bims-chumac 2022-03-13 papers

bims-chumac

Biomed News

on Context effects on human mate choice

Issue of 2022–03–13
eleven papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society

The Effect of Female Orgasm Frequency on Female Mate Selection: A Test of Two Hypotheses.
Does scent attractiveness reveal women's ovulatory timing? Evidence from signal detection analyses and endocrine predictors of odour attractiveness.
A Fertile Ground for Ambiguities: Casual Sexual Relationships Among Portuguese Emerging Adults.
Partner Accuracy in Humor Perception and Associations With Relationship Satisfaction.
The Friends-to-Lovers Pathway to Romance: Prevalent, Preferred, and Overlooked by Science.
Flirting With or Through Media: How the Communication Partners' Ontological Class and Sexual Priming Affect Heterosexual Males' Interest in Flirtatious Messages and Their Perception of the Source.
Does National Context Matter When Women Surpass Their Partner in Status?
The Source of Power Matters: Positional Power as a Better Predictor of Sexual Interest Perceptions than Dispositional Power Among Men within a Military Context.
Violent Victimization and Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Romantic Relationships and Sexual Activity.
Personality evaluated: What do people most like and dislike about themselves and their friends?
A comprehensive overview of the effects of urbanisation on sexual selection and sexual traits.

Evol Psychol. 2022 Jan-Mar;20(1):20(1): 14747049221083536

The Effect of Female Orgasm Frequency on Female Mate Selection: A Test of Two Hypotheses.

Patrick J Nebl, Anne K Gordon.

  Female orgasm has been a mystery that psychologists have been attempting to understand for decades. Many have contended that female orgasm is a functionless by-product of male orgasm, while others have argued that female orgasm may be an adaptation in its own right, offering several adaptationist accounts of female orgasm. In the current research, we tested predictions derived from two hypotheses regarding adaptive functions of female orgasm: female orgasm indicates partner mate value or female orgasm promotes long-term, pair bonding. 199 female undergraduates participated in an experiment where they imagined themselves as a member of a romantic relationship provided in a scenario. Within these scenarios, the relationships varied between either short- or long-term and the frequency that the female experienced orgasm during intercourse varied between never, occasionally, and almost always. Participants answered questions regarding relationship satisfaction and perceptions of the fictional relationship. A series of analysis of variance (ANOVAs) indicated that females assigned to conditions of experiencing more frequent orgasms reported greater relationship satisfaction, across both short- and long-term relationships. The relationship between female orgasm frequency and relationship satisfaction was fully mediated by the female's perceived love for her hypothetical partner but not by perceptions of her hypothetical partner's commitment. Taken together, this study provides preliminary support for the hypothesis that female orgasm evolved as a mate-selection tool for females and promotes long-term, pair bonding but does not provide support for the hypothesis that female orgasm evolved as an indicator of male value.

Keywords:  female orgasm; human mating; human sexuality; mate selection; orgasm

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049221083536
Proc Biol Sci. 2022 Mar 09. 289(1970): 20220026

Does scent attractiveness reveal women's ovulatory timing? Evidence from signal detection analyses and endocrine predictors of odour attractiveness.

Mei Mei, Rachel L Grillot, Craig K Abbey, Melissa Emery Thompson, James R Roney.

  Odour cues associated with shifts in ovarian hormones indicate ovulatory timing in females of many nonhuman species. Although prior evidence supports women's body odours smelling more attractive on days when conception is possible, that research has left ambiguous how diagnostic of ovulatory timing odour cues are, as well as whether shifts in odour attractiveness are correlated with shifts in ovarian hormones. Here, 46 women each provided six overnight scent and corresponding day saliva samples spaced five days apart, and completed luteinizing hormone tests to determine ovulatory timing. Scent samples collected near ovulation were rated more attractive, on average, relative to samples from the same women collected on other days. Importantly, however, signal detection analyses showed that rater discrimination of fertile window timing from odour attractiveness ratings was very poor. Within-women shifts in salivary oestradiol and progesterone were not significantly associated with within-women shifts in odour attractiveness. Between-women, mean oestradiol was positively associated with mean odour attractiveness. Our findings suggest that raters cannot reliably detect women's ovulatory timing from their scent attractiveness. The between-women effect of oestradiol raises the possibility that women's scents provide information about overall cycle fecundity, though further research is necessary to rigorously investigate this possibility.

Keywords:  concealed ovulation; human mating; oestradiol; progesterone; scent attractiveness

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0026
Front Psychol. 2022 ;13 823102

A Fertile Ground for Ambiguities: Casual Sexual Relationships Among Portuguese Emerging Adults.

Rita Luz, Maria-João Alvarez, Cristina A Godinho, Cicero R Pereira.

  Casual sexual relationships (CSRs) are frequent relationship experiences in young adulthood that provide opportunities for many to explore sexual relationships and to construct their sexual identity. Empirical research on casual sex is still lacking outside North-American countries, despite evidence pointing to the need to contextualize sexual interactions in their own sociocultural context. In order to better understand casual sexual relationships, these should be examined in with novel samples in other countries where a "hookup culture" as it is described in the North-American university campus is apparently absent. Through a qualitative study, we explored what casual sexual relationships consist of according to the perceptions of Portuguese college students (N = 35). The thematic analysis of eight focus group interviews resulted in the generation of six themes, three of which are presented here: (1) What CSRs are, regarding features and types of CSRs, (2) Why individuals engage in CSRs, focusing on positive and negative motivations, and (3) What one gets from CSRs, focusing on positive and negative outcomes of CSRs. Our findings showed that Portuguese emerging adults are familiarized with CSRs, particularly with one-night stand, friends with benefits and "curte"/hookup. Sexual interactions associated with other CSRs, such as booty call or fuck buddies, were mentioned but rarely associated with a distinctive label and established characteristics. Participants described the CSRs in a partially overlapping manner presenting some areas of ambiguity, such as with regard to sexual exclusivity and still-unlabeled sexual interactions. CSRs are generally evaluated as positively motivated and mainly beneficial. This study adds to the literature around casual sexual relationships by exploring and describing CSRs in a different sociocultural context, as well as indicating directions for future research in order to better prepare and empower young adults in their sexual and relational trajectories.

Keywords:  casual sex; casual sexual relationships; college students; emerging adults; sexual behavior; sociocultural context

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.823102
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2022 Mar 09. 1461672221080950

Partner Accuracy in Humor Perception and Associations With Relationship Satisfaction.

Mariah F Purol, William J Chopik.

  Do people accurately perceive their partner's humor style? The current study extends work on partner perception by examining accuracy and bias in people's perception of their partners' humor styles-a subjective, evaluative, and important factor in relationship satisfaction. We recruited 337 heterosexual couples (N = 674 individuals, Mage = 65.71 years, SD = 12.107) who completed self-reports and partner-reports of humor styles. Truth and Bias modeling revealed that, although bias varied across humor styles, participants consistently demonstrated accuracy in their judgments of their partner's humor styles. Bias forces were moderated by relationship satisfaction such that assumed similarity biases were stronger among those in particularly satisfying relationships.

Keywords:  accuracy and bias; humor; partner perception; relationship satisfaction

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221080950
Soc Psychol Personal Sci. 2022 Mar;13(2): 562-571

The Friends-to-Lovers Pathway to Romance: Prevalent, Preferred, and Overlooked by Science.

Danu Anthony Stinson, Jessica J Cameron, Lisa B Hoplock.

  There is more than one pathway to romance, but relationship science does not reflect this reality. Our research reveals that relationship initiation studies published in popular journals (Study 1) and cited in popular textbooks (Study 2) overwhelmingly focus on romance that sparks between strangers and largely overlook romance that develops between friends. This limited focus might be justified if friends-first initiation was rare or undesirable, but our research reveals the opposite. In a meta-analysis of seven samples of university students and crowdsourced adults (Study 3; N = 1,897), two thirds reported friends-first initiation, and friends-first initiation was the preferred method of initiation among university students (Study 4). These studies affirm that friends-first initiation is a prevalent and preferred method of romantic relationship initiation that has been overlooked by relationship science. We discuss possible reasons for this oversight and consider the implications for dominant theories of relationship initiation.

Keywords:  close relationships; dating; friendship; relationship initiation; romantic relationships

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211026992
Front Psychol. 2022 ;13 719008

Flirting With or Through Media: How the Communication Partners' Ontological Class and Sexual Priming Affect Heterosexual Males' Interest in Flirtatious Messages and Their Perception of the Source.

Jessica M Szczuka.

  Because technologies are frequently used for sexual gratification it seems plausible that artificial communication partners, such as voice assistants, could be used to fulfill sexual needs. While the idea of sexualized interaction with voice assistants has been portrayed in movies (e.g., "Her"), there is a lack of empirical research on the effect of the ontological class (human versus artificial) on the voice's potential to evoke interest in a sexualized interaction and its perception in terms of sexual attractiveness. The Sexual Interaction Illusion Model (SIIM), which emphasizes influences on sensations evoked by artificial interaction partners, furthermore suggests that there may be contextual influences, especially sexual arousal, that may be crucial for the question of engaging in a sexualized interaction with an artificial entity. To empirically investigate whether the ontological class of the speaker (computer-mediated human in comparison to voice assistants) and the level of sexual arousal affects the heterosexual males' interest in hearing more flirtatious messages and the perception of the communication partner's sexual attractiveness, an online experiment with between subject design was conducted. Two hundred and fifty seven respondents were confronted with at least four, and voluntarily six messages from either a computer-mediated human or a flirtatious voice assistant, in interaction with being previously primed sexually or neutrally. The results demonstrated that the effect of sexual arousal was not prevailing on the interest in further messages and the attractiveness perception of the interaction partners, while the ontological class did so. Here, the voice assistant evoked more interest in further messages and the technology itself, while the computer mediated human was perceived to be more sexually attractive and flirtatious, and evoked more social presence. The communication partners social presence was shown to be the predictor with most explanatory power for the interaction partners perceived sexual attractiveness, regardless of whether it was human or artificial. The results underline differences between artificial and human interaction partners, but also underline that especially social presence and the feeling that the user is addressed (in terms of flirtatiousness) is crucial in digitalized intimacy regardless of the ontological class.

Keywords:  computer-mediated communication; digitalized intimacy; digitalized sexuality; human–computer interaction; sexual arousal; voice assistants

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.719008
Front Psychol. 2021 ;12 670439

Does National Context Matter When Women Surpass Their Partner in Status?

Melissa Vink, Tanja van der Lippe, Belle Derks, Naomi Ellemers.

  There is growing evidence that couples in non-traditional relationships in which the woman attains higher status than her male partner experience more negative relationship outcomes than traditional couples. A possible reason is that non-traditional couples violate persisting gender stereotypes that prescribe men to be breadwinners and women to be caregivers of the family. In the current study (N = 2,748), we investigated whether a country's gender-stereotypical culture predicts non-traditional men and women's relationship and life outcomes. We used the European Sustainable Workforce Survey, which is conducted in nine European countries. Two indicators of countries' gender-stereotypical culture are used: Gender Empowerment Measure and implicit gender stereotypes. We found that women's income and -to a lesser extent- education degree relative to their male partner affected outcomes such as relationship quality, negative emotions, and experienced time pressure. Furthermore, men and women living in countries with a traditional gender-stereotypical culture (e.g., Netherlands, Hungary) reported lower relationship quality when women earned more than their partners. Relative income differences did not affect the relationship quality of participants living in egalitarian countries (e.g., Sweden, Finland). Also, couples in which the woman is more highly educated than the man reported higher relationship quality in egalitarian countries, but not in traditional countries. Our findings suggest that dominant beliefs and ideologies in society can hinder or facilitate couples in non-traditional relationships.

Keywords:  close relationships; gender stereotypes; national context; relationship outcomes; socio-economic status

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.670439
Arch Sex Behav. 2022 Apr;51(3): 1531-1539

The Source of Power Matters: Positional Power as a Better Predictor of Sexual Interest Perceptions than Dispositional Power Among Men within a Military Context.

Pei Hwa Goh, Peter Lucas Stoeckli, Dominik Schoebi, Hubert Annen.

  The current research examined the roles of positional power induced by one's hierarchical position in an organization and dispositional power (i.e., one's general feeling of power) in the perception of sexual interest in a military context. In two vignette-based experiments with men who were military members, positional power induced by military rank led to heightened sexual perceptions. Men estimated higher sexual interest from their interaction partner when interacting with a hypothetical woman of a lower military rank, compared to a woman of equal (Experiment 1; N = 144) or higher military rank (Experiment 2; N = 232). Being in a relatively higher rank induces feelings of power over the interaction partner and thus results in a higher perception of sexual interest. Furthermore, Experiment 2 revealed that positional power better predicted heightened perceived sexual interest than dispositional power.

Keywords:  Mating; Military; Perception of sexual interest; Power

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02255-7
J Interpers Violence. 2022 Mar 08. 8862605211072173

Violent Victimization and Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Romantic Relationships and Sexual Activity.

Tara D Warner, David F Warner.

  Violent victimization in adolescence spurs risk-taking behaviors (e.g., violent offending and substance use/abuse), undermines mental well-being, disrupts developmental transitions, and even has interpersonal and relational consequences. Adolescent victims initiate earlier and progress faster through sexual and romantic relationships. Because the reasons for the links between victimization and relationship behaviors remain unclear, we explored how violent victimization might shape how adolescents think and feel about intimate/romantic relationships. We focus specifically on interest in forming relationships and expectations about intimate/sexual activity occurring within relationships. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; n = 10,570 [54% girls; 56% non-Hispanic white; ages 11-18]), we found that adolescent victims of violence were more pessimistic about marriage and more favorable toward sexual activity, with patterns varying by age at victimization and gender. Late adolescent victims were marginally more interested in romantic relationships but were pessimistic about marriage. Early adolescent and girl victims were less favorable toward sexual activity in relationships, while later adolescent and boy victims were more permissive. Violent victimization may foster problematic attitudes toward intimate relationships, which may account for previously observed increased involvement in risky relational and sex behaviors.

Keywords:  adolescence; attitudes; relationships; sexual risk-taking; victimization

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211072173
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2022 Apr;122(4): 731-748

Personality evaluated: What do people most like and dislike about themselves and their friends?

Jessie Sun, Becky Neufeld, Paige Snelgrove, Simine Vazire.

What do people think their best and worst personality traits are? Do their friends agree? Across three samples, 463 college students ("targets") and their friends freely described two traits they most liked and two traits they most disliked about the target. Coders categorized these open-ended trait descriptors into high or low poles of six trait domains (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness, and honesty-humility) and judged whether targets and friends reported the same specific best and worst traits. Best traits almost exclusively reflected high levels of the major trait domains (especially high agreeableness and extraversion). In contrast, although worst traits typically reflected low levels of these traits (especially low emotional stability), they sometimes also revealed the downsides of having high levels of these traits (e.g., high extraversion: "loud"; high agreeableness: "people-pleaser"). Overall, targets and friends mentioned similar kinds of best traits; however, targets emphasized low emotional stability worst traits more than friends did, whereas friends emphasized low prosociality worst traits more than targets did. Targets and friends also showed a moderate amount of self-other agreement on what the targets' best and worst traits were. These results (a) shed light on the traits that people consider to be most important in themselves and their friends, (b) suggest that the desirability of some traits may be in the eye of the beholder, (c) reveal the mixed blessings of different traits, and, ultimately, (d) provide a nuanced perspective on what it means for a trait to be "good" or "bad." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000388
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2022 Mar 09.

A comprehensive overview of the effects of urbanisation on sexual selection and sexual traits.

Andrew D Cronin, Judith A H Smit, Matías I Muñoz, Armand Poirier, Peter A Moran, Paul Jerem, Wouter Halfwerk.

  Urbanisation can affect mating opportunities and thereby alter inter- and intra-sexual selection pressures on sexual traits. Biotic and abiotic urban conditions can influence an individual's success in pre- and post-copulatory mating, for example through impacts on mate attraction and mate preference, fertilisation success, resource competition or rival interactions. Divergent sexual selection pressures can lead to differences in behavioural, physiological, morphological or life-history traits between urban and non-urban populations, ultimately driving adaptation and speciation. Most studies on urban sexual selection and mating interactions report differences between urban and non-urban populations or correlations between sexual traits and factors associated with increased urbanisation, such as pollution, food availability and risk of predation and parasitism. Here we review the literature on sexual selection and sexual traits in relation to urbanisation or urban-associated conditions. We provide an extensive list of abiotic and biotic factors that can influence processes involved in mating interactions, such as signal production and transmission, mate choice and mating opportunities. We discuss all relevant data through the lens of two, non-mutually exclusive theories on sexual selection, namely indicator and sensory models. Where possible, we indicate whether these models provide the same or different predictions regarding urban-adapted sexual signals and describe different experimental designs that can be useful for the different models as well as to investigate the drivers of sexual selection. We argue that we lack a good understanding of: (i) the factors driving urban sexual selection; (ii) whether reported changes in traits result in adaptive benefits; and (iii) whether these changes reflect a short-term ecological, or long-term evolutionary response. We highlight that urbanisation provides a unique opportunity to study the process and outcomes of sexual selection, but that this requires a highly integrative approach combining experimental and observational work.

Keywords:  adaptation; mate choice; sexual selection; signal evolution; speciation; urban ecology

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12845