Partner Choice Research Articles

Barriers and Facilitators to Recruitment of a Multifaceted Population of Opioid Use Disorder Community Stakeholders.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) research is essential to inform evidence-based responses to the OUD crisis in the United States. Individuals with OUD, their caregivers, and support group leaders are historically difficult to recruit for research studies. The purpose of this study was to describe barriers and facilitators in recruitment during the implementation of a qualitative study that sought to explore stigma, barriers, and facilitators to healthcare. Researchers engaged in the original study completed a retrospective reflection of their experience recruiting members of the OUD community. Recruitment data were analyzed thematically, and facilitators and barriers for recruitment were identified. Three key barriers to recruitment were identified: choice of community partners, access to technology, and impractical incentives. One key facilitator to recruitment was identified: being patient yet persistent and flexible. Investigators must design research studies mindful of avoiding societal privilege and cognizant of the lens of the individual living with OUD.

Migration, Partner Selection, and Fertility in Germany: How Many Children are Born in Mixed Unions?

For the German context, we investigate whether the number of children ever born differs between mixed unions (exogamous unions between natives and migrants or migrant descendants) and endogamous unions (unions among co-ethnics). Our theoretical considerations are derived from assimilation theories, which view exogamous unions as indicators of assimilation processes, and the framework on migrant fertility. The migrant (or descendant) partner in an exogamous union may adapt to the majority group, both partners may adapt to each other, or both partners may constitute a selected group in their fertility preferences. However, due to the higher likelihood of conflicts within the partnership and of separation, exogamy may disrupt family formation processes and depress couples’ fertility. Drawing on data from the GSOEP (1984–2020), we estimate generalized Poisson regressions. The results reveal that the number of children ever born is higher in exogamous unions than in endogamous native couples. This general pattern largely persists across migrant generations and regions of origin, but we identify gender differences. While fertility in exogamous unions of native women/migrant (descendant) men is not statistically different from fertility in native/native couples, unions of migrant (descendant) women/native men have more children, especially when controlling for socio-demographic confounders. Our results demonstrate that in the German context, exogamy does not lead to fertility disruptions, and is not straightforwardly associated with assimilation to the fertility of the majority group. Instead, differences in gendered partner choice patterns and life-course transitions may influence the number of children exogamous couples have.

Alliance Partner Choice and CEOs’ Facial Structure

Alliance Partner Choice and CEOs’ Facial Structure

R&D Cooperation and Absorptive Capacity of Russian Organizations

R&D cooperation is one of the main channels for new knowledge diffusion to create innovation. Therefore, it is important to understand exactly how enterprises use this channel. The purpose of this article is to identify the structure of R&D cooperation determined by both the heterogeneity of partners and the size of organizations. This structure is considered in dynamics. The analysis is based on Rosstat data characterizing the participation in joint R&D projects of innovation-active firms from 2019 to 2022. This approach allows us to find out how the structure of cooperation changes under the influence of crisis. However, unlike most Russian studies, this work also defines the relationship between the choice of R&D partners and the absorptive capacity of organizations in Russia. Differences in absorptive capacities (i.e. abilities of organizations to find, assimilate and apply new knowledge from external sources) largely determine the choice of partners in innovation activities and the results of cooperation. The article finds that despite government efforts the links between science and business are weakening in Russia, as not only small entities but even large companies have largely shifted their preferences to less risky projects. The persistence of such cooperation patterns leads to a decrease or even loss of Russian firms’ capacity to assimilate and use new knowledge to create radical innovations. Consequently, measures are needed not only to maintain the scale of R&D collaboration, but also to avoid negative changes in their structure. Such measures should also include incentives for enterprises to increase absorptive capacities. Unfortunately, these incentives have received little attention both in the practice of innovation management and in Russian economic literature.

Endogenous monitoring through voluntary reporting in an infinitely repeated prisoner's dilemma game: experimental evidence

AbstractExogenous reputational information is known to improve cooperation. This study experimentally investigates how people create such information by reporting their partner's action choices, and whether endogenous monitoring helps to sustain cooperation, in an indefinitely repeated prisoner's dilemma game with random matching. The experimental results show that most subjects report their opponents' action choices, thereby successfully cooperating when reporting does not involve costs. However, when reporting is costly, participants are strongly discouraged from doing so. Consequently, they fail to achieve strong cooperative norms when the reported information is conveyed privately only to their next‐round interaction partners. Costly reporting occurs only occasionally even when there is a public record whereby all future partners can check the reported information, but significantly more frequently relative to the condition in which it is sent to the next partner only. With public records, groups can foster cooperative norms aided by reported information that gradually accumulates and becomes more informative over time.

Impact of Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles on perceived trustworthiness of Black and White faces: A Black perspective.

In five experiments, we investigated how Black participants perceive Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles on Black and White targets. Results consistently demonstrated that when assessing happiness, faces with Duchenne compared to non-Duchenne smiles were rated as happier on both Black and White targets. However, when assessing a more socially evaluative dimension, trustworthiness, perceptions of Black and White targets diverged. Whereas White targets with Duchenne compared to non-Duchenne smiles were rated as more trustworthy, ratings of Black targets with Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles did not differ, with both appraised as highly trustworthy. Although the degree to which Black participants identified with their race did not moderate these effects, the perceived genuineness of targets did mediate the relationship. One reason why Duchenne compared to non-Duchenne smiles on White but not Black targets were perceived as more trustworthy is because Duchenne compared to non-Duchenne smiles on White but not Black targets were perceived as more genuine. A final study extended these findings by exploring the impact of target race and smile type on partner choice. In accordance with the results related to trustworthiness ratings, Black participants selected White partners with Duchenne compared to non-Duchenne smiles more often but did not differentiate in their choice of Black partners with Duchenne versus non-Duchenne smiles. These findings underscore the importance of investigating not only diverse targets but also diverse perceivers. Our results suggest that Black perceivers use facial cues differently when rating the trustworthiness of Black and White targets and that these perceptions have important downstream consequences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

From pragmatism to passion: changing partner preferences in Dutch matrimonial and contact advertisements, 1841–1995

ABSTRACT This article explores the evolution of partner preferences in the Dutch mating market from 1841 to 1995, focusing on the rise of the cultural ideal of love-based partner selection. The study examines two hypotheses related to partner selection in modernization theory: the romantic-love hypothesis and the status-attainment hypothesis. These hypotheses are tested with descriptive and multivariate analysis using a database on matrimonial and contact advertisements. The study shows that the transition from instrumental to romantic partner choice was a gradual process, that in the Netherlands only gained momentum in the latter half of the twentieth century coinciding with processes of individualisation and the rise of the welfare state, a century later than earlier literature suggests. First instrumental preferences declined, then romantic preferences grew in importance. Furthermore, while the status-attainment hypothesis predicts an increase in educational preferences over time, the growth was slower and later than expected. These findings challenge both the romantic-love and status-attainment hypotheses and suggest an adjusted combined hypothesis. The study also highlights the role of social status and gender in partner preferences. Advertisers from higher social classes were more likely to express romantic preferences, indicating that wealthier individuals were earlier on inclined to turn love into the cornerstone of their relationships. Women exhibited a stronger emphasis on social status and educational level than men, highlighting gender role ideas of the time with women’s financial dependence guiding their preferences for a partner that could provide for them and their children. Moreover, the research demonstrates that religion and civil status did not significantly influence the internalization of love-based partner choice. The article concludes by emphasizing the significance of matrimonial and contact advertisements as valuable sources for comprehending the quest for a partner in the past and suggests potential avenues for future research based on these advertisements.

Changes in prevalence and patterns of consanguinity in Bradford, UK – evidence from two cohort studies

Background Research undertaken using the Born in Bradford cohort study identified consanguinity as a major risk factor for congenital anomalies and also reported longer term adverse health outcomes associated with consanguinity. Methods We report the prevalence of consanguinity from two cohort studies in the same geographical area with a nine year gap: Born in Bradford (BiB) and Born in Bradford’s Better Start (BiBBS). We examine and compare rates of consanguinity and the characteristics of the consanguineous in each study population to examine if and how these have changed in the years between the recruitment periods of 2007–2010 (BiB) and 2016–2019 (BiBBS). Results There had been a substantial decrease in consanguineous unions in women of Pakistani heritage, the proportion of women who were first cousins with the father of their baby fell from 39.3% to 27.0%, and those who were other blood relations fell from 23.1% to 19.3%. Only 37.6% of Pakistani heritage women were unrelated to the father of their baby in BiB, but 53.7% were unrelated in BiBBS. All but one White British respondent was unrelated to their baby’s father in both cohorts, and around 90% of the ‘Other ethnicities’ group (i.e., not White British or Pakistani heritage) were unrelated to the baby’s father in both cohorts. The reduction was most marked in women of Pakistani heritage who were born in the UK, in those educated to A level or higher and in women under age 25. Conclusions An appreciation of changing rates of consanguinity and linked health needs will be valuable to those who commission and provide antenatal, paediatric and genetic services in Bradford and in other areas where consanguinity is likely to be a major risk factor. Falling rates in this city may reflect wider changes in partner choices in similar populations.

Can episodic memory deter cheating and promote altruism?

Episodic memory gives us the ability to mentally travel back in time to revisit and relive past experiences. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in the function of episodic memory. According to the orthodox view, episodic memory should be considered a part of a constructive system that simulates the future for sophisticated foresight and flexible planning. In this paper, I offer a novel alternative view. I argue that episodic memory provides invaluable information about the past behavior of others, allowing us to identify reliable and trustworthy partners while avoiding dealing with cheaters. Theoretical models demonstrate that cooperation in groups can be maintained if potential partners use information about an individual’s past behavior to guide their behavior toward that individual. In these reputation-based models of human cooperation, individuals with a history of cheating are ostracized, whereas those with a history of cooperative behavior flourish. Against this theoretical background, it is possible to see a function of episodic memory in facilitating information exchange about others, helping group members make effective partner choices, and avoiding the risk of interacting with cheaters. If correct, episodic memory may have played a significant role in the evolution of human cooperation.

The role of affiliation in the development of collaborative partner choice.

Collaboration is an early emerging component of successful cooperative relations that produces a cascade of positive social preferences between collaborators. Concurrently, robust preferences for affiliated others may restrict these benefits to in-group peers. We investigated how in-group affiliation (based on minimal group markers) and interpersonal affiliation (based on shared preferences) influence children's collaborative partner choice. We asked whether children prefer to collaborate with affiliated peers and if highlighting interpersonal affiliation with out-group members reduce in-group bias in partner choice. In Study 1, we assigned children (4-9 years, N = 124, 62 female, two nonbinary) to either a group or interpersonal affiliation condition and gave them a choice of collaborating with either an affiliated (in-group or same preference) or unaffiliated (out-group or different preference) peer. While children preferred affiliated peers in both conditions, interpersonal affiliation had a greater influence than group affiliation on collaborative partner choice among younger participants. With age, the difference between children's preference for affiliated peers in the interpersonal and group affiliation condition declined until they were similar in middle childhood. In Study 2, we assessed whether shared preferences would override in-group bias when these factors were directly contrasted. Children (4-9 years, N = 62, 33 female) chose between an in-group/different preference or out-group/same preferences peer. Younger children preferred the out-group/same preference peer, a preference that diminished with age to chance levels in middle childhood. These findings suggest that affiliation is an important determinant of collaborative partner choice and that shared preferences can override in-group bias in children's collaborative partner choice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Personality heterophily and friendship as drivers for successful cooperation.

Cooperation is widespread and arguably a pivotal evolutionary force in maintaining animal societies. Yet, proximately, what underlying motivators drive individuals to cooperate remains relatively unclear. Since 'free-riders' can exploit the benefits by cheating, selecting the right partner is paramount. Such decision rules need not be based on complex calculations and can be driven by cognitively less-demanding mechanisms, like social relationships (e.g. kinship, non-kin friendships, dyadic tolerance), social status (e.g. dominance hierarchies) and personalities (social and non-social traits); however, holistic evidence related to those mechanisms is scarce. Using the classical 'loose-string paradigm', we tested cooperative tendencies of a hierarchical primate, the long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis). We studied three groups (n = 21) in their social settings, allowing partner choice. We supplemented cooperation with observational and experimental data on social relationships, dominance hierarchies and personality. Friendship and dissimilarities in non-social 'exploration' and 'activity-sociability' personality traits predicted the likelihood of cooperative dyad formation. Furthermore, the magnitude of cooperative success was positively associated with friendship, low rank-distance and dissimilarity in the activity-sociability trait. Kinship did not affect cooperation. While some findings align with prior studies, the evidence of (non-social) personality heterophily promoting cooperation may deepen our understanding of the proximate mechanisms and, broadly, the evolution of cooperation.

"Get Her for Me, for She Pleases Me Well:" Interpreting the Samson Marriage Narrative in Judges 14 in Light of Parental Role in Mate Selection in Nigeria

Judges 14 speaks to the Nigerian context on the role of parents in the marriage process. Unlike in the traditional African society where the choice of spouses was determined by parents and the family, in Nigeria today, parents have little involvement in their children's choice of marriage partner. Applying narrative reading and the descriptive approach, the article examines this text in light of the significance of parents' role in choosing marriage partners among Nigerian Christians. The study finds that due to the influence of Christianity and modernisation, Nigerian parents now play little role in the choice of their children's marriage partners and that this is one of the factors responsible for the rampant marriage failures in society. It concludes that to curb the high rate of marriage instability among Nigerian Christians, the church in Nigeria should review its marriage theology to emphasise the role of parents in mate selection, using the Samson story as a literary instrument.

Supplemental Material for The Role of Affiliation in the Development of Collaborative Partner Choice

Supplemental Material for The Role of Affiliation in the Development of Collaborative Partner Choice

Price distortion forced by recycling competition under trade-in collaboration

Renowned brands and recycling agencies tacitly integrate their business flows together in the current trade-in industry. The collaborative trade-in programme breaks the hierarchy of closed-loop supply chains and provides seamless services for consumers. In this study, we develop a stylised model to capture the change in supply chain structure and scrutinise trade-in collaboration and recycling competition between sellers and recyclers. We find that, under intensive recycling competition, price targeting new consumers is downward distorted by the seller to occupy more trade-in demands in the old consumer segment. Meanwhile, the rebate of the recycler is suppressed by the collaboration constraint. By distorting the price, the seller obtains the predominance in recycling competition while sacrificing part of profits from new consumers. The price distortion indicates the competition spill-over from the old consumer segment to the new consumer segment. Furthermore, the establishment of autonomous recycling reaches a Pareto improvement for the whole system when the competition is mild; otherwise, these two entities fall into a zero-sum scenario. Our study offers insights into recycling value allocation and trade-in partner choice and, theoretically, contributes to the economic literature that price distortion can even be forced by competition with the absence of information asymmetry.

Willingness valued more than ability in partner choice: Insights into behavioral and ERP data.

In human cooperation, people prefer to choose partners with high willingness and ability-while both are valued by partners, individuals often prioritize willingness. Two event-related potential (ERP) experiments were conducted to discern the neural processes underpinning this preference. In the first experiment, participants made a choice between two potential partners and received feedback on the selected partner's willingness to cooperate. This was followed by feedback on the partner's task performance (ability) or a gambling outcome. In contrast, the second experiment first provided feedback on ability, then presented feedback on willingness or a gambling outcome. This study revealed that a potential partner's willingness trait significantly influences individuals' emotional evaluations and monetary allocations than the ability trait. Electrophysiological data indicated that low-willingness feedback elicited a diminished feedback-related negative (FRN) and an amplified P3 compared to high-willingness feedback. In contrast, no such difference was discernible between high- and low-ability feedback. Moreover, the P3 difference from high versus low willingness was considerably more pronounced than that from gambling outcomes, whereas the difference wave between high and low ability paralleled gambling outcomes. These findings bolster the novel finding that partner willingness may provide more substantial social rewards than ability. Furthermore, this study provides the first ERP evidence of willingness and ability trait perceptions in partner choice decisions.

Learning from fights: Males' social dominance status impact reproductive success in Drosophila melanogaster.

In animals, the access to vital resources often relies on individuals' behavioural personality, strength, motivation, past experiences and dominance status. Dominant individuals would be more territorial, providing them with a better access to food resources and mate. The so-called winner and loser effects induce individuals' behavioural changes after experiencing a victory or a defeat, and lead to an individual persistent state influencing the outcome of subsequent fights. However, whether and how development of winner and loser effects affect individuals' fitness is controversial. The aim of this study is to evaluate how individuals' fitness can be influenced by previous fighting experience in Drosophila melanogaster. In this study, we assess various behavioural performances as indicators for dominant and subordinate fitness. Our results show that subordinates are less territorial than dominants although their locomotor abilities are not affected. We also demonstrate that in a non-competitive context, experiencing a defeat reduces males' motivation to court females but not the reproductive success while in a competitive context, it negatively affects males' reproductive success. However, we found no impact upon either males' ability to distinguish potential mates nor on females' choice of a specific mating partner. Overall, these results indicate that previous defeats reduce reproductive success, a commonly used estimate of individual fitness.

Social bond dynamics and the evolution of helping

Empiricists often struggle to apply game theory models to real-life cases of animal cooperation. One reason is that many examples of cooperation occur in stable groups, where individuals form social bonds that influence exchanges of help in ways that are not well described by previous models, including the extent of reciprocity and how relationships are initiated. We present a game theory model exploring the conditions under which social bonds between group members promote cooperation. In the model, bonds build up from exchanges of help in a similar way as the strength of association increases in learning, as in the Rescorla-Wagner rule. The bonds in turn affect partner choice and influence helping amounts. The model has a mechanism of reciprocity for bonded pairs, which can evolve toward either loose or strict reciprocation. Several aspects of the model are inspired by observations of food sharing in vampire bats. We find that small social neighborhoods are required for the evolutionary stability of helping, either as small group sizes, or if bonded members of larger groups can form temporary (daily) smaller groupings. The costs of helping need to be fairly low, while the benefits can be substantial. The form of reciprocity that evolves is neither immediate nor very strict. Individuals in need request help based on bond strength, but there is also an evolved preference for initiating bonds with new group members. In contrast, if different groups come into temporary contact, the evolved tendency is to avoid forming bonds between groups.

Justice at the Forefront: Cultivating felt accountability towards Artificial Intelligence among healthcare professionals

The advent of AI has ushered in a new era of patient care, but with it emerges a contentious debate surrounding accountability for algorithmic medical decisions. Within this discourse, a spectrum of views prevails, ranging from placing accountability on AI solution providers to laying it squarely on the shoulders of healthcare professionals. In response to this debate, this study, grounded in the mutualistic partner choice (MPC) model of the evolution of morality, seeks to establish a configurational framework for cultivating felt accountability towards AI among healthcare professionals. This framework underscores two pivotal conditions: AI ethics enactment and trusting belief in AI and considers the influence of organizational complexity in the implementation of this framework. Drawing on Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) of a sample of 401 healthcare professionals, this study reveals that a) focusing justice and autonomy in AI ethics enactment along with building trusting belief in AI reliability and functionality reinforces healthcare professionals’ sense of felt accountability towards AI, b) fostering felt accountability towards AI necessitates ensuring the establishment of trust in its functionality for high complexity hospitals, and c) prioritizing justice in AI ethics enactment and trust in AI reliability is essential for low complexity hospitals.

Wanted: marriage partner! Partner preferences in newspaper contact adverts in the Netherlands, 1900-1955

ABSTRACT This study examines romantic and instrumental partner preferences in contact adverts from two Dutch newspapers, the Arnhemsche Courant (N = 283) and the Provinciale Drentsche en Asser Courant (N = 231) between 1900 and 1955. With the spread of the newspaper, contact adverts became a new meeting place. By means of short messages, people could make known that they were looking for a partner to get acquainted or even to marry and describe how their desired person should look like. By analysing how advertisers described themselves and their sought-after partners, insights into the motivations behind partner choice were gained. We identified a number of terms in the ads that could indicate romantic partner preferences, such as age homogamy, openness to regional or social heterogamy, and preferences indicating attraction, personality, and appearance. Similarly, instrumental partner preferences could be gathered from phrases expressing social homogamy (marrying into one’s own social class), parental influences, and the importance of wealth or possessions. The results show that romantic and instrumental considerations in partner preferences co-existed, but that their relative occurrence changed over time. Moreover, differential considerations in partner preference existed according to region, urban or rural residence, social class, religion, and gender. For instance, women’s partner preferences were more instrumental than those of men, while urban women were more likely to place contact adverts than rural women. Widows, widowers, and the divorced more often expressed romantic rather than instrumental partner preferences compared to unmarried men and women.

Cross-promotion: features, causes of success and types of popular mechanics

Cross-promo is becoming more and more popular among companies in the Russian market. Both representatives of large businesses and medium-sized companies resort to this marketing mechanics. The article discusses in detail the theoretical aspects and reasons for the growing popularity of cross-promo, analyzes the important nuances that companies face when conducting this type of activity, and the main mechanics of this type of partner campaigns, and also provides recommendations for organizing an effective cross-promo. The subject of the study is cross-promo, and the object is the growing popularity of this mechanics among companies in the Russian market. The purpose of the work is to systematize the varieties of cross-promo. The result of this study is a detailed description of various types of cross-promos and the formulation of recommendations for the successful conduct of promotions. Cross-promo formats such as sampling, organization of joint events, joint advertising campaigns, organization of recommendation cross-promo, joint promotions and contests, implementation of partner programs and loyalty programs, joint creation of products are considered in detail. The uniqueness of the article consists in identifying the factors that determine the achievement of the planned indicators for this type of promotions. Recommendations are given on the choice of partners for cross-promo and the formation of promotional offers attractive to the target audience.