Mate choice preferences in an intergroup context: evidence for a sexual coercion threat-management system among women

Abstract

Given the importance of reproductive choice in female mating strategies, women may be equipped with a threat-management system that functions to protect reproductive choice by avoiding individuals and situations that have historically posed an increased threat of sexual coercion. Previous research suggests that bias against outgroup men may be one consequence of such a system, resulting from an evolutionary history of intergroup conflict in which women were often at increased risk of sexual assault from outgroup men. We provide a critical extension to this literature by demonstrating that the output of this system is not limited to attitudinal biases, but extends to behavioral decisions regarding dating, particularly among women for whom threats to reproductive choice are most costly and perceived to be most likely. Participants received an unsolicited dating request made by an ingroup or outgroup member, with group boundaries manipulated in a minimal-group paradigm. Consistent with predictions, women self-appraised as vulnerable to sexual coercion were less likely to agree to date requests from outgroup members, but not ingroup members, during the fertile period of the menstrual cycle. Our findings are consistent with the notion that women possess a psychological system that functions to protect reproductive choice by avoiding individuals that historically posed an increased threat of sexual coercion, and that this system may be calibrated to be most strongly activated among women who both appraise themselves as vulnerable and for whom threats to reproductive choice are most costly.