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An evolutionary theory of monogamy
Marco Francesconi, Christian Ghiglino & Motty Perry
Journal of Economic Theory, November 2016, Pages 605-628
Abstract:
This paper presents a non-cooperative evolutionary model to explain the widespread diffusion of lifelong monogamous families. The essential condition, unique to humans, is the overlap of children of different ages. Under this condition, together with the salience of paternal investment and fatherhood uncertainty, monogamy attains a greater survivorship than serial monogamy and polygyny. This result is robust to a number of extensions, including the presence of kin ties, resource inequality, group marriage, and the risk of adult mortality.
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Exposure to Sexual Economics Theory Promotes a Hostile View of Heterosexual Relationships
Janell Fetterolf & Laurie Rudman
Psychology of Women Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
Proponents of sexual economics theory argue that women exchange sex for men's resources. This idea is likely to promote a competitive view of gender relationships that undermines gender equality by characterizing women as manipulative and financially dependent on men. Heterosexual college students (N = 474) who were randomly exposed to a popular YouTube video describing sexual economics theory increased their (1) behavioral support for sexual exchange concepts, (2) endorsement of the theory, and (3) adversarial views of heterosexual relationships, compared with a control group of students. Sexual exchange theory endorsement and adversarial heterosexual beliefs positively covaried, and both attitudes were related to participants' sexism. Reading a critique of sexual exchange theory, that emphasized mutual respect and affection as precursors to heterosexual intimacy, counteracted the consequences of exposure to the theory. The findings provide evidence that disseminating sexual exchange theory via video on the Internet negatively affects young adults' views of gender relationships. Educators, and others who wish to explore sexual economics theory through the use of this video, should also include a discussion of the countervailing evidence available.
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Number of Siblings During Childhood and the Likelihood of Divorce in Adulthood
Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, Douglas Downey & Joseph Merry
Journal of Family Issues, November 2016, Pages 2075-2094
Abstract:
Despite fertility decline across economically developed countries, relatively little is known about the social consequences of children being raised with fewer siblings. Much research suggests that growing up with fewer siblings is probably positive, as children tend to do better in school when sibship size is small. Less scholarship, however, has explored how growing up with few siblings influences children's ability to get along with peers and develop long-term meaningful relationships. If siblings serve as important social practice partners during childhood, individuals with few or no siblings may struggle to develop successful social lives later in adulthood. With data from the General Social Surveys 1972-2012, we explore this possibility by testing whether sibship size during childhood predicts the probability of divorce in adulthood. We find that, among those who ever marry, each additional sibling is associated with a 3% decline in the likelihood of divorce, net of covariates.
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Wives With Masculine Husbands Report Increased Marital Satisfaction Near Peak Fertility
Andrea Meltzer
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although masculine men offer good genes, they tend to be less willing to invest in long-term relationships. Perhaps for this reason, women demonstrate a shift in their preference for partner masculinity near peak fertility - when they are best able to capitalize on such genetic benefits. Nevertheless, little is known about the extent to which such shifts interact with the masculinity of one's partner in the context of a long-term relationship. Given that relationship satisfaction may act as a barometer that gauges the extent to which people meet the evolved needs of their long-term relationships, the current study of 70 newlywed couples tested the notion that the association between wives' conception risk and their marital satisfaction would depend on their husbands' self-reported masculinity. Consistent with predictions, conception risk was positively associated with marital satisfaction among normally cycling wives with relatively more masculine husbands but unassociated with marital satisfaction among normally cycling wives with relatively less masculine husbands. These findings demonstrate that women's short-term mating strategies interact with their partners' genetic qualities to impact women's satisfaction with even their most long-term relationships - their marriages.
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Hormonal Contraceptive Use During Relationship Formation and Sexual Desire During Pregnancy
Kelly Cobey et al.
Archives of Sexual Behavior, November 2016, Pages 2117-2122
Abstract:
Women who are regularly cycling exhibit different partner preferences than those who use hormonal contraception. Preliminary evidence appears to suggest that during pregnancy women's partner preferences also diverge from those prevalent while regularly cycling. This is consistent with the general assertion that women's mate preferences are impacted by hormonal variation. During pregnancy, women's preferences are thought to closely resemble those displayed by women who are using hormonal contraception. Here, based on this literature, we compared levels of sexual desire among pregnant women who met their partner while using hormonal contraception and pregnant women who met their partner while regularly cycling. We predicted that women who met their partner while using hormonal contraception would experience higher levels of in-pair sexual desire during pregnancy since these women will have partner preferences that more closely match those prevalent at the time of their partner choice. Our results provided support for the idea that previous contraceptive use/non-use may impact subsequent sexual desire for the partner during pregnancy. Pregnant women who met their partner while using hormonal contraception (N = 37) were shown to have higher levels of in-pair sexual desire than those who met while regularly cycling (N = 47). In contrast, levels of extra-pair desire were not related to previous use/non-use of hormonal contraception. These findings were robust when controlling for a number of relevant individual difference variables known to impact sexual desire. Our results contribute to our understanding of factors affecting relationship functioning during pregnancy.
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Sexual intercourse, romantic relationship inauthenticity, and adolescent mental health
Brian Soller, Dana Haynie & Alena Kuhlemeier
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Numerous studies indicate sexual intercourse, especially when it occurs early in adolescence, increases youths' risk of mental health problems. However, no research has examined whether the association between sexual intercourse and mental health varies by romantic relationship inauthenticity, or the level of incongruence between thoughts/feelings and actions within romantic relationships. Using data from a subset of romantically-involved Add Health respondents, we measured sexual involvement in romantic relationships and applied sequence analysis to reports of ideal and actual romantic relationship to measure inauthenticity within adolescent romances. Regressions of depression symptoms indicate that the magnitude of the positive associations between sexual intercourse and girls' mental health is most pronounced in relationships characterized by high levels of relationship inauthenticity and that there is no association between sexual intercourse and girls' depression at low levels of relationship inauthenticity. Having sexual intercourse is positively associated with depression symptoms among boys, but relationship inauthenticity does not alter this association. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on adolescent sexuality and programs aimed at enhancing youth sexuality development.
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Psychological Well-being Among Older Adults: The Role of Partnership Status
Matthew Wright & Susan Brown
Journal of Marriage and Family, forthcoming
Abstract:
Today's older adults are increasingly unmarried. Some are in cohabiting unions, others are dating, and many remain unpartnered. Unmarried older adults are at risk of poorer well-being than married older adults, but it is unclear whether older cohabitors fare worse than or similar to their married counterparts; nor have well-being differences among cohabitors, daters, and unpartnered persons been considered. Conceptualizing marital status as a continuum of social attachment, data from Waves I and II of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project are used to examine how older married, cohabiting, dating, and unpartnered individuals differ across multiple indicators of psychological well-being. Among men, cohabitors appear to fare similarly to the married, and better than daters and the unpartnered. In contrast, there are few differences in psychological well-being by partnership status for women.
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Marital history and survival after a heart attack
Matthew Dupre & Alicia Nelson
Social Science & Medicine, December 2016, Pages 114-123
Abstract:
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and nearly one million Americans will have a heart attack this year. Although the risks associated with a heart attack are well established, we know surprisingly little about how marital factors contribute to survival in adults afflicted with heart disease. This study uses a life course perspective and longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine how various dimensions of marital life influence survival in U.S. older adults who suffered a heart attack (n = 2197). We found that adults who were never married (odds ratio [OR] = 1.73), currently divorced (OR = 1.70), or widowed (OR = 1.34) were at significantly greater risk of dying after a heart attack than adults who were continuously married; and the risks were not uniform over time. We also found that the risk of dying increased by 12% for every additional marital loss and decreased by 7% for every one-tenth increase in the proportion of years married. After accounting for more than a dozen socioeconomic, psychosocial, behavioral, and physiological factors, we found that current marital status remained the most robust indicator of survival following a heart attack. The implications of the findings are discussed in the context of life course inequalities in chronic disease and directions for future research.
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Temporary Life Changes and the Timing of Divorce
Peter Fallesen & Richard Breen
Demography, October 2016, Pages 1377-1398
Abstract:
Marriage is a risky undertaking that people enter with incomplete information about their partner and their future life circumstances. A large literature has shown how new information gained from unforeseen but long-lasting or permanent changes in life circumstances may trigger a divorce. We extend this literature by considering how information gained from a temporary change in life circumstances - in our case, a couple having a child with infantile colic - may affect divorce behavior. Although persistent life changes are known to induce divorce, we argue that a temporary stressful situation allows couples more quickly to discern the quality of their relationship, in some cases leading them to divorce sooner than they otherwise would have. We formalize this argument in a model of Bayesian updating and test it using data from Denmark. We find that the incidence of infantile colic shortens the time to divorce or disruption among couples who would have split up anyway.
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Brett Peters et al.
Psychoneuroendocrinology, December 2016, Pages 308-315
Abstract:
Testosterone reactivity has been conceptualized as a marker of social submission at low levels and social dominance at high levels. However, hormonal fluctuations in response to romantic partners remain largely unknown. Towards this end, 88 couples (N = 176) discussed an emotional video. Prior to the conversation, one member of the dyad (the "agent") was instructed to regulate affective displays in a specific way (express or suppress). The other dyad member (the "partner") was given no special instruction and was unaware of regulation instructions given to the agent. Agents who regulated affective displays were expected to exhibit decreased testosterone from baseline because they were prevented from tuning their emotional responses to their partners. Furthermore, we expected declines in testosterone would be moderated by partners' authoritativeness: People would be particularly submissive to more dominant partners. Predictions were supported for females and partially supported for males. Agents exhibited decreases in testosterone from baseline relative to partners. For females, this main effect was moderated by partners' trait-level authoritativeness: Females interacting with partners higher in authority exhibited larger decreases in testosterone when instructed to restrict their emotion regulation strategies. This research is the first to document testosterone reactivity in existing romantic relationships and underscores the importance of taking into account social and relational contexts when examining hormonal regulation.
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Oppositional Brand Choice: Using Brands to Respond to Relationship Frustration
Danielle Brick & Gavan Fitzsimons
Journal of Consumer Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Within close relationships individuals feel a variety of emotions toward their partner, often including frustration. In the present research we suggest a novel way in which individuals respond to frustration with their partner is through their choice of brands. Specifically, we introduce the concept of oppositional brand choice, which we define as occurring when individuals choose a brand for themselves that is in opposition to the one they believe their partner prefers. Importantly, we posit that this effect is specific to individuals who are low in relationship power. Across several studies, including a subliminal priming lab study, we find that people who are lower in relationship power and are frustrated with their partner make significantly more oppositional brand choices. Further, we find that this effect is not due to a shift in underlying brand preferences. The current research has implications for theory in brand choice, close relationships, emotions, and social power.