The Evolution of Desire” covers numerous aspects of human mating psychology, including short- and long-term committed mating, tactics people use to attract mates, strategies people use to retain mates, various forms of conflict that emerge on the mating scene and mating emotions, such as love and jealousy. “The Evolution of Desire” is based on the largest study ever conducted on human mating. “It starts with what men and women want in a mate and what our desires are in a mate,” Buss said. “Everything follows from what we desire in a partner, so that’s the key to everything else. If you know what someone else wants in a mate, then the successful tactics of attracting that person will, in the end, fulfill their desires.” Strategies, emotions and conflict are all important components of human mating psychology, which Buss said are often under-researched or misunderstood, especially jealousy, which actually plays a very large role in the mating process. “People often see jealousy as an immature emotion or as a sign of insecurity or low self-esteem,” he said. “Well it turns out that almost everybody has this emotion of jealousy, and it serves a very important function in guarding the relationship, preventing mate poachers from intruding on the relationship and also sometimes even serves as a signal of commitment to the partner.