bims-chumac Biomed News
on Context effects on human mate choice
Issue of 2022–01–16
seven papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society
  1. Sperm donors versus long-term mates: a comparison of preferences of heterosexual and lesbian women.
  2. Beyond the beauty of occlusion: medical masks increase facial attractiveness more than other face coverings.
  3. Incel Activity on Social Media Linked to Local Mating Ecology.
  4. Intimacy in Psychotherapy: An Exploratory Survey Among Therapists.
  5. A Psychometric Evaluation of the Intrasexual Competition Scale.
  6. Scripting Sex in Courtship: Predicting Genital Contact in Date Outcomes.
  7. The significant role of post-pairing male behavior on the evolution of male preferences and female traits.
  1. Hum Fertil (Camb). 2022 Jan 13. 1-13
    Sperm donors versus long-term mates: a comparison of preferences of heterosexual and lesbian women.
    Ya'arit Bokek-Cohen.
      The present study aimed to explore whether lesbian women's preferences for a sperm donor or a long-term mate show a pattern similar to those of heterosexual women. Three hundred and eighty-three donor insemination patients, of whom 278 were heterosexual and 105 were lesbian, completed a questionnaire comprising a series of 35 traits and rated the importance of each trait in a sperm donor and again in a long term mate. Results showed that traits relating to socioeconomic status, genetic background and general health, physical appearance, and personality were rated by lesbian women as more important in a long-term mate than in a sperm donor. It was further found that both heterosexual and lesbian women attached higher importance to the socioeconomic status, personality and physical appearance of the long-term mate than of the sperm donor; heterosexual women attached similar importance to the genes and health of a long-term mate and a sperm donor, while lesbian women attached greater importance to the genetic background and general health of the sperm donor than those of a long-term mate. The implications and interpretations of the findings are discussed in light of Trivers' parental investment theory.
    Keywords:  Donor insemination; heterosexual; lesbian; long term mate; parental investment theory; sperm donor
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/14647273.2021.2022775
  2. Cogn Res Princ Implic. 2022 01 10. 7(1): 1
    Beyond the beauty of occlusion: medical masks increase facial attractiveness more than other face coverings.
    Oliver Hies, Michael B Lewis.
      The sanitary-mask effect (Miyazaki and Kawahara in Jpn Psychol Res 58(3):261-272, 2016) is the finding that medical face masks prompt an image of disease and thus result in lower ratings of facial attractiveness of the wearer. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical masks have been found to increase attractiveness (Patel et al. in Plast Reconstruct Surg Glob Open 8(8), 2020) although this could have been a general effect of occlusion. To further explore this issue, female participants were presented with a series of male faces of low or high attractiveness that were occluded with a medical mask, cloth mask, book or not occluded and asked to rate them on attractiveness. The results show that faces were considered as most attractive when covered by medical masks and significantly more attractive when occluded with cloth masks than when not occluded. Contrary to expectation, base attractiveness did not interact with the type of occlusion, suggesting that this is not simply due to occlusion of negative features. The present findings are contrary to the sanitary-mask effect and explanations in terms of social desirability, and the association of medical masks with caregiving professions is explored.
    Keywords:  Face occlusion effects; Facial attractiveness; Medical face masks
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00351-9
  3. Psychol Sci. 2022 Jan 11. 9567976211036065
    Incel Activity on Social Media Linked to Local Mating Ecology.
    Robert C Brooks, Daniel Russo-Batterham, Khandis R Blake.
      Young men with few prospects of attracting a mate have historically threatened the internal peace and stability of societies. In some contemporary societies, such involuntary celibate-or incel-men promote much online misogyny and perpetrate real-world violence. We tested the prediction that online incel activity arises via local real-world mating-market forces that affect relationship formation. From a database of 4 billion Twitter posts (2012-2018), we geolocated 321 million tweets to 582 commuting zones in the continental United States, of which 3,649 tweets used words peculiar to incels and 3,745 were about incels. We show that such tweets arise disproportionately within places where mating competition among men is likely to be high because of male-biased sex ratios, few single women, high income inequality, and small gender gaps in income. Our results suggest a role for social media in monitoring and mitigating factors that lead young men toward antisocial behavior in real-world societies.
    Keywords:  cyberhate; evolutionary psychology; human mate selection; inequality; male–female relations; misogyny; open data; sex-role attitudes; socioeconomic status
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211036065
  4. Arch Sex Behav. 2022 Jan 15.
    Intimacy in Psychotherapy: An Exploratory Survey Among Therapists.
    Lara Vesentini, Roel Van Overmeire, Frieda Matthys, Dirk De Wachter, Hubert Van Puyenbroeck, Johan Bilsen.
      A certain level of intimacy is necessary in psychotherapeutic relationships for them to be effective, but it can sometimes develop further into more intimate feelings and behaviors related to friendship and sexuality, into friendship, or even into sexual relationships. In this study, a self-administered questionnaire was sent to psychotherapists in Flanders (Belgium), asking about the occurrence of these situations. It provides an overview of these occurrences and comparative data to view for generational and cultural differences with previous studies. A response rate of 40% was obtained (N = 786): 69% of respondents were female therapists and none were transgender. A total of 758 therapists stated that they had actually provided psychotherapy and were included for further analysis. Three percent started a sexual relationship with a current and/or former client, 3.7% started a friendship during therapy, and 13.4% started a friendship after therapy. About seven out of ten therapists found a client sexually attractive, a quarter fantasized about a romantic relationship, and a fifth gave a goodbye hug at the end of a session (22%). In general, more male therapists reported sexual feelings and behaviors than female therapists. Older therapists more often behaved informally and started friendships with former clients compared to younger colleagues. Psychiatrists reported sexual feelings and fantasies less often than non-psychiatrists, and behavioral therapists reported this less frequently than person-centered and psychoanalytic therapists. Overall, prevalence rates of intimate feelings and behaviors related to friendship and sexuality are lower than those in previous studies.
    Keywords:  Friendship; Intimacy; Psychotherapy; Relationship; Sexuality
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02190-7
  5. Arch Sex Behav. 2022 Jan 13.
    A Psychometric Evaluation of the Intrasexual Competition Scale.
    Graham Albert, George B Richardson, Steven Arnocky, Brian M Bird, Maryanne Fisher, Jessica K Hlay, Timothy S McHale, Carolyn R Hodges-Simeon.
      The Intrasexual Competition Scale (ICS) measures the extent to which individuals view their interaction with same-sex others in competitive terms. Although it is frequently used in studies investigating differences in mating behavior, the factor structure of the ICS has never been confirmed. Researchers have yet to use multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis to test whether the properties of the scale are equivalent between the sexes. In Study 1, we report on an investigation in which participants' responses to the ICS were submitted to exploratory factor analysis (EFA). In Study 2A, we compared the fit of one and two-factor models from the EFA as well as two additional models, using confirmatory factor analysis with an independent sample. The best fit was obtained by a two-factor solution, which reflected: (1) respondents' feelings of frustration when intrasexual competitors are better off (Inferiority Frustration), and (2) respondents' enjoyment of being better than intrasexual competitors (Superiority Enjoyment). This model achieved a high degree of measurement invariance. In Study 2B, we found the ICS had good concurrent validity via associations with sociosexuality, mating effort, and sexual behavior. Together, these analyses suggest that the ICS is a valid measure of intrasexually competitive attitudes.
    Keywords:  Aggression; Intrasexual Competition Scale; Intrasexual competition; Measurement invariance; Sex differences
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02167-6
  6. Sex Cult. 2022 Jan 05. 1-25
    Scripting Sex in Courtship: Predicting Genital Contact in Date Outcomes.
    Sam Kendrick, Nancy Jo Kepple.
      Despite increasing egalitarian values expressed among college students, dating is still characterized by traditional gender roles. Because traditional dating scripts are predominantly recited and enacted to the extent that men initiate and pay, there are assumptions that the sexual processes have not changed. This study investigates the sexual processes of male-initiated and female-initiated dates among college students in the US. Using data from the Online College Social Life Survey, we ask whether traditional components of the dating script explain traditional sexual outcomes (non-genital contact), as well as whether alternative dating scripts explain nontraditional sexual outcomes (genital contact). Using multivariate logistic regression models, we found that violations of the traditional script are associated with higher odds of genital contact for male- and female-initiated dates; however, the predictors of genital contact for female-initiated dates are not the same as those for male-initiated dates. This study highlights the variability of sexual scripts in dating practices, suggesting that the sexual scripts associated with dates are not as homogenous as we have previously believed.
    Keywords:  Dating scripts; Sexual practices; Sexual processes; Sexual scripts
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-021-09938-2
  7. Commun Biol. 2022 Jan 10. 5(1): 4
    The significant role of post-pairing male behavior on the evolution of male preferences and female traits.
    Nan Lyu, D Justin Yeh, Huw Lloyd, Yue-Hua Sun.
      Existing sexual selection theory postulates that a sufficiently large variation in female fecundity or other direct benefits are fundamental for generating male mate choice. In this study, we suggest that, in addition to pre-pairing preferences, choosy males can also have different post-pairing behaviors, a factor which has been comparatively overlooked by previous studies. We found that both male preferences and female traits could evolve much more easily than previously expected when the choosy males that paired with unpreferred females would allocate more efforts to seeking additional post-pairing mating opportunities. Furthermore, a costly female trait could evolve when there was a trade-off between seeking additional mating and paternal care investment within social pair for choosy males. Finally, a costly male preference and a costly female trait might still evolve and reach a stable polymorphic state in the population, which might give rise to a high variability in male choice and female traits in nature. We suggest that male mate choice may be even more common than expected, which needs to be verified empirically.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02961-x
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