Short-term Mating Contexts Research Articles

Lordosis in humans: women's accurate perceptions of men's context-dependent preferences

Semchenko and colleagues (in press) recently disentangled two evolutionary hypotheses and demonstrated that heterosexual men have mate preferences for both the morphological cue of women's lumbar curvature and the behavioral cue of back arching: Men are attracted to an intermediate degree of lumbar curvature in both short-term and long-term mating contexts, and, independent of this preference, are attracted to lordosis behavior in short-term, but not long-term, mating contexts. No research to date has investigated whether women are aware of these preferences. There are a priori reasons to expect this to be the case: An awareness of these preferences could functionally guide both appearance-enhancement and intrasexual competition strategies. Here, we tested whether women have accurate perceptions of men's preferences in the lumbar region. Across two studies (Ns = 177, 293), we found that women's perceptions align precisely with men's preferences: Women perceive men to be attracted to cues to lordosis behavior in short-term but not long-term contexts, and to be attracted to an intermediate angle of lumbar curvature independent of mating context. We hope these findings, which document previously unknown features of women's mating psychology, inspire investigations into how women might adaptively use their accurate perceptions of men's mate preferences.

Perceived Effectiveness of Flirtation Tactics: The Effects of sex, Mating Context and Individual Differences in US and Norwegian Samples.

Flirting involves various signals communicated between individuals. To attract potential mates, men and women exhibit flirtatious behavior to get the attention of, and potentially elicit sexual or romantic interest from, a desired partner. In this first large, preregistered study of judgement of the effectiveness of flirtation tactics based on Sexual Strategies Theory, we considered the effects of flirter's (actor) sex and mating contexts in addition to rater's (participant) sex across two cultures, Norway and the U.S. Culturally relevant covariates such as sociosexuality, extraversion, mate value, age, and religiosity were examined. Participants from Norway (N = 415, 56% women) and the US (N = 577, 69% women) responded to one of four different randomized questionnaires representing a factorial design considering either short-term versus long-term mating context and either female or male sex of actor. We found that sexual availability cues were judged more effective when employed by women in short-term mating contexts. Friendly contact, such as hugs or kissing on the cheek, was not. Cues to generosity and commitment were judged more effective when employed by men in long-term mating contexts. Humor was rated as more effective when used by men and in long-term contexts, and least effective when used by women in short term contexts. However, laughing or giggling at someone's jokes was an effective flirtation tactic for both sexes. Overall, predictions for culturally relevant covariates were not supported, but cultural differences were found in bodily displays, initial contact, and generosity. These findings dovetail neatly with findings from the self-promotion literature, and further support that flirtation is a universal mate signaling strategy.

Mortality salience induces men's mating strategy toward body attractiveness in long-term mating context

Sexual attitudes are influenced by social norms, with an open sexual attitude in loose cultures (e.g., United States), and a conservative sexual attitude in tight cultures (e.g., China). Previous studies have found that men prefer women's face in long-term mating context and prefer women's body in short-term mating context in loose culture. However, whether men in tight culture prefer women's body in one-night stand mating context is unknown. Moreover, previous studies have shown that mortality salience has an influence on human's reproductive behaviors, however, it is unclear how mortality salience affects men's mating preferences. Experiment 1 replicated the previous findings showing that men prefer women's face in long-term mating context (girlfriend), and prefer women's body in short-term mating context (one-night stand) in tight culture. Moreover, experiment 2 found that after priming with death, men in the long-term context prefer women's body more than that in control priming group, and they also rated higher importance of body in mating selection than that in control group. Our results suggested that mortality salience induces men's mating strategy toward body attractiveness in long-term mating context.

Mating Strategies and the Masculinity Paradox: How Relationship Context, Relationship Status, and Sociosexuality Shape Women's Preferences for Facial Masculinity and Beardedness.

According to the dual mating strategy model, in short-term mating contexts women should forego paternal investment qualities in favor of mates with well-developed secondary sexual characteristics and dominant behavioral displays. We tested whether this model explains variation in women's preferences for facial masculinity and beardedness in male faces. Computer-generated composites that had been morphed to appear ± 50% masculine were rated by 671 heterosexual women (M age = 31.72years, SD = 6.43) for attractiveness when considering them as a short-term partner, long-term partner, a co-parent, or a friend. They then completed the Revised Sociosexual Inventory (SOI-R) to determine their sexual openness on dimensions of desire, behavior, and attitudes. Results showed that women's preferences were strongest for average facial masculinity, followed by masculinized faces, with feminized faces being least attractive. In contrast to past research, facial masculinity preferences were stronger when judging for co-parenting partners than for short-term mates. Facial masculinity preferences were also positively associated with behavioral SOI, negatively with desire, and were unrelated to global or attitudinal SOI. Women gave higher ratings for full beards than clean-shaven faces. Preferences for beards were higher for co-parenting and long-term relationships than short-term relationships, although these differences were not statistically significant. Preferences for facial hair were positively associated with global and attitudinal SOI, but were unrelated to behavioral SOI and desire. Although further replication is necessary, our findings indicate that sexual openness is associated with women's preferences for men's facial hair and suggest variation in the association between sociosexuality and women's facial masculinity preferences.

Mate-by-Numbers: Budget, Mating Context, and Sex Predict Preferences for Facial and Bodily Traits

Unlike women, or men considering long-term mates, men pursuing short-term mating have shown a tendency to prioritize bodily information over facial information when assessing potential mates. Prior studies have documented this tendency across a variety of methods ranging from photograph ratings to forcing a choice between faces and bodies, but have yet to ask participants to prioritize individual traits in faces and bodies. The current study used a budget allocation method to do just that. We randomly assigned participants (N = 258) to a mating context (short-term or long-term) and a budget (high or low) and asked them to allocate points across 10 traits (five facial, five bodily) to design their ideal mate within their budget. As expected, men in the short-term mating context allocated more points to bodily traits, but only when in the low budget condition—in the high budget condition, men showed more interest in facial traits. Women, also as expected, and in contrast to men, showed a general trend toward favoring facial traits regardless of budget and condition. Overall, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that women’s bodies provide better information regarding immediate fertility and are thus more important for men to assess in short-term mating contexts.

Birds of odd feather flock together? Assortative partner preferences, and attractiveness of schizotypy in long and short term partners

Although schizotypy has received much research interest, studies have largely ignored attractiveness and assortative mating for this trait. In an on-line study, participants (N = 170) rated high and low schizotypy vignettes for long and short term attractiveness. They also filled in the O-LIFE measure of schizotypy (Mason et al., 2005). For Unusual Experiences, and Cognitive Disorganisation, high vignettes received significantly lower ratings than the low vignettes in both short and long term mating context. In comparison to the low vignettes, high Impulsive Nonconformity vignettes had higher ratings as short term partners. We also found assortative preferences for Introvertive Anhedonia and Unusual Experiences. The findings support the idea that some of the schizotypy sub-traits could be part of an adaptive fast life history strategy.

Mate Preferences and Their Behavioral Manifestations.

Evolved mate preferences comprise a central causal process in Darwin's theory of sexual selection. Their powerful influences have been documented in all sexually reproducing species, including in sexual strategies in humans. This article reviews the science of human mate preferences and their myriad behavioral manifestations. We discuss sex differences and sex similarities in human sexual psychology, which vary according to short-term and long-term mating contexts. We review context-specific shifts in mating strategy depending on individual, social, and ecological qualities such as mate value, life history strategy, sex ratio, gender economic inequality, and cultural norms. We review the empirical evidence for the impact of mate preferences on actual mating decisions. Mate preferences also dramatically influence tactics of mate attraction, tactics of mate retention, patterns of deception, causes of sexual regret, attraction to cues to sexual exploitability, attraction to cues to fertility, attraction to cues to resources and protection, derogation of competitors, causes of breakups, and patterns of remarriage. We conclude by articulating unresolved issues and offer a future agenda for the science of human mating, including how humans invent novel cultural technologies to better implement ancient sexual strategies and how cultural evolution may be dramatically influencing our evolved mating psychology.

Is pulling the lever sexy? Deontology as a downstream cue to long-term mate quality

Deontological and utilitarian moral decisions have unique communicative functions within the context of group living. Deontology more strongly communicates prosocial intentions, fostering greater perceptions of trust and desirability in general affiliative contexts. This general trustworthiness may extend to perceptions of fidelity in romantic relationships, leading to perceptions of deontological persons as better long-term mates, relative to utilitarians. In two studies, participants indicated desirability of both deontologists and utilitarians in long-term mating (LTM) and short-term mating contexts. In Study 1 ( n = 102), women perceived a deontological man as more interested in long-term bonds, more desirable for LTM, and less prone to infidelity, relative to a utilitarian man. However, utilitarian men were undesirable as short-term mates. Study 2 ( n = 112) had both men and women rate opposite-sex targets’ desirability after learning of their moral decisions in a trolley problem. We replicated women’s preference for deontological men as long-term mates. Interestingly, both men and women reporting personal deontological motives were particularly sensitive to deontology communicating long-term desirability and fidelity, which could be a product of the general affiliative signal from deontology. Thus, one’s moral basis for decision-making, particularly deontologically motivated moral decisions, may communicate traits valuable in LTM contexts.

Dark Triad predicts self-promoting mate attraction behaviors

The Dark Triad is a cluster of aversive traits that includes Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. Individuals who score higher on these traits also report more sexual partners, suggesting that the Dark Triad may provide advantages to attracting short-term partners. We investigated the associations between the Dark Triad traits and self-promotion mate attraction tactics in a short-term mating context. We hypothesized that, in this mating context, psychopathy would predict the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors in men (Hypothesis 1), narcissism would predict these behaviors in both men (Hypothesis 2) and women (Hypothesis 3), and that the relationship between narcissism and the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors would be stronger in women than in men (Hypothesis 4). Participants were 225 Brazilian undergraduate students, aged between 18 and 45years (M=21.8; SD=4.80; 58.2% women). Supporting Hypothesis 1, psychopathy positively predicted the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors in men. Narcissism was positively associated with the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors in both men (supporting Hypothesis 2) and women (supporting Hypothesis 3), but with similar strength (inconsistent with Hypothesis 4). We situate these results concerning mate attraction within an evolutionary framework and discuss their theoretical and applied utility.

Drinking High Amounts of Alcohol as a Short-Term Mating Strategy: The Impact of Short-Term Mating Motivations on Young Adults' Drinking Behavior.

Previous research indicates that drinking large quantities of alcohol could function as a short-term mating strategy for young adults in mating situations. However, no study investigated whether this is actually the case. Therefore, in this article, the link between short-term mating motivations and drinking high amounts of alcohol is tested. First, a survey study ( N = 345) confirmed that young adults who engage in binge drinking are more short-term oriented in their mating strategy than young adults who never engage in binge drinking. Also, the more short-term-oriented young adults were in their mating strategy, the more often binge drinking behavior was conducted. In addition, an experimental study ( N = 229) empirically verified that short-term mating motivations increase young adults' drinking behavior, more so than long-term mating motivations. Results of the experiment clearly showed that young men and young women are triggered to drink more alcoholic beverages in a short-term mating situation compared to a long-term mating situation. Furthermore, the mating situation also affected young adults' perception of drinking behavior. Young adults in a short-term mating context perceived a higher amount of alcoholic beverages as heavy drinking compared to peers in a long-term mating context. These findings confirm that a high alcohol consumption functions as a short-term mating strategy for both young men and young women. Insights gained from this article might be of interest to institutions aimed at targeting youth alcohol (ab)use.

Female Cigarette and Alcohol Consumption as a Short-Term Mating Strategy

In developed countries, the traditional gender gap in youth smoking and drinking is closing. As tobacco and alcohol are more harmful to women than to men, this is an alarming trend. As men are generally more short-term oriented in their sexuality than women, and given that cigarette and alcohol use are still considered masculine behaviors, we explored if female smoking and drinking can function as a short-term mating strategy. By means of a between-subjects experiment ( N = 218), men’s perceptions of female smoking and drinking were studied. The experiment showed that young men perceive women who use cigarettes and alcohol as being more sexually unrestricted. Furthermore, tobacco and (especially) alcohol use brought some short-term attractiveness benefits to women. In short-term mating contexts, drinking enhanced women’s attractiveness, whereas occasional smoking was found equally desirable as not smoking. However, in long-term mating contexts, frequent drinking and all smoking behavior harmed women’s desirability. A follow-up study ( N = 202) confirmed men’s perceptions, showing that female users of tobacco and alcohol are indeed more short-term oriented in their sexuality. Overall, results indicate that female smoking and drinking can operate as a short-term mating strategy.

When Love Meets Money: Priming the Possession of Money Influences Mating Strategies.

Money is an important factor that influences the development of romantic relationships. The current paper examines how the feeling of having relatively more or less money influences human mating strategies in long-term and short-term mating contexts under the framework of evolutionary psychology. We recruited mainland Chinese college students involved in steady, heterosexual romantic relationships to participate in two experiments. In each study, we experimentally triggered participants' feelings of having relatively more or less money and then examined their thoughts and behaviors related to mating. Results of Study 1 showed that men who were primed to feel that they had relatively more money were less satisfied with their partners' physical attractiveness than those primed to feel that they had less money, suggesting that the subjective feeling of having more or less money may affect men's preferences regarding the physical appearance of a mate in a long-term relationship. Interestingly, this difference was not significant for women. Results of Study 2 indicated that both men and women who were primed to feel that they had relatively more money exhibited a greater “behavioral approach tendency” toward an attractive member of the opposite sex than those primed to feel that they had less money. This finding suggests that people who feel they have relatively more money may have more interest in an attractive alternative than those who feel they have relatively less money. The differences in mating strategies between and within the genders brought about by money support the evolutionary hypothesis that individuals adopt conditional mating strategies in response to environmental conditions. Additionally, the results of experimental studies provide evidence for the causal effects of money on mating strategies. These findings have both conceptual and practical implications for the psychology of evolution and romantic relationships.

The Young Male Cigarette and Alcohol Syndrome

Despite the many health risks of tobacco and alcohol use, high levels of smoking and drinking are being persisted. Moreover, young men engage more in these behaviors as compared to women. As male physical risk-taking behavior gains attractiveness in short-term mating contexts and given that smoking and drinking have considerable physical costs, this study explores the possibility that tobacco and alcohol use is part of a male short-term mating strategy. By means of a between-subjects experiment ( N = 239), women’s perceptions of young male smoking and drinking were investigated. The experiment showed that women perceive men who smoke and drink as being more short-term oriented in their sexuality than nonusers. Moreover, both tobacco and (especially) alcohol use brought some attractiveness benefits in short-term mating contexts. A follow-up study ( N = 171) confirmed that men’s behavior corresponds with women’s perceptions. Overall, these findings show that cigarette and alcohol use can operate as a short-term mating strategy.

Sex-differences in preference for looking at the face or body in short-term and long-term mating contexts

Previous research has demonstrated that while women prefer to look at the face of men regardless of relationship context, men preferentially look at women's bodies for short-term (over long-term) relationship judgments. The current study examined how self-rated mate value and 'mating intelligence' correlate with the subjective importance of information from the face or body. In addition, given the apparent sex differences in these judgments, we investigated whether either sex is aware of how the opposite-sex prioritizes this. Participants were 266 undergraduate students/volunteers who completed an online survey, measuring preferences for information from the face or body in short-term or long-term contexts, and a range of self-rated mate value meas- ures. Information from the body was more important in short-term contexts for men (but not women), and correlated positively with mating strategy measures. While both sexes overestimated the opposite-sex's preference for looking at the body, women accurately perceived men's differ- ential investment in face or body across contexts, whereas men assumed that women make deci- sions similarly to themselves. Women might benefit more than men from awareness of opposite- sex preferences as this could afford the enhancement or reduction of cues to sexual availability.

Errata

Lucas, M., Koff, E., Grossmith, S., & Migliorini, R. (2011) Sexual orientation and shifts in preferences for a partner's body attributes in short-term versus long-term mating contexts. Psychological Reports, 108, 699–710. Table 1, p. 705: the correct mean rating of Long-term mate preference for Waist-to-hip ratio is 0.73. The correct mean ratings and standard deviations of Muscularity is 2.83 and 1.10 for Long-term mate preference and 3.33 and 1.16 for Short-term mate preference. Submitted August 29, 2011. Devereux, J., Rydstedt, L. W., & Cropley, M. (2011) An exploratory study to assess the impact of work demands and the anticipation of work on awakening saliva cortisol. Psychological Reports, 108, 274–280. Georgia Michalianou should have been listed as the first author of this article. Submitted September 20, 2011.

Intrasexual competition among women: Vocal femininity affects perceptions of attractiveness and flirtatiousness

Cognitive mechanisms for recognizing high quality sexual rivals should facilitate the economical allocation of mating effort. Women compete to attract male investment, and previous studies have shown that feminine voices are attractive to men. Here, we manipulated two sexually dimorphic acoustic parameters in women’s voices, fundamental frequency and formant dispersion, by the same perceptual amounts and explored the effects on attractiveness to heterosexual men in short- and long-term mating contexts. Femininity in both acoustic parameters was more attractive to men, especially in short-term mating contexts, and formant dispersion had a larger effect than did fundamental frequency. We then explored the effects of these manipulations on women’s perceptions of other women’s flirtatiousness and attractiveness to men. Feminine voices were perceived as more flirtatious and more attractive to men, and women were most sensitive to formant dispersion, the acoustic parameter that had the stronger effect on men’s preferences. These results support the interpretation that women use vocal femininity to track the threat potential of competitors.

More than just a pretty face: men's priority shifts toward bodily attractiveness in short-term versus long-term mating contexts

Studies of physical attractiveness have long emphasized the constituent features that make faces and bodies attractive, such as symmetry, skin texture, and waist-to-hip ratio. Few studies, however, have examined the reproductively relevant cues conveyed by faces and bodies as whole units. Based on the premise that fertility cues are more readily assessed from a woman's body than her face, the present study tested the hypothesis that men evaluating a potential short-term mate would give higher priority to information gleaned from her body, relative to her face, than men evaluating a potential long-term mate. Male and female participants ( N=375) were instructed to consider dating an opposite sex individual, whose face was occluded by a “face box” and whose body was occluded by a “body box,” as a short-term or long-term mate. With the instruction that only one box could be removed to make their decision about their willingness to engage in the designated relationship with the occluded individual, significantly more men assigned to the short-term, compared to the long-term, mating condition removed the body box. Women's face versus body information choice, in contrast, was unaffected by the temporal dimension of the mating condition. These results suggest that men, but not women, have a condition-dependent adaptive proclivity to prioritize facial cues in long-term mating contexts, but shift their priorities toward bodily cues in short-term mating contexts.

Narcissism and attractiveness

Is narcissism related to observer-rated attractiveness? Two views imply that narcissism is unrelated to attractiveness: positive illusions theory and Feingold’s (1992) attractiveness theory (i.e., attractiveness is unrelated to personality in general). In contrast, two other views imply that narcissism is positively related to attractiveness: an evolutionary perspective on narcissism (i.e., selection pressures in short-term mating contexts shaped the evolution of narcissism, including greater selection for attractiveness in short-term versus long-term mating contexts) and, secondly, the self-regulatory processing model of narcissism (narcissists groom themselves to bolster grandiose self-images). A meta-analysis ( N > 1000) reveals a small but reliable positive narcissism–attractiveness correlation that approaches the largest known personality–attractiveness correlations. The finding supports the evolutionary and self-regulatory views of narcissism.

Attractiveness in flux: Female preferences for male facial motion depend on mating context and non-additive cues to prosociality and proceptivity

Like facial structure, facial motion is a rich source of information for potential mates, but its relevance may vary across contexts. Perceived flirtatiousness (i.e. proceptivity) may offer information to females about various benefits offered by males, both direct and indirect, and may be weighted more heavily in a short-term mating context. However, proceptivity may interact with other desirable qualities. Prosocial tendencies (i.e. kindness) may offer direct benefits to potential mates and may effectively supersede proceptivity in a long-term mating context. We showed women wire-frame animations of shape-standardized male faces purportedly reporting statements that were either prosocial or antisocial. We asked participants to rate the animated faces for attractiveness in both long- and short-term mating contexts. We also asked a separate group of women to rate the perceived flirtatiousness of the animations. As expected, women prefer stimuli paired with prosocial statements. The weight placed on proceptive properties of the stimuli varied across conditions. Proceptivity predicted participants’ ratings more strongly for short-term judgments and when paired with antisocial statements, but proceptivity did not predict attractiveness when paired with prosocial statements. The results indicate that the information value of proceptive content is context-dependent and combines non-additively with other mating relevant information.

Why is creativity attractive in a potential mate?

AbstractA number of studies suggest that women find artistically creative men attractive, especially in the short-term mating context. Artistic creativity (but not mathematical or technical creativity) is linked to psychosis-proneness. I hypothesise that in preferring artistically creative men, women may be choosing paternal genotypes that make babies that are not excessively somatically demanding on them.