Mate Poaching

Abstract

Abstract Mate poaching, attracting someone who is already in a romantic relationship, is a phenomenon found universally across cultures, though prevalence varies greatly. Mate poaching may be undertaken in order to lure the already‐mated person into a short‐term sexual relationship, a long‐term sexual relationship, or a new, exclusive relationship between the poacher and the poached. Poaching for short‐term sexual affairs seems to occur more frequently than the other two types of poaching. Overall, mate poaching rates vary in part because of differential resource availability and different ratios of men to women. Mate poaching has been found to be most common in Southern Europe, South America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe and to be relatively uncommon in Africa, South/Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Across cultures, men are more likely to both engage in poaching and to succumb to poaching attempts made on them, though these differences are often smaller in regions with more gender equality in terms of access to resources. Interestingly, increased political equality of men and women does not always lessen the differential rates of mate poaching between genders; instead, it sometimes increases the poaching behaviors of both men and women. Similarly, when women outnumber men in a region, people of both genders tend to engage in higher rates of mate poaching. Worldwide, approximately 60% of men and 40% of women admitted to attempting a mate poach. Research with North American samples found a smaller rate of self‐reported poaching experiences when mate poaching was redefined in order to explicitly indicate that the poacher was aware of the other person's exclusive relationship, though accumulated evidence suggests that most poachers are aware that they are encroaching on an existing relationship.