Mates
Does Low-Cost Sexual Gratification Make Men Less Eager to Marry? Pornography Use, Masturbation, Hookup Sex, and Desire to Be Married Among Single Men
Samuel Perry
Archives of Sexual Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Coinciding with declining rates of marriage and coupled sex in the U.S., some scholars have proposed that the growing availability of “low-cost sexual gratification” or “cheap sex” — sexual activities such as hookups, pornography use, and masturbation that demand little effort or investment — will lead men to find marital commitment less appealing. Using data from two nationally representative surveys of American adults (2012 New Family Structures Study, N = 349; 2014 Relationships in America Survey, N = 1402), the current study tested the thesis that unmarried men’s pornography use, masturbation habits, or frequency of recent hookup sex would be associated with a lower likelihood of them finding marriage desirable. This thesis was unsupported. In both surveys, masturbation and hookup sex were not associated with unmarried men wishing to be married, while pornography use was robustly and linearly associated with a higher likelihood of wanting to be married. This association was apparent at both the bivariate level and after taking into account sexual satisfaction, relationship status, beliefs about marriage, and a host of other potential confounds. Findings suggest that, rather than making marriage less desirable, some forms of “low-cost sexual gratification” such as pornography use to predict a comparatively higher desire for marriage. The implications of these findings are considered in light of sex-exchange theories of marital commitment and the large body of previous research connecting pornography use to more liberal, non-monogamous sexual attitudes.
Is White Always Right? Skin Color and Interdating Among Whites
Emilce Santana
Race and Social Problems, December 2020, Pages 313–322
Abstract:
The burgeoning literature on skin color stratification highlights how skin color is associated with disparities in outcomes such as socioeconomic status, health, and intergroup relationships among ethnoracial minorities. However, there is a limited body of work that suggests that darker skin color is also associated with differing outcomes among whites in spite of their position as the socially dominant group of the U.S. This study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen to examine how skin color, among whites, relates to their likelihood of dating ethnoracial minorities. The results show that darker skin color is associated with greater odds of dating Latinos and Asians. The results also suggest that there is a non-linear relationship between whites’ skin color and their likelihood of dating blacks. The author argues that because darker skin color connotes lower status due to its affiliation with non-whiteness, darker skin color among whites can lead to greater interactions with ethnoracial minorities. However, there may be an exception when dating blacks. This study highlights a possible underlying mechanism, ethnoracial ambiguity among whites, that shapes current ethnoracial relations, which has long-term implications for the future of intergroup boundaries.
The Direct Effects of Legal Same-Sex Marriage in the United States: Evidence From Massachusetts
Christopher Carpenter
Demography, October 2020, Pages 1787–1808
Abstract:
I provide evidence on the direct effects of legal same-sex marriage in the United States by studying Massachusetts, the first state to legalize it in 2004 by court order. Using confidential Massachusetts data from 2001–2013, I show that the ruling significantly increased marriage among lesbians, bisexual women, and gay men compared with the associated change for heterosexuals. I find no significant effects on coupling. Marriage take-up effects are larger for lesbians than for bisexual women or gay men and are larger for households with children than for households without children. Consistent with prior work in the United States and Europe, I find no reductions in heterosexual marriage.
Outside Options, Job Mobility, and Gender: Evidence from Divorce Laws
Julia Hatamyar
University of Miami Working Paper, August 2020
Abstract:
This paper studies the effects of non-market outside options on measures of female job mobility using a hand-collected data set of 3,041 MBA resumes. Specifically, I examine two aspects of the household: spousal assets and children. In order to proxy for these unobserved household characteristics, I exploit cross-state variation in laws regulating post-divorce asset distribution and child custody assignment. Although female MBAs on average are significantly more likely to be employed by more firms and hold more positions than their male counterparts, the effect is largely explained by accounting for differences in household outside options. A decreased likelihood of receiving an equal share of spousal assets after divorce leads to an 8.6% increase in female MBA job positions held. An increased likelihood of gaining sole child custody post-divorce has no effect on female MBA job mobility.
The Dynamics of Intimate Relationships and Contraceptive Use During Early Emerging Adulthood
Yasamin Kusunoki & Jennifer Barber
Demography, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigate the immediate social context of contraceptive behaviors: specifically, the intimate relationship. We use the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study (2008–2012), based on a random sample of 1,003 women ages 18–19 residing in a Michigan county. Women were interviewed weekly for 2.5 years, resulting in an age range of 18–22. We test three sets of hypotheses about change over time within a relationship, using relationship-level within-between models, which compare a couple’s contraceptive behaviors across different times in the relationship. First, we find that a couple is less likely to use contraception when the relationship is more intimate and/or committed and that a couple becomes less likely to use contraception over time, regardless of intimacy and commitment. Second, we find that a couple using contraception becomes increasingly likely to choose hormonal over coital methods, but this change occurs as a relationship endures and is unrelated to intimacy and/or commitment. Third, we find that a condom-using couple’s consistency does not decline when there is conflict; rather, consistency of condom use declines over time regardless of the relationship’s characteristics. We also demonstrate that conflict and power imbalance increase reliance on hormonal methods among those using contraception; conflict decreases consistency among withdrawal (but not condom) users; and nonmonogamy increases reliance on condoms and decreases withdrawal consistency. The strong and consistent link between duration and contraceptive behaviors — regardless of intimacy, commitment, conflict, or power imbalance — suggests that the continual vigilance required for long-term contraceptive use is difficult during early emerging adulthood.
A Cognitive Uncoupling: Masculinity Threats and the Rejection of Relationship Interdependence
Veronica Lamarche, Ciara Atkinson & Alyssa Croft
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
What happens when a primary resource people draw from in times of need is at odds with maintaining a threatened, yet valued, identity? Four studies (N total = 806) examined whether men cognitively disengage from romantic relationships following masculinity threats. As hypothesized, romantically attached men reported less closeness, commitment, and interdependence in their romantic relationships (Study 1), and both single and romantically attached men expressed less positive commitment beliefs (Study 2) following masculinity threats. Supporting a strategy of distancing from interdependence to protect masculinity, perceivers evaluated men who used more interdependent language to describe their relationships as less masculine and more feminine (Studies 3a and 3b). However, exhibiting less interdependence did not restore third-party evaluations of masculinity following a public masculinity threat (Study 3b). Thus, subverting relationship interdependence to protect perceptions of masculinity is an ineffective strategy for restoring masculinity in the eyes of others and may cause unnecessary strain on relationships.
Get healthy to marry or marry to get healthy?
Gina Cortez, Seonhwa Lee & Patricia Roberson
Personal Relationships, September 2020, Pages 613-629
Abstract:
This study tested selection and causal effects on the marriage‐health link by analyzing predictors of mortality through body mass index (BMI) and chronic illnesses (CI) on emerging adults (EA; N = 302) who were followed biannually for 8 years from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Results showed EA with unhealthy BMI's are more likely to marry and improve their BMI after marrying, substantiating selection and causal effects. Only the selection effect was substantiated for CI, whereby White EAs with CI were less likely to marry. Marriage appears to benefit overall health for EA, as findings suggest improved health behaviors after marriage. Future research should assess what health behaviors change during marriage for EA and if they help CI management.
Identifying a Facial Expression of Flirtation and Its Effect on Men
Parnia Haj-Mohamadi, Omri Gillath & Erika Rosenberg
Journal of Sex Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Internal states may be conveyed to others nonverbally through facial expression. We investigated the existence of a particular facial cue that may be effectively used by women to indicate interest in a man. Across six studies, men generally recognized a female facial expression as representing flirting. Flirtatious expressions receiving low recognition by men differed in morphology from the highly recognized flirting expressions. The discrepancies are indicative of individual differences among women in effectively conveying a flirtatious facial cue and among men in recognizing this cue. The morphology of the highly recognized flirtatious facial expressions, coded using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), included: a head turned to one side and tilted down slightly, a slight smile, and eyes turned forward (toward the implied target). Results from experimental studies showed that flirtatious facial expressions, as compared with happy or neutral expressions, led to faster identification of sex words by men. These findings support the role of flirtatious expression in communication and mating initiation.
No Evidence for a Relationship between Intelligence and Ejaculate Quality
Tara DeLecce et al.
Evolutionary Psychology, September 2020
Abstract:
Genetic quality may be expressed through many traits simultaneously, and this would suggest a phenotype-wide fitness factor. In humans, intelligence has been positively associated with several potential indicators of genetic quality, including ejaculate quality. We conducted a conceptual replication of one such study by investigating the relationship between intelligence (assessed by the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices Test–Short Form) and ejaculate quality (indexed by sperm count, sperm concentration, and sperm motility) in a sample of 41 men (ages ranging 18 to 33 years; M = 23.33; SD = 3.60). By self-report, participants had not had a vasectomy, and had never sought infertility treatment. We controlled for several covariates known to affect ejaculate quality (e.g., abstinence duration before providing an ejaculate) and found no statistically significant relationship between intelligence and ejaculate quality; our findings, therefore, do not match those of Arden, Gottfredson, Miller et al. or those of previous studies. We discuss limitations of this study and the general research area and highlight the need for future research in this area, especially the need for larger data sets to address questions around phenotypic quality and ejaculate quality.
Performance in video games affects self-perceived mate value and mate preferences
Michael Kasumovic et al.
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Mate value is tied to appearance and age in women, and social status and wealth in men. Theory surrounding self-perceived mate value suggests that mate value shows relatively little situational plasticity. Here we challenge this concept by asking participants to compete in video games to test (a) whether self-perceived and actual performance affects subjective mate value, and (b) whether subjective mate value affects mate preferences. By randomly allocating participants to play either a violent or nonviolent game in three separate experiments, we show that both men and women who played a violent game had significantly lower self-perceived performance, and as a result, reported a lower self-perceived mate value. We also demonstrate that this effect led to different preferences for short-term mating partners, mainly among women. Our results strongly suggest that mate value in humans is situationally dynamic and responds to recent contest experiences, as it does in nonhumans. We discuss our results with reference to online multiplayer digital gaming experiences and how variation in self-perceived mate value affects mating market dynamics.