Seduction

Seen positively, seduction is synonymous for the act of charming someone—male or female—by an appeal to the senses, often with the goal of reducing unfounded fears and leading to "sexual emancipation".

Some sides in contemporary academic debate state that the morality of seduction depends on the long-term impacts on the individuals concerned, rather than the act itself, and may not necessarily carry the negative connotations expressed in dictionary definitions.

[8] Famous seducers from history or legend include Lilith, Giacomo Casanova, and the fictional character Don Juan.

[9] Seduction is a popular motif in history and fiction, both as a warning of the social consequences of engaging in the behaviour or becoming its victim, and as a salute to a powerful skill.

Eve herself was verbally seduced by the serpent, believed in Christianity to be Satan; later, Chapter 7 of Proverbs warns of the pitfalls of seduction.

Famous male seducers, their names synonymous with sexual allure, range from Genji to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester[11] and James Bond.

In biblical times, because unmarried females who lost their virginity had also lost much of their value as marriage prospects, the Old Testament Book of Exodus specifies that the seducer must marry his victim or pay her father to compensate him for his loss of the marriage price: "And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.

Individuals employing such strategies often do so subconsciously and will merely report the feelings and thoughts that they subjectively experienced and are colloquially comparable to 'attraction'[15] or 'love'.

Men more commonly wish to engage in more frequent short-term mating,[18] which may require this strategy of seduction used to access the female for intercourse.

[14] Ultimately, both males and females have reported preferring seduction above all other strategies, such as the use of power or aggression, for making a potential partner agree to sexual intercourse.

[19] Human mate poaching refers to when either a male or female purposefully entices another individual who is already in an established relationship into sexual relations with them.

[20] The associated benefits also include increased sexual variety, access to physically attractive mates, and non-committal copulations.

Evolutionarily speaking, we are descended from our reproductively-successful ancestors who managed to solve the adaptive problem of finding a mate with the required characteristics needed at that time in their lives, e.g., plenty of resources, physical attractiveness, and showing signs of honest fertility.

Leftover by-products from human evolution, such as preferences for fat and sugar,[21] are not adaptive in western cultures at present, and thus similar poaching behaviours could still remain.

The triad of traits ancestrally would not have been adaptive for women, because females were and still are less likely or less willing to engage in casual sex,[25][26] because of the lack of certainty of resources to provide for her and her offspring.

For example, females are better able to access meats, goods or services in exchange for sexual intercourse or if she were to give birth to a child whose father has better genes than her husband.

Women strongly desire the resources and commitment that comes with paternal parental investment and therefore impose a longer period of time for courtship and use of seduction prior to engaging in a long-term sexual relationship.

[5] Within the interactive seduction game, non-verbal communication is a prominent feature in accessing the desirable potential mate.

Studies have shown that when initiating an interaction with a female, the seductive characteristics of the voice will begin with slightly higher pitch and increased articulation in the first meeting.

[3] English common law defined the crime of seduction as a felony committed "when a male person induced an unmarried female of previously chaste character to engage in an act of sexual intercourse on a promise of marriage."

A father had the right to maintain an action for the seduction of his daughter (or the enticement of a son who left home), since this deprived him of services or earnings.

[36] In more modern times, Frank Sinatra was charged in New Jersey in 1938 with seduction, having enticed a woman "of good repute to engage in sexual intercourse with him upon his promise of marriage.

They often use attractive women from their gang in order to bribe, get money from, or damage the careers of male politicians, police officers, or government agents, as well as members of the general public.

The Proposition (1872), William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905)
Delilah cutting Samson 's hair , c. 1460
The Dark Triad, proposed by Paulhus and Williams (2002)