That Special Someone
It is not all about the Benjamins: Understanding preferences for mates with resources
Peter Jonason, Norman Li & Laura Madson
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
We contend that preferences for mates with resources or money might be calibrated on where a potential mate gets her/his money. In three studies (N = 668) we examined the nature of individuals' preferences for mates who have resources or money. Both sexes preferred a long-term mate who has earned her/his money over other sources. In particular, women preferred mates who earned their money over other potential means of getting resources (i.e., inheritance, embezzlement, and windfall). Women maintained a high level of interest in mates who earned their money regardless of duration of the mateship whereas men became less interested in a mate who earned her money in the context of short-term relationships. Overall, the sexes preferred a mate who earned their money more strongly in the long-term than the short-term context. Results are discussed from evolutionary and sociocultural models of mate preferences.
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Kelly Gildersleeve et al.
Hormones and Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Scent communication plays a central role in the mating behavior of many nonhuman mammals but has often been overlooked in the study of human mating. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that men may perceive women's high-fertility body scents (collected near ovulation) as more attractive than their low-fertility body scents. The present study provides a methodologically rigorous replication of this finding, while also examining several novel questions. Women collected samples of their natural body scent twice - once on a low-fertility day and once on a high-fertility day of the ovulatory cycle. Tests of luteinizing hormone confirmed that women experienced ovulation within two days of their high-fertility session. Men smelled each woman's high- and low-fertility scent samples and completed discrimination and preference tasks. At above-chance levels, men accurately discriminated between women's high- and low-fertility scent samples (61%) and chose women's high-fertility scent samples as more attractive than their low-fertility scent samples (56%). Men also rated each scent sample on sexiness, pleasantness, and intensity, and estimated the physical attractiveness of the woman who had provided the sample. Multilevel modeling revealed that, when high- and low-fertility scent samples were easier to discriminate from each other, high-fertility scent samples received even more favorable ratings compared with low-fertility scent samples. This study builds on a growing body of evidence indicating that men are attracted to cues of impending ovulation in women and raises the intriguing question of whether women's cycling hormones influence men's attraction and sexual approach behavior.
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Sex, price and preferences: Accounting for unsafe sexual practices in prostitution markets
Stef Adriaenssens & Jef Hendrickx
Sociology of Health & Illness, forthcoming
Abstract:
Unsafe sexual practices are persistent in prostitution interactions: one in four contacts can be called unsafe. The determinants of this are still matter for debate. We account for the roles played by clients' preferences and the hypothetical price premium of unsafe sexual practices with the help of a large dataset of clients' self-reported commercial sexual transactions in Belgium and The Netherlands. Almost 25,000 reports were collected, representing the whole gamut of prostitution market segments. The first set of explanations consists of an analysis of the price-fixing elements of paid sex. With the help of the so-called hedonic pricing method we test for the existence of a price incentive for unsafe sex. In accordance with the results from studies in some prostitution markets in the developing world, the study replicates a significant wage penalty for condom use of an estimated 7.2 per cent, confirmed in both multilevel and fixed-effects regressions. The second part of the analysis reconstructs the demand side basis of this wage penalty: the consistent preference of clients of prostitution for unsafe sex. This study is the first to document empirically clients' preference for intercourse without a condom, with the help of a multilevel ordinal regression.
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Rebecca Brand et al.
Computers in Human Behavior, January 2012, Pages 166-170
Abstract:
Attractive people are considered by others to have many positive qualities and in the case of social skills and intelligence, these attributions are often true. In internet dating, individuals with attractive profile photos are viewed more favorably overall, but no research has yet established whether they indeed have more positive qualities. We addressed this issue by having 50 women independently rate 100 photos and free-written texts taken from males' profiles on a popular dating website. Photos rated as physically attractive had profile texts that were rated as more attractive, even though photos and texts were rated by different judges. Perceived confidence seemed to play a mediating role, suggesting that attractive men write appealing texts because they are aware of their high mate value. Thus, contrary to popular belief, the internet does not seem to "level the playing field."
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Leander van der Meij et al.
Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 7 January 2012, Pages 202-208
Abstract:
Testosterone (T) is thought to play a key role in male-male competition and courtship in many vertebrates, but its precise effects are unclear. We explored whether courtship behaviour in humans is modulated and preceded by changes in T. Pairs of healthy male students first competed in a non-physical contest in which their T levels became elevated. Each participant then had a short, informal interaction with either an unfamiliar man or woman. The sex of the stimulus person did not affect the participants' behaviour overall. However, in interactions with women, those men who had experienced a greater T increase during the contest subsequently showed more interest in the woman, engaged in more self-presentation, smiled more and made more eye contact. No such effects were seen in interactions with other men. This is the first study to provide direct evidence that elevating T during male-male competition is followed by increased affiliative behaviour towards women.
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Sari van Anders et al.
Journal of Sexual Medicine, forthcoming
Introduction: Higher testosterone (T) is tied to risk-taking, especially in financial domains but also in health domains relevant to acquiring sexually transmitted infections (STIs). However, safer sex constructs could themselves carry the possibility of "social risk" due to sexual stigma or embarrassment, or could involve boldness or confidence because they could represent status displays of frequent sexual activity.
Aim: To determine how T and behaviorally relevant attitudes about sexual risk-taking are linked, to better understand biopsychosocial aspects of sexual health related to STIs.
Methods: In 78 first-year male college students, we examined correlations between salivary T and behaviorally relevant safer sex attitudes assessed via questionnaires.
Main Outcome Measures: T, via saliva; safer sex attitudes, via a composite and the University of California, Los Angeles Multidimensional Condom Attitudes Scale (MCAS).
Results: Higher T was significantly correlated with higher scores on the following: safer sex likelihood composite, r(73) = 0.33, P = 0.003; the MCAS safer sex resilience, r(32) = 0.36, P = 0.037; and the MCAS condom purchase comfort, r(32) = 0.37, P = 0.031. Associations between T and safer sex likelihood and resilience were still robust after controlling for potential confounds, though the association between T and purchase comfort diminished to a trend.
Conclusions: Higher T was positively linked with safer sex attitudes, especially those most closely tied to STI risk avoidance. Thus, future research and interventions for STI prevention should address the possibility that safer sex may be paradoxically perceived as a "bold" or "risky" choice even as it decreases STI risk.
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Hormonal contraceptive use and mate retention behavior in women and their male partners
Lisa Welling et al.
Hormones and Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Female hormonal contraceptive use has been associated with a variety of physical and psychological side effects. Women who use hormonal contraceptives report more intense affective responses to partner infidelity and greater overall sexual jealousy than women not using hormonal contraceptives. Recently, researchers have found that using hormonal contraceptives with higher levels of synthetic estradiol, but not progestin, is associated with significantly higher levels of self-reported jealousy in women. Here, we extend these findings by examining the relationship between mate retention behavior in heterosexual women and their male partners and women's use of hormonal contraceptives. We find that women using hormonal contraceptives report more frequent use of mate retention tactics, specifically behaviors directed toward their partners (i.e., intersexual manipulations). Men partnered with women using hormonal contraceptives also report more frequent mate retention behavior, although this relationship may be confounded by relationship satisfaction. Additionally, among women using hormonal contraceptives, the dose of synthetic estradiol, but not of synthetic progesterone, positively predicts mate retention behavior frequency. These findings demonstrate how hormonal contraceptive use may influence behavior that directly affects the quality of romantic relationships as perceived by both female and male partners.
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Sexual Hookups Among College Students: Sex Differences in Emotional Reactions
John Marshall Townsend & Timothy Wasserman
Archives of Sexual Behavior, December 2011, Pages 1173-1181
Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to test four predictions derived from evolutionary (sexual strategies) theory. The central hypothesis was that men and women possess different emotional mechanisms that motivate and evaluate sexual activities. Consequently, even when women express indifference to emotional involvement and commitment and voluntarily engage in casual sexual relations, their goals, their feelings about the experience, and the associations between their sexual behavior and prospects for long-term investment differ significantly from those of men. Women's sexual behavior is associated with their perception of investment potential: long-term, short-term, and partners' ability and willingness to invest. For men, these associations are weaker or inversed. Regression analyses of survey data from 333 male and 363 female college students revealed the following: Greater permissiveness of sexual attitudes was positively associated with number of sex partners; this association was not moderated by sex of subject (Prediction 1); even when women deliberately engaged in casual sexual relations, thoughts that expressed worry and vulnerability crossed their minds; for females, greater number of partners was associated with increased worry-vulnerability whereas for males the trend was the opposite (Prediction 2); with increasing numbers of sex partners, marital thoughts decreased; this finding was not moderated by sex of subject; this finding did not support Prediction 3; for both males and females, greater number of partners was related to larger numbers of one-night stands, partners foreseen in the next 5 years, and deliberately casual sexual relations. This trend was significantly stronger for males than for females (Prediction 4).
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Clara Wilkins, Joy Chan & Cheryl Kaiser
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, October 2011, Pages 427-431
Abstract:
What does it take to find a member of a different race attractive? In this research, we suggest that for Whites, attraction to Asians may be based, in part, on stereotypes and variations in Asians' racial appearance. Study 1 reveals that Asians are stereotyped as being more feminine and less masculine than other racial groups - characteristics considered appealing for women but not for men to possess. Study 2 examines how variation in racial appearance, phenotypic prototypicality (PP), shapes the degree to which Asians are gender stereotyped and how PP relates to perceptions of attractiveness. Higher PP Asian men are perceived as being less masculine and less physically attractive than lower PP Asian men. These findings inform theory on how within-group variation in racial appearance affects stereotyping and other social outcomes.
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The Naked Truth: The Face and Body Sensitive N170 Response Is Enhanced for Nude Bodies
Jari Hietanen & Lauri Nummenmaa
PLoS ONE, November 2011, e24408
Abstract:
Recent event-related potential studies have shown that the occipitotemporal N170 component - best known for its sensitivity to faces - is also sensitive to perception of human bodies. Considering that in the timescale of evolution clothing is a relatively new invention that hides the bodily features relevant for sexual selection and arousal, we investigated whether the early N170 brain response would be enhanced to nude over clothed bodies. In two experiments, we measured N170 responses to nude bodies, bodies wearing swimsuits, clothed bodies, faces, and control stimuli (cars). We found that the N170 amplitude was larger to opposite and same-sex nude vs. clothed bodies. Moreover, the N170 amplitude increased linearly as the amount of clothing decreased from full clothing via swimsuits to nude bodies. Strikingly, the N170 response to nude bodies was even greater than that to faces, and the N170 amplitude to bodies was independent of whether the face of the bodies was visible or not. All human stimuli evoked greater N170 responses than did the control stimulus. Autonomic measurements and self-evaluations showed that nude bodies were affectively more arousing compared to the other stimulus categories. We conclude that the early visual processing of human bodies is sensitive to the visibility of the sex-related features of human bodies and that the visual processing of other people's nude bodies is enhanced in the brain. This enhancement is likely to reflect affective arousal elicited by nude bodies. Such facilitated visual processing of other people's nude bodies is possibly beneficial in identifying potential mating partners and competitors, and for triggering sexual behavior.
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Exploitative male mating strategies: Personality, mating orientation, and relationship status
David Lewis et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, January 2012, Pages 139-143
Abstract:
Previous research suggests men are sexually attracted to women displaying cues to sexual exploitability. During human evolutionary history, men's agreeableness, orientation towards casual sex, and relationship status may have been recurrently associated with greater net benefits of pursuing a sexually exploitative strategy. We hypothesized these three individual differences would predict men's perceptions of women's sexual exploitability. Seventy-two men viewed photographs of women and rated their sexual exploitability. Men's agreeableness, sociosexual orientation, and current relationship status interacted to predict their perceptions of women's sexual exploitability; among unmated men, the combination of low agreeableness and an orientation toward uncommitted sex was associated with higher perceptions of women's sexual exploitability. This suggests mechanisms motivating sexually exploitative strategies may depend on an interaction between personality characteristics and situational variables.
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Lara Kammrath & Johanna Peetz
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research from multiple domains suggests that individuals benefit from having other people in their lives who endorse an incremental mindset, believing in humans' capacity to change and improve through effort. We hypothesize, however, that people high in incrementalism may have unrealistic expectations about the ease of change, leading them to become frustrated with others who promise change (change-strivers) but achieve only partial success. In a longitudinal study, change-strivers made promises of change to their romantic partners and attempted to keep those promises over two weeks. Romantic partners who were higher in incrementalism were initially more optimistic that change-strivers would successfully change, but subsequently more distrustful toward change-strivers whose change attempts failed. Furthermore, partners high in incrementalism were more likely to attribute failure to the change-striver's lack of effort, rather than to the difficulty of the behaviors. The findings highlight circumstances when incremental mindsets may have costs in relationships.
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Morten Frisch, Morten Lindholm & Morten Grønbæk
International Journal of Epidemiology, October 2011, Pages 1367-1381
Background: One-third of the world's men are circumcised, but little is known about possible sexual consequences of male circumcision. In Denmark (~5% circumcised), we examined associations of male circumcision with a range of sexual measures in both sexes.
Methods: Participants in a national health survey (n = 5552) provided information about their own (men) or their spouse's (women) circumcision status and details about their sex lives. Logistic regression-derived odds ratios (ORs) measured associations of circumcision status with sexual experiences and current difficulties with sexual desire, sexual needs fulfilment and sexual functioning.
Results: Age at first intercourse, perceived importance of a good sex life and current sexual activity differed little between circumcised and uncircumcised men or between women with circumcised and uncircumcised spouses. However, circumcised men reported more partners and were more likely to report frequent orgasm difficulties after adjustment for potential confounding factors [11 vs 4%, ORadj = 3.26; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.42-7.47], and women with circumcised spouses more often reported incomplete sexual needs fulfilment (38 vs 28%, ORadj = 2.09; 95% CI 1.05-4.16) and frequent sexual function difficulties overall (31 vs 22%, ORadj = 3.26; 95% CI 1.15-9.27), notably orgasm difficulties (19 vs 14%, ORadj = 2.66; 95% CI 1.07-6.66) and dyspareunia (12 vs 3%, ORadj = 8.45; 95% CI 3.01-23.74). Findings were stable in several robustness analyses, including one restricted to non-Jews and non-Moslems.
Conclusions: Circumcision was associated with frequent orgasm difficulties in Danish men and with a range of frequent sexual difficulties in women, notably orgasm difficulties, dyspareunia and a sense of incomplete sexual needs fulfilment. Thorough examination of these matters in areas where male circumcision is more common is warranted.
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Daniel Fessler et al.
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
The constituents of attractiveness differ across the sexes. Many relevant traits are dimorphic, suggesting that they are the product of intersexual selection. However, direction of causality is generally difficult to determine, as aesthetic criteria can as readily result from, as cause, dimorphism. Women have proportionately smaller feet than men. Prior work on the role of foot size in attractiveness suggests an asymmetry across the sexes, as small feet enhance female appearance, yet average, rather than large, feet are preferred on men. Previous investigations employed crude stimuli and limited samples. Here, we report on multiple cross-cultural studies designed to overcome these limitations. With the exception of one rural society, we find that small foot size is preferred when judging women, yet no equivalent preference applies to men. Similarly, consonant with the thesis that a preference for youth underlies intersexual selection acting on women, we document an inverse relationship between foot size and perceived age. Examination of preferences regarding, and inferences from, feet viewed in isolation suggests different roles for proportionality and absolute size in judgments of female and male bodies. Although the majority of these results bolster the conclusion that pedal dimorphism is the product of intersexual selection, the picture is complicated by the reversal of the usual preference for small female feet found in one rural society. While possibly explicable in terms of greater emphasis on female economic productivity relative to beauty, the latter finding underscores the importance of employing diverse samples when exploring postulated evolved aesthetic preferences.
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Facial Attractiveness Ratings from Video-Clips and Static Images Tell the Same Story
Gillian Rhodes et al.
PLoS ONE, November 2011, e26653
Abstract:
Most of what we know about what makes a face attractive and why we have the preferences we do is based on attractiveness ratings of static images of faces, usually photographs. However, several reports that such ratings fail to correlate significantly with ratings made to dynamic video clips, which provide richer samples of appearance, challenge the validity of this literature. Here, we tested the validity of attractiveness ratings made to static images, using a substantial sample of male faces. We found that these ratings agreed very strongly with ratings made to videos of these men, despite the presence of much more information in the videos (multiple views, neutral and smiling expressions and speech-related movements). Not surprisingly, given this high agreement, the components of video-attractiveness were also very similar to those reported previously for static-attractiveness. Specifically, averageness, symmetry and masculinity were all significant components of attractiveness rated from videos. Finally, regression analyses yielded very similar effects of attractiveness on success in obtaining sexual partners, whether attractiveness was rated from videos or static images. These results validate the widespread use of attractiveness ratings made to static images in evolutionary and social psychological research. We speculate that this validity may stem from our tendency to make rapid and robust judgements of attractiveness.