Abstract
Well-being (vs. ill-being) might function as an internal guide for approaching (vs. avoiding) situations, strategies, and achievements that ancestrally led to higher (vs. lower) reproductive success. Indeed, coupled individuals report higher well-being than singles, while depressive individuals report lower mate value and higher sociosexuality. Here we investigate associations between well-being, depression and evolutionary reproduction-related aspects (mate value, intrasexual competition, age, and sociosexuality). Overall, 1,173 predominantly heterosexual Brazilian women (mean = 31.89; standard deviation = 11.10) responded to online instruments measuring self-perceived happiness, life-satisfaction, depression, mate value, intrasexual competition, age, and sociosexuality. Multiple regression models indicated that higher well-being was positively predicted by mate value and negatively by intrasexual competition and sociosexual desire, while the opposite was true for depression. Although intrasexual competition and unrestricted sociosexuality can, under some circumstances, increase individual reproductive success, they are risky and suboptimally effective strategies, thus leading to feelings of ill-being. Contrarily, affective long-term bonds, higher mate-value, and lower intrasexual competition might increase feelings of well-being, because this would lead to a safer route towards ancestral reproductive advantages.
Highlights
Feelings of well-being facilitate individuals’ life goals and prompt them to explore new situations and interact with others (Kenrick & Krems, 2018)
Non-parametric (Kendall’s) correlations among measures of well-being, sociosexuality, intrasexual competition, mate value and age The results showed a moderately negative correlation among depression and well-being measures, and a strongly positive correlation between the two well-being measures
There was no correlation between intrasexual competition and mate value
Summary
Feelings of well-being facilitate individuals’ life goals and prompt them to explore new situations and interact with others (Kenrick & Krems, 2018). Depressive episodes lead individuals to remain quiet and isolated, preventing individuals from adverse social situations and from confronting higher status individuals (Watson & Andrews, 2002; Workman & Reader, 2014). Such feelings of welland ill-being might be triggered by external factors, including those concerning the reproductive domain (Troisi, 2008). Adult individuals, on average, invest more in parenting than mating (Valentova et al, 2020), depending on specific conditions, both short- and long-term relationships can bring reproductive advantages (Buss & Schmitt, 2019). By maintaining a mate with parental abilities to share child rearing, committed relationships can increase reproductive success by increasing paternal certainty and the survival rate of fewer offspring who receive higher parental investment (Troisi, 2008)
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