ABSTRACT
The love game is one with subconscious rules that often shift about without warning. The relative availability of mating partners is called the operational sex ratio. The operational sex ratio is different from the sex ratio, which is simply the ratio of males to females of all ages in a population. A sex ratio that is significantly lower than produced by natural random fluctuations has negative consequences that infiltrate all aspects of a society and changes its culture. While it is obvious that low sex ratios have significant negative impact on committed love, the notion that too few males pose a threat to the social order sounds counterintuitive since the greatest single risk factor for crime and any number of other social maladies is maleness. In high sex-ratio conditions, males who have gained access to mates jealously guard them and provide them with valuable resources and parenting effort.
