Mating Context
Security priming in everyday life: How do symbols of close others support attachment in adulthood?
Karl Conroy & Chris Fraley
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Security priming refers to the idea that exposure to simple, attachment-relevant cues — such as photographs of loved ones — can enhance psychological security and related outcomes. While security priming effects have been robustly demonstrated in laboratory settings, there is growing interest in whether such techniques can be effectively applied in everyday contexts, with an eye toward scalable interventions. In the present research, we examined whether using a romantic partner’s photo as a phone lock screen image could influence attachment security. In Study 1 (N = 4,741), we found that people who had images of their romantic partners on their lock screens reported greater attachment security. In Study 2 (N = 306), participants in romantic relationships were randomly assigned to add photos of their partners to their lock screens. We found that, although there was evidence of selection effects (i.e., secure people having those images on their screens already), there were no security priming effects. In Study 3 (N = 249), participants were randomly assigned to remove images of their partners from their screens. In contrast to Study 2, this removal led to measurable declines in attachment security over time. These findings suggest that while lock screen images may reflect existing levels of security, their removal — rather than their addition — can have detectable psychological effects. We discuss the implications for designing low-cost, scalable interventions aimed at enhancing attachment security and for understanding the role of “invisible infrastructure” in shaping psychological functioning.
Educated and Alone? How Gender Imbalances in Higher Education Shape the Marriage Market
Mahla Shourian & Pallab Ghosh
University of Oklahoma Working Paper, January 2026
Abstract:
The gender gap in higher education has reversed over the past several decades, with women now comprising a substantial majority of college graduates. This paper investigates the implications of this shift for marriage market dynamics by examining how the declining ratio of college-educated men to women affects marriage rates among college-educated women. To estimate the causal impact, we implement an instrumental variable (IV) strategy that exploits variation in state-level funding cuts to public colleges -- an exogenous shock that influenced gender-specific college enrollment patterns but is plausibly unrelated to marriage decisions. In the first stage, we use data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to predict changes in the female-to-male college enrollment and completion ratios driven by these funding reductions. In the second stage, we link these predicted values to marriage outcomes using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS). The findings indicate that a relative decline in the availability of similarly educated men significantly reduces marriage rates among college-educated women, highlighting how shifts in educational attainment can constrain partner availability and alter patterns of union formation.
Polygyny, Western Egalitarianism, and the Relative Status of Women in Society
Satoshi Kanazawa
Economics & Politics, forthcoming
Abstract:
It is commonly believed that women experience lower relative status in polygynous societies, whereas it is mathematically the case that the average woman benefits materially (and the average man suffers reproductively) from the polygynous institution of marriage. In 1999, Kanazawa and Still hypothesized that the apparent negative correlation between polygyny and women's status was spurious and can be explained by “Western egalitarianism,” which simultaneously decreases inequality among men and thereby polygyny (according to the female choice theory of marriage institution) and decreases inequality between the sexes, thereby elevating women's status. However, their hypothesis was never empirically tested. I put Kanazawa and Still's hypothesis to an empirical test. Analyses of three widely varied international measures of gender inequality show that polygyny was not associated with women's relative status in society net of Western egalitarianism. Robustness checks confirm that the results are not unique to a specific measure of Western egalitarianism. The international data leave very little doubt that women experience lower relative status in polygynous societies, not because they are polygynous, but because they are inegalitarian and citizens (both women and men) lack civil liberties.
Female infertility diagnosis and adult-onset psychiatric conditions: A matched cohort study
Khaoula Ben Messaoud et al.
Human Reproduction, January 2026, Pages 108-115
Study Design, Size, Duration: This study employed a matched-pair design within the UK Biobank (UKB) cohort, including 3893 females with a diagnosis of infertility and 15 603 matched female controls, totaling 19 496 participants.
Participants/Materials, Setting, Methods: Female UKB participants with a diagnosis of infertility were matched to females without the diagnosis in a 1:4 ratio based on year of birth, index of deprivation of their residency area, and primary care data linkage status. The diagnosis of female infertility was identified by the first occurrence of a primary or secondary diagnosis in either primary care or hospital records. Additional analyses explored interactions between infertility diagnosis and both miscarriage and childbearing status on psychiatric conditions.
Main Results and the Role of Chance: Diagnosis of infertility was associated with higher risks of mood disorders, anxiety- and stress-related disorders, and behavioral syndromes with physical components, but not with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. The most notable increases in the risk of psychiatric diagnoses were observed 9 years after the first infertility diagnosis. No significant interactions were found between infertility diagnosis and either miscarriage or childbearing status on psychiatric conditions. Sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of these associations across different data sources for infertility diagnosis and psychiatric condition ascertainment.
In-Person and Virtual Dates are Comparable, But People Don’t Know It
Elina Moreno et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Virtual dating has become popular, but how do people feel about potential romantic partners on virtual versus in-person first dates? In Study 1, a sample of online participants predicted that in-person dates would be markedly better than virtual dates. Study 2 examined whether this prediction received support in a dataset of 4,542 real-life blind dates. We examined first-date outcomes (e.g., date enjoyment and attraction) and partner trait-perceptions (e.g., ambitious and confident) reported after each date. In-person dates were generally longer, but otherwise, virtual and in-person dates were highly similar across the full sample, and virtual dates outperformed in-person dates when controlling for date length. We conducted a one-with-many Social Relations Model analysis on a subsample of Study 2 daters (n = 1,833 dates) and documented a modest amount of actor and partner variance, and a large amount of relationship variance. Virtual dates may be an underappreciated screening strategy for potential partners.