How Romantic
Faith and unfaithfulness: Can praying for your partner reduce infidelity?
Frank Fincham, Nathaniel Lambert & Steven Beach
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Because religion and/or spirituality is integral to the lives of a majority of the world population, we conducted 3 studies on the role of prayer in romantic relationships. Study 1 (N = 375) showed that prayer for the partner predicted lower levels of extradyadic romantic behavior over a 6-week period, over and beyond relationship satisfaction, and initial levels of extradyadic romantic behavior. In Study 2 (N = 83), we used an experimental design to show that participants assigned to pray for each day for 4 weeks engaged in lower levels of extradyadic romantic behavior during that time, compared with those who engaged in daily positive thoughts about the partner or a neutral activity. Perception of the relationship as sacred mediated the relation between experimentally manipulated prayer and later infidelity. Study 3 (N = 23) showed that objective observers rated participants who had been praying for their partner for 4 weeks as more committed to their romantic relationship than control participants. The implications of these results are then discussed.
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Carey Fitzgerald, Matthew Thompson & Mitchell Whitaker
Evolutionary Psychology, August 2010, Pages 462-476
Abstract:
When the cost of altruism is low, individuals are more likely to help non-kin (i.e., friends and romantic partners) than kin. This trend is thought to reflect the fact that people tend to be emotionally closer with friends and romantic partners than kin. However, as the cost of altruism increases, altruistic preference shifts to kin. The present study highlights this phenomenon by examining altruism between siblings, romantic partners, romantic partners who have biological children together, and romantic partners who have adopted children together. Participants (n = 203) completed a questionnaire about altruism in low-, medium-, and high-cost situations. Participants gave more low-cost help to their romantic partners (regardless of whether they had a child together) than their siblings. More medium-cost help was given to romantic partners who had a child (biological and adopted) than siblings and romantic partners without children. In the high-cost condition, the estimated altruistic tendencies were stronger toward siblings and romantic partners who have a biological child than toward romantic partners with no children and partners with adopted children. Participants also believed they were more altruistic than their siblings and romantic partners.
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Christopher Watkins, Benedict Jones & Lisa DeBruine
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Masculine facial characteristics are associated with indices of men's dominance. Previous research found that shorter men were more likely to attribute high dominance to masculine men, suggesting that dominant men are less sensitive to cues of dominance in other men than relatively subordinate men are. In the current study, we tested for novel evidence for this hypothesis. We observed a negative correlation between men's own dominance, assessed using the dominance subscale of the international personality items pool, and the extent to which they attributed dominance to masculine male, but not female, faces. Such variation in dominance perception supports the proposal that less dominant men are more sensitive to cues of dominance in other men and may be adaptive if less dominant men incur greater costs if they incorrectly perceive the dominance of male rivals.
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The Effect of Unemployment and Relative Income Disparity on Infidelity for Men and Women
Christin Munsch
Cornell Working Paper, August 2010
Abstract:
This paper investigates the factors related to infidelity for both men and women and uses social identity theory to develop an interactional model of male infidelity. I argue that, for men, making less money than a female partner may threaten men's gender identity by calling into question the traditional notion of men as breadwinners, and that this relationship may be particularly strong for certain subgroups of the population that highly value traditional masculinity like Latino men. Using panel data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97), I find evidence in favor of the interactional theory proposed. For men, the more economically dependent one is on a female partner, the more likely he is to engage in infidelity, although this relationship disappears once individual and institutional mechanisms are controlled. Also, the more economically dependent a man's female partner is on him, the more likely he is to engage in infidelity. This relationship is mediated by relationship satisfaction. For women, economic dependency seems to have the opposite effect: the more dependent women are on their male partners, the less likely they are to engage in infidelity, net of the individual and institutional controls. For Hispanic men, being economically dependent on a female partner dramatically increases the likelihood that one will engage in infidelity. Finally, I find that the more times per week an individual attends a religious service the less likely he or she is to cheat, the more education one reports the less likely he or she is to engage in infidelity, and the more satisfied one reports being in his or her relationship, the less likely he or she is to engage in infidelity.
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Soledad de Lemus, Miguel Moya & Peter Glick
Sex Roles, August 2010, Pages 214-225
Abstract:
The present research examines how romantic relationship experience and age predict ambivalent sexism in adolescents. We measured sexist beliefs and romantic relationship experience in a large sample of Spanish adolescents (N = 1447), ranging from 12 to 19 years of age. Consistent with prior research, age predicted less sexist beliefs. Controlling for the effects of age, relationship experience predicted increased hostile sexism in girls and increased benevolent sexism in boys. Additionally, younger boys (12-14 years) with greater relationship experience tended to endorse hostile sexism more strongly. The general decline in sexism over the course of adolescence masks a contrasting effect of romantic experience, which suggests that heterosexual adolescents' desire to attract romantic partners may foster, rather than reduce, sexism.
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The Effect of Mortality Salience on Women's Judgments of Male Faces
James Vaughn, Kristopher Bradley, Jennifer Byrd-Craven & Shelia Kennison
Evolutionary Psychology, August 2010, Pages 477-491
Abstract:
Previous research has shown that individuals who are reminded of their death exhibited a greater desire for offspring than those who were not reminded of their death. The present research investigated whether being reminded of mortality affects mate selection behaviors, such as facial preference judgments. Prior research has shown that women prefer more masculine faces when they are at the high versus low fertility phase of their menstrual cycles. We report an experiment in which women were tested either at their high or fertility phase. They were randomly assigned to either a mortality salience (MS) or control condition and then asked to judge faces ranging from extreme masculine to extreme feminine. The results showed that women's choice of the attractive male face was determined by an interaction between fertility phase and condition. In control conditions, high fertility phase women preferred a significantly more masculine face than women who were in a lower fertility phase of their menstrual cycles. In MS conditions, high fertility phase women preferred a significantly less masculine (i.e., more average) face than women who were in a low fertility phase. The results indicate that biological processes, such as fertility phase, involved in mate selection are sensitive to current environmental factors, such as death reminders. This sensitivity may serve as an adaptive compromise when choosing a mate in potentially adverse environmental conditions.
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Leandra Mae Smollin
Northeastern University Working Paper, August 2010
Abstract:
The depiction of violence between women in same-sex relationships on Sex and the City, The L Word, and The O.C. present a troubling picture of lesbian sexuality and relationships. While representations of lesbian relationships on these popular scripted dramas seem to evidence the mainstreaming of queer sexuality in entertainment media, the positive effects of such visibility are undermined by the perpetuation of historically-based connections between violent, aggressive women and lesbianism. In these portrayals, authentic lesbianism is marked by the exhibition of traditionally masculine physical and behavioral traits, including the use of violent behavior to control one's partner. These depictions also reinforce racism, sexism, and homophobia; suggest that the solution to lesbian partner violence is heterosexuality; and present highly sexualized, violent images that lack social, political or historical contextualization. While rates of intimate partner violence in same-sex relationships approximate those of heterosexual couples, popular depictions of lesbian partner violence are depoliticized; effectively working to keep lesbian victims of violence silenced and reinforcing hegemonic ideologies of gender and sexuality.
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Anna Goodman & Ilona Koupil
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Humans are an exceptionally intelligent species, and the selective pressures which may have shaped these advanced cognitive powers are therefore of interest. This study investigates the fitness consequences of pre-reproductive school performance in a Swedish population-based cohort of 5244 males and 4863 females born 1915-1929. School performance was measured at around age 10 using three variables: mean school marks, being promoted/held back in school, and recognised learning difficulties. Our primary outcomes were probability of ever marrying, total number of children and total number of grandchildren. In males (but not females), poorer school performance predicted fewer children and grandchildren. This was primarily mediated via probability of marriage; mortality and fertility within marriage were not important mediating pathways. The effect of school performance upon marriage in males was independent of early-life social and biological characteristics, including birth weight for gestational age, preterm birth, family composition, and family socioeconomic position. The effect of school performance upon the probability of marriage in males was, however, largely mediated by adult socioeconomic position. This suggests that in general sexual selection for cognitive abilities per se did not play a major role in either males or females in this cohort. Adult socioeconomic position did not, however, fully explain the marriage disadvantage in males or (at marginal significance) females with particularly poor school performance. We conclude that school performance can affect long-term reproductive success. In this population, however, the effect is confined to males and is largely mediated by the increased probability of marriage which comes with their greater socioeconomic success.
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Female Scarcity Reduces Women's Marital Ages and Increases Variance in Men's Marital Ages
Daniel Kruger, Carey Fitzgerald & Tom Peterson
Evolutionary Psychology, August 2010, Pages 420-431
Abstract:
When women are scarce in a population relative to men, they have greater bargaining power in romantic relationships and thus may be able to secure male commitment at earlier ages. Male motivation for long-term relationship commitment may also be higher, in conjunction with the motivation to secure a prospective partner before another male retains her. However, men may also need to acquire greater social status and resources to be considered marriageable. This could increase the variance in male marital age, as well as the average male marital age. We calculated the Operational Sex Ratio, and means, medians, and standard deviations in marital ages for women and men for the 50 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States with 2000 U.S Census data. As predicted, where women are scarce they marry earlier on average. However, there was no significant relationship with mean male marital ages. The variance in male marital age increased with higher female scarcity, contrasting with a non-significant inverse trend for female marital age variation. These findings advance the understanding of the relationship between the OSR and marital patterns. We believe that these results are best accounted for by sex specific attributes of reproductive value and associated mate selection criteria, demonstrating the power of an evolutionary framework for understanding human relationships and demographic patterns.
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Context Effects on Women's Perceptions of Stranger Harassment
Kimberly Fairchild
Sexuality & Culture, September 2010, Pages 191-216
Abstract:
The current research suggests that perceptions of stranger harassment experiences (i.e., experiencing unwanted sexual attention in public) are altered by the context of the situation. Study one investigated which elements of the situation (context) might be most influential in increasing fear and enjoyment of the catcalling experience. Attractiveness and age of the perpetrator, time of day, and whether the victim was alone or with friends were some of the categories that were selected as influencing both fear and enjoyment. Study two used a perspective taking methodology to ask women to predict a target character's emotions, fears, and behaviors in harassment situations that varied by context. Results mirror the sexual harassment literature and suggest that harassment by younger and attractive men is viewed as less harassing. Exploratory analyses were also conducted with women's personal experiences with stranger harassment as well as gender differences in perceptions. Context plays a vital role in interpretation of stranger harassment.
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Offensive jokes: How do they impact long-term relationships?
Jeffrey Hall & Ken Sereno
Humor - International Journal of Humor Research, August 2010, Pages 351-373
Abstract:
This article explores the impact of the use of negative humor on relational satisfaction and the importance of humor in long-term relationships from a coorientation perspective. Dyadic data from 123 couples were gathered using a survey measuring positive and negative humor use. These data were analyzed using structural equations modeling and the Actor-Partner Independence Model (Kenny et al., Dyadic data analysis, The Guilford Press, 2006: 144). Negative humor weakly predicted relational outcomes, but was valuable when partners saw themselves as possessing a shared sense of humor. Men acknowledge that their own public negative humor use negatively impacts the importance of humor in their relationship. Perceived similarity in negative humor use positively predicts relational satisfaction for both partners, and positively predicts the importance of humor for men, regardless of how much positive humor the couple uses. Accurately knowing a partner's negative humor use, or having greater understanding, negatively predicted relational outcomes.
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Age, puberty and attractiveness judgments in adolescents
Tamsin Saxton, Dagmar Kohoutova, Craig Roberts, Benedict Jones, Lisa DeBruine & Jan Havlicek
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous work has suggested that judgments of the attractiveness of some facial and vocal features change during adolescence. Here, over 70 Czech adolescents aged 12-14 made forced-choice attractiveness judgments on adolescent faces manipulated in symmetry, averageness and femininity, and on adolescent opposite-sex voices manipulated in fundamental frequency (perceived as pitch), and completed questionnaires on pubertal development. Consistent with typical adult judgments, adolescents selected the symmetric, average and feminine male and female faces as more attractive significantly more often than the asymmetric, non-average and masculine faces respectively. Moreover, preferences for symmetric faces were positively associated with adolescents' age and stage of pubertal development. Unexpectedly, voice pitch did not significantly influence adolescents' attractiveness judgments. Collectively, these findings present new evidence using refined methodology that adolescent development is related to variation in attractiveness judgments.
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Correlated Male Preferences for Femininity in Female Faces and Voices
Paul Fraccaro, David Feinberg, Lisa DeBruine, Anthony Little, Christopher Watkins & Benedict Jones
Evolutionary Psychology, August 2010, Pages 447-461
Abstract:
Sexually dimorphic physical traits are important for mate choice and mate preference in many species, including humans. Several previous studies have observed that women's preferences for physical cues of male masculinity in different domains (e.g., visual and vocal) are correlated. These correlations demonstrate systematic, rather than arbitrary, variation in women's preferences for masculine men and are consistent with the proposal that sexually dimorphic cues in different domains reflect a common underlying aspect of male quality. Here we present evidence for a similar correlation between men's preferences for different cues of femininity in women; although men generally preferred feminized to masculinized versions of both women's faces and voices, the strength of men's preferences for feminized versions of female faces was positively and significantly correlated with the strength of their preferences for feminized versions of women's voices. In a second study, this correlation occurred when men judged women's attractiveness as long-term, but not short-term, mates, which is consistent with previous research. Collectively, these findings (1) present novel evidence for systematic variation in men's preferences for feminine women, (2) present converging evidence for concordant preferences for sexually dimorphic traits in different domains, and (3) complement findings of correlations between women's facial and vocal femininity.
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Far above rubies: Bride price and extramarital sexual relations in Uganda
David Bishai & Shoshana Grossbard
Journal of Population Economics, September 2010, Pages 1177-1187
Abstract:
The custom of bride price involves the payment of goods or cash from the groom's family to the bride's family at the time of marriage. Data from a household survey in Uganda were used to estimate the relationship between payment of bride price and non-marital sexual relationships. A robust correlation between bride price payment and lower rates of non-marital sexual relationships is found for women but not for men. One interpretation we offer for these findings is that bride price reflects the price of women's sexual fidelity to men. This interpretation makes sense in light of the refundable nature of bride price in Uganda.
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Menelaos Apostolou
Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, September 2010, Pages 205-216
Abstract:
Marriage is associated with some form of financial transaction, the most common of which is bridewealth. To bear the costs of bridewealth, sons rely on the assistance of their fathers, which in turn makes the latter influential over the former's mating decisions. Effectively, bridewealth becomes an instrument through which male parents impose their will on their male offspring. On these grounds three hypotheses are tested: first, it is hypothesised that in societies where bridewealth is practiced, men are more influential over marriage arrangements; second due to its material nature, bridewealth is more frequently practiced in agropastoral societies than in foraging ones. Finally, the hypothesis is tested that sons are more dependent upon their parents for shouldering the costs of bridewealth in agropastoral than in foraging societies. Using data from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample this study finds evidence in support for all three hypotheses. These findings partially explain why sexual selection under parental choice is stronger in agropastoral than in foraging societies.
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Masculinity and interpersonal competencies: Contrasting White and African American men
Suzanne Lease, Ashley Hampton, Kristie Fleming, Linda Baggett, Sarah Montes & John Sawyer
Psychology of Men & Masculinity, July 2010, Pages 195-207
Abstract:
Masculinity ideologies inform expectations for how men should behave, and one important realm of behavior is that of interpersonal relationships. Conforming to Western-defined traditional male role norms has been linked to numerous aspects of relational health and functioning. However, as masculinity ideologies reflect the internalization of cultural beliefs and attitudes about men's roles, the associations between masculine ideologies and interpersonal functioning could differ by racial cultural group. This study examined differences between White and African American men's endorsements of traditional masculinity ideology and compared the associations between masculinity ideology and interpersonal competencies with relationship partners and coworkers. Although there were few differences in the endorsement of male role norms between the two groups, canonical correlations indicated different patterns of associations with coworkers and relationship partners for White and African American men. The endorsement of the Toughness role norm was strongly and inversely related to interpersonal competencies for White men, but was not significantly related to interpersonal competencies for African American men. The Status norm was inversely related to interpersonal competencies for White men, but positively related to competencies for African American men. Research and practice implications are discussed.