Fickle men, faithful women: Effects of mating cues on men's and women's variety-seeking behavior in consumption

Abstract

Attitudes about commitment can affect consumers' variety-seeking behavior. In the mating domain, short-term mating cues tend to activate an uncommitment mind-set in men and lead them to seek greater variety in romantic relationships; whereas long-term mating cues tend to activate a commitment mind-set in women and lead them to seek less variety. In this research, we explore whether short-term and long-term mating cues can likewise affect variety-seeking behavior in the product consumption domain through their influence on commitment attitude. In three experiments, we demonstrate that men's variety-seeking behavior increases in the presence of short-term but not long-term mating cues; conversely, women's variety-seeking behavior decreases in the presence of long-term but not short-term mating cues. These effects are caused by attitude toward commitment induced by mating cues. Past research concerning this topic has focused on one gender and on short-term mating cues only, but in this paper we provide a more complete picture—and a more coherent theory—of how, via influencing commitment attitude, mating cues affect variety-seeking behavior differently in men than in women.