What are the dangers of a man having multiple wives and concubines?

　　According to the British magazine The Economist, there are many reasons why scientists consider males to have shorter lifespans. One of these is the theory of mate competition, which suggests that males must compete with each other for the opportunity to reproduce. This means they face greater competitive pressures in finding mates, and the cost of this competition is a reduction in their lifespan. On the contrary, females do not have to endure such pressure.

　　If this theory is correct, then animals that practice polygamy should definitely exhibit a significant shorter lifespan for males, whereas in monogamous species, there should be no noticeable difference in lifespan between males and females.

　　To test whether this theory was correct, two scientists from the UK and India designed an experiment and published their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society in the UK, attempting to establish the impact of “mate competition” on the lifespan of males. The two scientists are Tim Clutton-Brock from the University of Cambridge in the UK and Kavita Iswara from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

　　The basic idea of the experiment is to compare whether animals in polygamous societies live shorter lives and age more rapidly than those in monogamous societies.