Human male mating strategies: I. Courtship tactics of the “quality” and “quantity” alternatives

Abstract

Human males may adopt the “quality” strategy, a long-term pair bond with considerable paternal investment, or the “quantity” reproductive strategy, short-term pair bonds with little paternal investment. We hypothesized that (1) the two strategies require different courtship tactics, which can be derived from their different goals, and (2) the behavior used by quality courters is perceived as honest while the quantity strategist is often exploitative. Act nominations of 79 subjects and the investigators generated a set of 71 dating behaviors. Sixty-four other subjects classified each behavior by the theoretically derived tactics. Fifty-four males rated the likelihood of usage of each behavior by a man interested in marriage (quality courter) and by men interested in sexual relationships (quantity courters) who typically deceive, manipulate, or coerce women. Fifty-three other males rated each behavior on ethical scales of honesty, deception, manipulation, and coercion. Both kinds of ratings indicated that (1) tactics of quality courtship involve honest advertisement through mutual assessment, resource expenditure, and a delay in sexual relations, and (2) tactics of quantity courtship involve indirect or direct threats, psychological pressure, and talking about sex. Ethical ratings and the range of behaviors likely to be used by quality and quantity courters confirmed the hypothesis about ethical perceptions of the two strategies and suggested that quantity courters are opportunistic as well as exploitative.