A latest study by Seattle Pacific University researchers says that men tend to walk slower while walking with their love interests.
The researchers found that men slow down their pace by seven percent to match a women's pace, only if they are romantically involved with them. However, they didn't slow down while walking with their friends, both male and female.
Lead study author and anthropologist Cara M Wall-Scheffler of the University of Washington said women who preserve energy are highly fertile. The men slow down to help the females save on their energy and protect their fertility.
"By men slowing down, the female reproduction is protected, and that's not something that is trivial," Wall-Scheffler explained. "There is so much data that when women are able to reduce the amount of energy they spend walking, they have more children."
The researchers said that men walk fast because they are larger in size and mass compared to women. If a woman tries to match a man's walking pace, she would end up burning more energy which would in turn stifle ovarian function. This could affect reproduction adversely.
The findings may prove helpful to understand the reproductive strategies of groups and could help deduce fossil footprint trials and hunter-gatherer strategies, such as the African bush or Australian outback.
"In indigenous, hunter-gatherer populations -- groups who are walking huge amounts -- we see females walking together with other females and we see men tending to walk by themselves or maybe with one other individual," Wall-Scheffler said. "That's typical, cross-culturally."
The study published in the journal PLOS One also found that women's walk remained the same while strolling with either their partners or friends.
