Spitzer's not-so-biological urge

Psychologist David Barash's Op-Ed article "Want a man, or a worm?" uses a veneer of outdated science to rationalize personal opinions. Using Eliot Spitzer's sad sexual peccadilloes as a news peg, Barash makes the threadbare argument that men just can't help themselves, titillating his readers with the tattered news that male animals copulate with more than one mate -- an example of "extra pair copulations," or EPCs, as biologists call them.

By Jennie Dusheck

March 18, 2008