Relational Questions
The Anatomy of Marital Happiness
Sam Peltzman
University of Chicago Working Paper, February 2025
Abstract:
Since 1972, the General Social Survey has periodically asked whether people are happy with Yes, Maybe or No type answers. Here I use a net "happiness" measure, which is percentage Yes less percentage No with Maybe treated as zero. Average happiness is around +20 on this scale for all respondents from 1972 to the last pre-pandemic survey (2018). However, there is a wide gap of around 30 points between married and unmarried respondents. This "marital premium" is this paper's subject. I describe how this premium varies across and within population groups. These include standard socio demographics (age, sex, race education, income) and more. I find little variety and thereby surface a notable regularity in US socio demography: there is a substantial marital premium for every group and subgroup I analyze, and this premium is usually close to the overall 30-point average. This holds not just for standard characteristics but also for those directly related to marriage like children and sex (and sex preference). I also find a "cohabitation premium", but it is much smaller (10 points) than the marital premium. The analysis is mainly visual, and there is inevitably some interesting variety across seventeen figures, such as a 5-point increase in recent years.
Quality of Paternal Investment and Adult Sons’ Beliefs About Romantic Relationships
Danielle DelPriore & Rebecca Reeder
Evolutionary Psychological Science, March 2025, Pages 65-75
Abstract:
Patterns of paternal investment, including low quality of father involvement and biological father absence, tend to repeat across generations with important consequences. Past research has identified daughters’ reduced expectations for long-term investment from male relationship partners as contributing to these patterns; however, it is unknown whether sons reared with low paternal investment experience analogous psychological shifts that function to calibrate their investment in romantic partners as adults. In the current research, we test the hypotheses that (1) lower quality of paternal investment received while growing up will be associated with sons’ beliefs that men invest minimally in romantic relationships and that women require minimal male relationship investment, and (2) these beliefs will mediate sons’ decreased willingness to invest in their romantic partners. Participants were 486 heterosexual cisgender men ages 18–36 (Mage = 29.08 years, SD = 4.86) recruited online from the United States using Prolific Academic. Lower father warmth/involvement predicted adult sons’ beliefs that men invest minimally in relationships and that women require minimal relationship investment. Further, sons’ relationship beliefs predicted their decreased willingness to invest in romantic partners. Follow-up analyses suggested that the statistical effects of father warmth/involvement were independent from the effects of father presence/absence and mother warmth/involvement. In all, this work suggests novel psychological pathways via which low quality of paternal investment and its associated outcomes may be transmitted across generations.
Deconfounding Sex and Sex of Partner in Mate-Preference Research
Ashley Coventry et al.
Psychological Science, February 2025, Pages 116-129
Abstract:
Much of the previous research examining sex differences in human mate preferences has relied exclusively on heterosexual participants. Consequently, prior work overlooks a critical limitation: In heterosexual populations, participant sex and partner sex are perfectly confounded. Here, we tease apart this fundamental problem by separately examining ideal preferences for male and female partners across two studies -- one using a large bisexual sample (n = 442) and another using a sample of both bisexual and heterosexual participants (n = 380). The results revealed that sex differences in mate preferences were largely driven by the participants’ own sex. However, both males and females set higher standards overall for the traits of male partners. These findings suggest that a person’s mate-preference psychology is shaped by both one’s own sex and the sex of the target being evaluated. More broadly, these results expand our understanding of the proximate psychology underlying human mate preferences.
Exploring the associations among relationship-related attitudes, affection deprivation, and faking orgasm among heterosexual women in the United States
Amanda Denes et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, May 2025
Abstract:
The present study explored the associations among relationship-related (RR) attitudes, feeling deprived of affectionate touch, and the frequency of faking orgasm among a sample of 723 heterosexual women in the United States (Mage = 39.63, 60.9% White) who were single at the time of survey completion. Contrary to the study hypotheses, the results revealed that RR attitudes (i.e., interest in seeking a committed relationship, preference for sex in a committed relationship, and readiness for a relationship) were not associated with a greater frequency of faking orgasm, and feeling deprived of affection did not moderate these associations. Further, a greater preference for sex within a committed romantic relationship was associated with faking orgasm less frequently, contrary to what was predicted. Post hoc analyses revealed that feeling deprived of affectionate touch was associated with more frequently faking orgasm. Additionally, among a restricted sample of women who had been single for the prior year, no significant associations emerged between RR attitudes and faking orgasm. The findings provide support for aspects of affection exchange theory and suggest that affection deprivation may be a more meaningful predictor of heterosexual women's tendencies to fake orgasm than their RR attitudes.
The ick: Disgust sensitivity, narcissism, and perfectionism in mate choice thresholds
Brian Collisson, Eliana Saunders & Chloe Yin
Personality and Individual Differences, May 2025
Abstract:
The “ick” is a sudden and visceral aversion to a romantic partner, often triggered by behaviors or characteristics that superficially signal incompatibility or low mate quality. This study examined individual differences in disgust sensitivity, narcissism, and other-oriented perfectionism as correlates of the ick, as well as gender differences in ick familiarity and frequency. A pilot analysis of TikTok videos (#theick) identified common ick triggers, informing the main study's behavioral assessments. A sample of single adults (N = 125) reported their familiarity with and experiences of the ick and completed measures of disgust sensitivity, narcissism, and perfectionism. Women were more likely than men to be familiar with the term (63 % vs. 39 %) and to have experienced the ick (75 % vs. 57 %), though frequency did not differ by gender. Greater disgust sensitivity was associated with both the likelihood and frequency of experiencing the ick, suggesting that heightened aversion to minor partner cues may shape mate rejection thresholds. Narcissism correlated with the likelihood -- but not frequency -- of experiencing the ick, indicating that narcissistic people may selectively reject partners based on specific perceived flaws. Perfectionism was associated with both likelihood and frequency, suggesting that people with rigid standards experience the ick more often. Findings suggest that while the ick may help people identify potential mate incompatibilities, it may also lead to overly rigid rejection standards.