The value of pro-environmental behaviour in mate choice

Abstract

Previous research shows that prosocial behaviour such as altruism is important in mate choice. A plethora of research shows that people are attracted to prosocial mates, and in turn, display prosocial behaviours towards those they find attractive. However, most of this research has focused on everyday forms of prosociality. Here, we apply this theoretical framework to pro-environmental behaviours, which are important prosocial behaviours, considering there is a time cost involved in engaging in such behaviours. In addition, encouraging people to engage in pro-environmental behaviours has great implications for the protection of our planet. Here, across two experiments, we successfully show that engaging in pro-environmental behaviours can increase one's desirability in the mating market (experiment 1, n = 157) and that people display a motivation to engage in pro-environmental behaviours in the presence of attractive, opposite sex targets (experiment 2, n = 307). We therefore show that it could be possible to increase pro-environmental behaviours via mate choice motivation and also demonstrate their positive role in mate evaluation. These findings have implications for marketing and increasing environmental behaviour through the lens of evolutionary theory. Note: data and materials for both experiments are available on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/g42bd/?view_only=916a807650ab4f77ae66b3fc56021752).