A report has revealed that men from polygamous cultures live longer than those from monogamous ones.
This development came on the heels of a study observed by researchers from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (UK).
The researchers studied men who are older than 60 and practice polygamy from 140 countries and discovered that they lived an average of 12 percent longer than men from 49 monogamous nations, according to Fox News.
The findings of the study were presented at the international society for behavioral ecology’s annual meeting in Ithaca, New York.
The researchers checked the previous research on women to answer why polygamous men live longer and concluded that it was as a result of a variation of the “grandmother effect.”
Scientists believe that women, who live considerably longer post-menopause than other mammals, do so because the longer they live the more grandchildren they have to dote on.
Caring for grandchildren, it seems, gives women a reason to live long after they’re no longer able to reproduce.
Doting on grandchildren, however, does not have the same life-lengthening benefits for men.
However, men are able to reproduce into their 60s, 70s and 80s.
Hence, the researchers said that polygamous men experience a sort of father effect, meaning that, the more wives they have, the more children they tend to care for.
According to the researchers, nurturing more children gives men a reason to continue living longer than monogamous men who often stop fathering children at much earlier ages.
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