Bond
Brendan Zietsch et al.
American Naturalist, May 2011, Pages 605-616
Abstract:
Human mate choice is central to individuals' lives and to the evolution of the species, but the basis of variation in mate choice is not well understood. Here we looked at a large community-based sample of twins and their partners and parents (N > 20,000 individuals) to test for genetic and family environmental influences on mate choice, while controlling for and not controlling for the effects of assortative mating. Key traits were analyzed, including height, body mass index, age, education, income, personality, social attitudes, and religiosity. This revealed near-zero genetic influences on male and female mate choice over all traits and no significant genetic influences on mate choice for any specific trait. A significant family environmental influence was found for the age and income of females' mate choices, possibly reflecting parental influence over mating decisions. We also tested for evidence of sexual imprinting, where individuals acquire mate-choice criteria during development by using their opposite-sex parent as the template of a desirable mate; there was no such effect for any trait. The main discernible pattern of mate choice was assortative mating; we found that partner similarity was due to initial choice rather than convergence and also at least in part to phenotypic matching.
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Evolutionary History of Hunter-Gatherer Marriage Practices
Robert Walker et al.
PLoS ONE, April 2011, e19066
Background: The universality of marriage in human societies around the world suggests a deep evolutionary history of institutionalized pair-bonding that stems back at least to early modern humans. However, marriage practices vary considerably from culture to culture, ranging from strict prescriptions and arranged marriages in some societies to mostly unregulated courtship in others, presence to absence of brideservice and brideprice, and polyandrous to polygynous unions. The ancestral state of early human marriage is not well known given the lack of conclusive archaeological evidence.
Methodology: Comparative phylogenetic analyses using data from contemporary hunter-gatherers around the world may allow for the reconstruction of ancestral human cultural traits. We attempt to reconstruct ancestral marriage practices using hunter-gatherer phylogenies based on mitochondrial DNA sequences.
Results: Arranged marriages are inferred to go back at least to first modern human migrations out of Africa. Reconstructions are equivocal on whether or not earlier human marriages were arranged because several African hunter-gatherers have courtship marriages. Phylogenetic reconstructions suggest that marriages in early ancestral human societies probably had low levels of polygyny (low reproductive skew) and reciprocal exchanges between the families of marital partners (i.e., brideservice or brideprice).
Discussion: Phylogenetic results suggest a deep history of regulated exchange of mates and resources among lineages that enhanced the complexity of human meta-group social structure with coalitions and alliances spanning across multiple residential communities.
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System justification and the defense of committed relationship ideology
Martin Day et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
A consequential ideology in Western society is the uncontested belief that a committed relationship is the most important adult relationship and that almost all people want to marry or seriously couple (DePaulo & Morris, 2005). In the present article, we investigated the extent to which the system justification motive may contribute to the adoption of this ideology. In Studies 1 and 2, we examined whether a heightened motive to maintain the status quo would increase defense of committed relationship values. In Study 3, we examined the reverse association, that is, whether a threat to committed relationship ideology would also affect sociopolitical system endorsement. As past research has found that the justification of political systems depends upon how much these systems are perceived as controlling, in Study 4 we tested whether the defense of the system of committed relationships would also increase when framed as controlling. Results from Studies 1-4 were consistent with our hypotheses, but only for men. In Study 5, using cross-cultural data, we sought to replicate these findings correlationally and probe for a cause of the gender effect. Results from more than 33,000 respondents indicated a relationship (for men) between defense of the sociopolitical system and defense of marriage in countries where the traditional advantages of men over women were most threatened. In Studies 6 and 7, we investigated when this gender difference disappears. Results revealed that when we measured (Study 6) or manipulated (Study 7) personal relationship identity rather than relationship ideology, effects also emerge for women.
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Power Increases Infidelity among Men and Women
Joris Lammers et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using a large survey among 1561 professionals, the current research examines the relationship between power and infidelity and the process underlying it. Results show that elevated power is associated with higher infidelity because of increased confidence in the ability to attract partners. This is found for both actual infidelity and intentions to engage in infidelity in the future. Importantly, gender does not moderate these results: the relationship between power and infidelity is the same for women as for men, and for the same reason. These findings suggests that the common assumption (and often found effect) that women are less likely to engage in infidelity than men is, at least partially, a reflection of traditionally gender-based differences in power that exist in society.
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Social Inclusion Facilitates Risky Mating Behavior in Men
Donald Sacco et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although past research has reliably established unique effects of social exclusion on human cognition and behavior, the current research focuses on the unique effects of social inclusion. Recent evidence indicates that social inclusion leads to enhanced prioritization of reproductive interests. The current study extends these findings by showing that the pursuit of these inclusion-induced reproductive goals occurs in sex-specific ways. Across three experiments, social inclusion led men, but not women, to endorse riskier, more aggressive mating strategies compared to control and socially excluded participants. Specifically, included men were more likely to endorse sexual aggression (Experiment 1), high-risk mate poaching behaviors (Experiment 2), and high-risk mate retention tactics (Experiment 3). These results demonstrate that the experience of social inclusion can affect sex-differentiated preferences for risky mating strategies.
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All in the Family: Red States, Blue States, and Postmodern Family Patterns, 2000 and 2004
Renée Monson & Jo Beth Mertens
Sociological Quarterly, Spring 2011, Pages 244-267
Abstract:
In this article, we propose a new way of understanding presidential election outcomes in red and blue states in 2000 and 2004, one that takes into account state-level variation in postmodern family patterns. Using data from the Statistical Abstract, Census, the American Community Survey, and National Vital Statistics Reports, we construct two measures of state patterns of postmodern family formation (a father-absent family scale, and a small/delayed family scale). We find that these patterns of postmodern family formation are powerful predictors of states' percentage of votes cast for the Democratic candidate in 2000 and 2004, even after controlling for differences in the composition of states' populations and for differences in states' economic characteristics (rates of economic growth, unemployment, and poverty). We suggest ways that this approach could contribute to the literature on how individual-level factors, such as demographic characteristics and moral values, shape voting behavior and electoral outcomes.
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"Say it with flowers": The effect of flowers on mating attractiveness and behavior
Nicolas Gueguen
Social Influence, Spring 2011, Pages 105-112
Abstract:
For millennia flowers have been used to convey romance, yet their effect on human romantic behavior has not been explicitly tested. In two experiments we show that women's perception of male attractiveness and their potential mating behavior are positively affected by simple exposure to flowers. In Study 1 women who were exposed to flowers while they watched a video of a man perceived the man to be more attractive and sexier. They also reported being more inclined to accept a date from him. In Study 2 women who were exposed to flowers responded more favorably to an explicit solicitation from a male confederate in a subsequent interaction. The results show that the simple exposure to flowers had a significant effect on women's perception of mating attractiveness and behavior.
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Who Contacts Whom? Educational Homophily in Online Mate Selection
Jan Skopek, Florian Schulz & Hans-Peter Blossfeld
European Sociological Review, April 2011, Pages 180-195
Abstract:
Data from an online dating platform are used to study the importance of education for initiating and replying to online contacts. We analyse how these patterns are influenced by educational homophily and opportunity structures. Social exchange theory and mate search theory are used to explain online mate selection behaviour. Our results show that educational homophily is the dominant mechanism in online mate choice. Similarity in education significantly increases the rate of both sending and replying to initial contacts. After controlling for the opportunity structure on the platform, the preference for similar educated others is the most important factor, particularly among women. Our results also support the exchange theoretical idea that homophily increases with educational level. If dissimilarity contacting patterns are found, women are highly reluctant to contact partners with lower educational qualifications. Men, in contrast, do not have any problems to contact lower-qualified women. Studies of educational homogamy generally show that couples where women have a higher level of education are rare. Our study demonstrates that this is mainly the result of women's reluctance to contact lower qualified men.
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Marriage and Earnings: Why Do Married Men Earn More than Single Men?
Matthias Pollmann-Schult
European Sociological Review, April 2011, Pages 147-163
Abstract:
This article investigates how marriage affects the wages of men in Germany. A variety of reasons have been proposed for why married men earn higher wages than single men; however, previous tests of the leading explanations have been inconclusive. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, it is found that married men enjoy a wage premium even after controlling for self-selection into marriage. In contrast to the popular household specialization hypothesis, men do not substantially reduce their housework time following marriage; neither does the housework time significantly affect the wage rate. This finding contrasts the prevailing view that the wage differential between married and single men results from the division of labour within the household. However, men married to non-working partners receive a larger wage premium than men married to full-time working wives. It is further shown that married men feel less satisfied with their financial situation as compared to their single counterparts. These results indicate that a lower level of pay satisfaction induce married men to put more effort into their work, which leads to higher wages.
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The role of sexual imprinting and the Westermarck effect in mate choice in humans
Markus Rantala & Urszula Marcinkowska
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, May 2011, Pages 859-873
Abstract:
Positive sexual imprinting is a process by which individuals use the phenotype of their opposite-sex parent as a template for choosing mates and is suggested to play an important role in human mate choice. In contrast, negative imprinting, or "The Westermarck Effect", is characterized by individuals developing a strong sexual aversion to others with whom they lived closely in infancy and early childhood. In this review, we evaluate the literature on their effects on mate choice in humans. We find little evidence to support positive imprinting in humans because the studies either have serious design flaws, do not exclude effects of heritable mating preferences, or do not account for several possible alternative explanations. Instead, it seems that the opposite phenomenon, negative sexual imprinting, has some support from natural experiments which have found that individuals avoid mating with those with whom they lived closely in infancy and early childhood. However, it seems that early association does not produce a strong-enough aversion to completely annihilate sexual desire, probably because the mind uses multiple kinship cues to regulate inbreeding avoidance. Thus, it appears that the evidence for both types of imprinting is fairly weak in humans. Thus, more studies are needed to test the role of sexual imprinting on mate choice in humans, especially those measuring interactions between positive and negative imprinting.
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Simon Chu et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Women appear to exhibit a subtle reluctance to engage in long-term relationships with physically attractive, high-status men. We propose that this bias away from men of very high market value is based on fear that these males may desert a relationship and also on the comparative self-perceived market value of the women. Therefore, interpersonal trust and perceived market value should moderate the extent of this counterintuitive bias. To test this proposal, we asked women with varying levels of interpersonal trust and self-perceived desirability to consider physically-attractive and physically-average men of high, medium and low socioeconomic status and rate each in terms of attractiveness as a long-term partner. Results showed that women's perceptions of their own desirability and their level of trust predicted their ratings of men with high-value in the mating market, and that women with high levels of both desirability and trust were less likely to show a bias away from high-value men. Interpersonal trust and desirability moderate the degree to which women find physically attractive men attractive as potential partners.
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The Effect of Attractiveness on Food Sharing Preferences in Human Mating Markets
Michael Stirrat, Michael Gumert & David Perrett
Evolutionary Psychology, March 2011, Pages 79-91
Abstract:
The current study explored how physical attractiveness affects food sharing by studying payment preferences for hypothetical romantic dinner dates (a hypothetical mating market). We analyzed payment preferences, self-rated attractiveness, and rated attractiveness for hypothetical dates in 416 participants. We hypothesized that (1) men would be more likely to prefer to pay than would women, (2) attractive individuals of both sexes would be less willing to pay, and (3) preferences to enter an exchange would be influenced by the attractiveness of prospective partners such that (3a) men would prefer to pay for attractive women, and (3b) women would prefer to be paid for by attractive men. All hypotheses were supported by our results. Individuals with higher self-rated attractiveness were more likely to prefer that their date would pay for the meal, and we found clear sex differences in how the attractiveness of potential dates affected payment preferences. Male participants preferred to pay for dates that had higher facial attractiveness, while female participants preferred that attractive men would pay. Individuals show condition dependent financial preferences consistent with the provisioning hypothesis in this mating market that are adaptive to evaluations of their own quality and that of prospective partners.
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Investigating spousal influence using moment-to-moment affect data from marital conflict
Tara Madhyastha, Ellen Hamaker & John Gottman
Journal of Family Psychology, April 2011, Pages 292-300
Abstract:
Gottman and colleagues proposed using a dynamical systems model to study dyadic interaction in marriage. In this model, each spouse's affect in each 6-s window is described as a function of an uninfluenced linear steady state and a nonlinear influence function of the partner's affect in the previous window. Recently, an alternative parameter estimation procedure for the equations of marriage was introduced, which is based on threshold autoregressive models. We apply this estimation procedure to data from a study of couples (N = 124) and newlyweds (N = 130) to compare different forms of spousal influence using the Bayesian information criterion. Although results show some statistically significant evidence for influence, this is only slightly greater than what would be expected by random association. One model of influence does not fit all couples. This suggests that for many people initial state and emotional inertia dictate the outcome of the conflict discussion far more than the moment-to-moment affect of the spouse. This latter finding is in conflict with most models of couples' interaction, which suggest that the outcome of conflict discussions are determined by the nature of the couples' mutual influence processes.
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Carolyn Hodges-Simeon, Steven Gaulin & David Puts
Archives of Sexual Behavior, June 2011, Pages 551-557
Abstract:
Men's copulatory success can often be predicted by measuring traits involved in male contests and female choice. Previous research has demonstrated relationships between one such vocal trait in men, mean fundamental frequency (F 0), and the outcomes and indicators of sexual success with women. The present study investigated the role of another vocal parameter, F 0 variation (the within-subject SD in F 0 across the utterance, F 0-SD), in predicting men's reported number of female sexual partners in the last year. Male participants (N = 111) competed with another man for a date with a woman. Recorded interactions with the competitor ("competitive recording") and the woman ("courtship recording") were analyzed for five non-linguistic vocal parameters: F 0-SD, mean F 0, intensity, duration, and formant dispersion (D f , an acoustic correlate of vocal tract length), as well as dominant and attractive linguistic content. After controlling for age and attitudes toward uncommitted sex (SOI), lower F 0-SD (i.e., a more monotone voice) and more dominant linguistic content were strong predictors of the number of past-year sexual partners, whereas mean F 0 and D f did not significantly predict past-year partners. These contrasts have implications for the relative importance of male contests and female choice in shaping men's mating success and hence the origins and maintenance of sexually dimorphic traits in humans.
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Kissing right? On the consistency of the head-turning bias in kissing
John van der Kamp & Rouwen Cantildeal-Bruland
Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, May/June 2011, Pages 257-267
Abstract:
The present study investigated the consistency of the head-turning bias in kissing. In particular we addressed what happens if a person who prefers to kiss with the head turned to the right kisses a person who prefers to kiss with the head turned to the left. To this end, participants (N=57) were required to kiss a life-sized doll's head rotated in different orientations that were either compatible or incompatible with the participants' head-turning preference. Additionally, participants handedness, footedness, and eye preference was assessed. Results showed that a higher percentage of participants preferred to kiss with their head turned to the right than to the left. In addition, the right-turners were more consistent in their kissing behaviour than left-turners. That is, with the doll's head rotated in an incompatible direction, right-turners were less likely to switch their head to their non-preferred side. Since no clear relationships between head-turning bias and the other lateral preferences (i.e., handedness, footedness, and eye preference) were discerned, the more consistent head-turning bias among right-turners could not be explained as deriving from a joint pattern of lateral preferences that is stronger among individuals with rightward as compared to individuals with leftward lateral preferences.