Despite considerable cultural differences, a striking uniformity is argued to exist in human preferences for concealing sexual intercourse from the sensory perception of conspecifics. However, no systematic accounts support this claim, with only limited attempts to understand the selective pressures acting on the evolution of this preference. Here, I combine cross-cultural and cross-species comparative approaches to investigate these topics. First, an analysis of more than 4572 ethnographies from 249 cultures presents systematic evidence that the preference to conceal mating is widespread across cultures. Second, I argue that current anthropological hypotheses do not sufficiently explain why habitual concealment of mating evolved in humans but is only seldom exhibited by other social species. Third, I introduce the cooperation maintenance hypothesis, which postulates that humans, and a specific category of non-human species, conceal matings to prevent sexual arousal in witnesses (proximate explanation). This allows them to simultaneously maintain mating control over their partner(s) and cooperation with group members who are prevented from mating (ultimate explanations). I conclude by presenting a comparative framework and predictions to be tested across species and human cultures.

中文翻译：

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为什么人类和非人类物种隐藏交配？合作维持假说

尽管存在相当大的文化差异，但人们认为在人类对同种感官知觉隐藏性交的偏好中存在惊人的一致性。然而，没有系统的解释支持这种说法，只有有限的尝试来了解作用于这种偏好演变的选择压力。在这里，我结合跨文化和跨物种的比较方法来研究这些主题。首先，对来自 249 种文化的超过 4572 份民族志的分析提供了系统证据，表明隐藏交配的偏好在不同文化中普遍存在。其次，我认为当前的人类学假设并不能充分解释为什么人类进化出习惯性隐藏交配，而其他社会物种很少表现出来。第三，我介绍合作维持假说，该假说假定人类和特定类别的非人类物种隐藏交配以防止目击者的性唤起（近似解释）。这使他们能够同时保持对其伴侣的交配控制以及与被阻止交配的群体成员的合作（最终解释）。最后，我提出了一个比较框架和预测，以供跨物种和人类文化进行测试。