Rob Henderson
Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, contributing editor at City Journal, and author of the national bestseller Troubled. A Yale- and Cambridge-trained psychologist, he writes on human nature, psychology, social class, culture, and the “luxury beliefs” concept he coined.
Women’s Economic Independence Is Reshaping Male Mate Competition
Macken Murphy argues that as women gain more financial independence, men may face less pressure to compete through provision and more through parenting effort and appearance—though he says the evidence is stronger for parenting than for beauty. Rob Henderson counters that increased paternal involvement in the US is concentrated among educated, upper-middle-class men, while Steve Stewart-Williams argues that changing norms about fathers’ responsibilities may also explain the shift. Their discussion treats sex differences in mate preferences as persistent under scarcity, but disputed in how economic and cultural change alters the traits men compete on.
Dating-App Attention Does Not Prove a Winner-Take-All Sex Market
Rob Henderson argues that the “Chad” narrative confuses concentrated attention on dating apps with evidence that a small group of attractive men are having sex with nearly all women. Citing reported annual partner counts, he says sexual activity is not evenly distributed, but the more visible casual-sex activity is concentrated among a minority of men and women open to short-term mating—not a winner-take-all market that excludes most men.