themselves that modern people are more than a monkeys with clothes, driven solely by the most base physical instincts. But the theory also has many critics. Last month no less than 16 British and American psychologists and scientists lined up to denounce evolutionary psychology despite its growing popularity. The counter-claims came in a book of essays edited by Hilary Rose and Steven Rose of the Open University, entitled Alas, Poor Darwin.