Prestige, conformity and gender consistency support a broad-context mechanism underpinning mate-choice copying

Abstract

Mate choice is a fitness-relevant decision, that can be informed by the mate choices of others. Such mate-choice copying has been documented across multiple species, including humans. However, so has copying in many other contexts. As such, the exent to which mate-choice copying is underpinned by the same psychological mechanisms as copying in other contexts remains unclear. To test these hypotheses, we conducted an online experiment (recruiting from M-Turk, n = 165) to examine whether human mate choice copying is prestige and/or conformist biased (both of which are documented in other domains), and whether it differs between men and women. If mate choice copying is underpinned by broad-context mechanisms, we predict it will be similar in men and women, with both groups also exhibiting prestige-biased and conformist transmission. Our results match these predictions, exhibiting no evidence of a difference in mate-choice copying between men and women, and evidence of prestige-biased and conformist transmission. These results suggest that mate choice copying is the product of adaptive, broad-context copying mechanisms.