bims-chumac Biomed News
on Context effects on human mate choice
Issue of 2020–05–17
six papers selected by
Jay Dixit, Storytelling.NYC
  1. Power Distribution and Relationship Quality in Long-Term Heterosexual Couples.
  2. The social-safety system: Fortifying relationships in the face of the unforeseeable.
  3. Subtly encouraging more deliberate decisions: using a forcing technique and population stereotype to investigate free will.
  4. Who are "We"? Couple Identity Clarity and Romantic Relationship Commitment.
  5. Attachment and Images of Parents and of the Romantic Partner of Russian Young Men and Women.
  6. Examining the Links Between Beauty Ideals Internalization, the Objectification of Women, and Ambivalent Sexism Among Chinese Women: The Effects of Sexual Orientation.
  1. J Sex Marital Ther. 2020 May 12. 1-14
    Power Distribution and Relationship Quality in Long-Term Heterosexual Couples.
    Jitka Lindová, Denisa Průšová, Kateřina Klapilová.
      Power imbalance in romantic couples is associated with lower relationship quality. Reasons underlying this phenomenon remain, however, unclear. In 192 Czech and Slovak long-term heterosexual couples, we measured relationship quality (Dyadic Adjustment Scale) and assessed its link with perceived relationship power, control, decision making, and personality dominance. Decreased relationship quality was found in power-imbalanced couples, and power distribution affected perceived relationship quality especially in men. In women, lower perceived relationship quality was associated with their partners' control and personality dominance. Results are discussed in the context of interdependence and approach/inhibition theories of power, and some culturally specific explanations are provided.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2020.1761493
  2. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2020 May 14.
    The social-safety system: Fortifying relationships in the face of the unforeseeable.
    Sandra L Murray, Veronica Lamarche, Mark D Seery, Han Young Jung, Dale W Griffin, Craig Brinkman.
      A model of the social-safety system is proposed to explain how people sustain a sense of safety in the relational world when they are not able to foresee the behavior of others. In this model, people can escape the acute anxiety posed by agents in their personal relational world behaving unexpectedly (e.g., spouse, child) by defensively imposing well-intentioned motivations on the agents controlling their sociopolitical relational world (e.g., President, Congress). Conversely, people can escape the acute anxiety posed by sociopolitical agents behaving unexpectedly by defensively imposing well-intentioned motivations on the agents controlling their personal relational world. Two daily diary studies, a longitudinal study of the 2018 midterm election, and a 3-year longitudinal study of newlyweds supported the hypotheses. On a daily basis, people who were less certain they could trust their romantic partner defended against acutely unforeseeable behavior in one relational world by affirming faith in the well-intentioned motivations of agents in the alternate world. Moreover, when people were more in the personal daily habit of finding safety in the alternate relational world in the face of the unexpected, those who were initially uncertain they could trust their romantic partner later evidenced greater comfort depending on their personal relationship partners. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000245
  3. Psychol Res. 2020 May 14.
    Subtly encouraging more deliberate decisions: using a forcing technique and population stereotype to investigate free will.
    Alice Pailhès, Gustav Kuhn.
      Magicians' forcing techniques allow them to covertly influence spectators' choices. We used a type of force (Position Force) to investigate whether explicitly informing people that they are making a decision results in more deliberate decisions. The magician placed four face-down cards on the table in a horizontal row, after which the spectator was asked to select a card by pushing it forward. According to magicians and position effects literature, people should be more likely to choose a card in the third position from their left, because it can be easily reached. We manipulated whether participants were reminded that they were making a decision (explicit choice) or not (implicit choice) when asked to select one of the cards. Two experiments confirmed the efficiency of the Position Force-52% of participants chose the target card. Explicitly informing participants of the decision impairs the success of the force, leading to a more deliberate choice. A range of awareness measures illustrates that participants were unaware of their stereotypical behaviours. Participants who chose the target card significantly underestimated the number of people who would have chosen the same card, and felt as free as the participants who chose another card. Finally, we tested an embodied-cognition idea, but our data suggest that different ways of holding an object do not affect the level of self-control they have over their actions. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical implications regarding free will, Wegner's apparent mental causation, choice blindness and reachability effects.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-020-01350-z
  4. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2020 May 13. 146167220921717
    Who are "We"? Couple Identity Clarity and Romantic Relationship Commitment.
    Lydia F Emery, Wendi L Gardner, Kathleen L Carswell, Eli J Finkel.
      This research introduces the construct of couple identity clarity-the extent to which an individual, as one of two partners in a romantic relationship, believes that the two of them know who they are as a couple. Cross-sectional (Studies 1-2), experimental (Study 3), and longitudinal (Study 4) studies supported the hypothesis that couple identity clarity is associated with higher commitment. Moreover, higher couple identity clarity, although related to actual agreement between partners on their identity as a couple, predicted commitment above and beyond agreement (Study 2)-as well as predicted reduced likelihood of relationship dissolution over a 9-month period (Study 4). Exploratory analyses revealed that successful conflict resolution may enhance couple identity clarity, in turn predicting commitment (Study 4). These studies highlight the importance of people's understanding of who they are as a couple and how this understanding shapes relationship persistence.
    Keywords:  commitment; couple identity clarity; relationships; self-concept clarity
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220921717
  5. Behav Sci (Basel). 2020 May 08. pii: E87. [Epub ahead of print]10(5):
    Attachment and Images of Parents and of the Romantic Partner of Russian Young Men and Women.
    Natalia Sabelnikova, Dmitry Kashirsky, Olga Garvard.
      The study investigated young adults' perceptions of their parents and romantic partners with respect to the quality of attachment to the loved ones. The sample consisted of 78 young Russian men and women aged 19-25 involved in a romantic relationship for at least for 12 months. The employed instruments were the Attachment to Close People Questionnaire (ACOQ), based on the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) questionnaire, the Adolescents' Report of Parental Behavior Inventory, and Leary's Interpersonal Behavior Measure. Regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that the attachment to the mother contributed to attachment to the romantic partner more than the attachment to the father. The attachment security with the partner was associated with the image of the partner.
    Keywords:  attachment to parents; attachment to romantic partner; image of a parent; image of a romantic partner; young adulthood
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/bs10050087
  6. Arch Sex Behav. 2020 May 11.
    Examining the Links Between Beauty Ideals Internalization, the Objectification of Women, and Ambivalent Sexism Among Chinese Women: The Effects of Sexual Orientation.
    Lijuan Xiao, Fang Wang.
      The widespread propagation of beauty ideals has made their influence inescapable for women worldwide. Numerous studies have suggested the negative consequences of the internalization of beauty ideals. However, researchers have mostly focused on Western cultures, with only a few studies addressing China. Given that Chinese traditional Confucian values emphasize more reproduction and family duties of women, women suffer more pressures in China. However, not all women experience and respond to cultural practices in the same way. The present study aimed to examine the mechanism underlying the link between the internalization of beauty ideals and ambivalent sexism and the differences in this link among subgroups of Chinese women. Data were collected from a sample of 293 (146 heterosexual women, 147 sexual minority women). The results showed that the associations of the internalization of beauty ideals with hostile sexism and benevolent sexism were mediated by the objectification of women. Furthermore, the link between the internalization of beauty ideals and the objectification of women depended on women's sexual orientation. More specifically, for lesbian and bisexual women but not heterosexual women, the internalization of beauty ideals was positively associated with the objectification of women. The present study addressed a major gap by examining how and for whom the internalization of beauty ideals was associated with increased hostile sexism and benevolent sexism among Chinese women. Sociocultural factors and implications are discussed.
    Keywords:  Beauty ideals; Benevolent sexism; Hostile sexism; Sexual objectification; Sexual orientation
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01718-7
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