bims-chumac Biomed News
on Context effects on human mate choice
Issue of 2022–04–17
seven papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society
  1. Sex and Sexual Agreement Negotiation among Trans Women and Trans Men Partnered with Cis Men.
  2. Relationship, marriage, and parenthood aspirations among sexual and gender minority youth assigned female at birth.
  3. The role of personality traits in pair bond formation: pairing is influenced by the trait of exploration.
  4. Mass Media Beauty Standards, Body Surveillance, and Relationship Satisfaction within Romantic Couples.
  5. Sex Differences in Physical Attractiveness Investments: Overlooked Side of Masculinity.
  6. Love in the time of COVID-19: A systematic mapping review of empirical research on romantic relationships one year into the COVID-19 pandemic.
  7. Sexual attraction to men as a risk factor for eating disorders: the role of mating expectancies and drive for thinness.
  1. J Sex Res. 2022 Apr 12. 1-9
    Sex and Sexual Agreement Negotiation among Trans Women and Trans Men Partnered with Cis Men.
    Anna E Scandurro, Elaika J Celemen, Colleen C Hoff.
      Though trans individuals have some of the highest rates of HIV in the U.S., little is known about how trans couples navigate these risks within committed relationships. Thirty-nine couples, composed of one trans partner and one cis male partner, were asked about their relationship agreements, including sexual negotiations, in semi-structured, qualitative interviews. Couples reported definitions of monogamy and non-monogamy that were inconsistent with previous literature, each ranging as if on a continuum. While agreements varied, most non-monogamous couples reported a focus on safe sex practices and HIV risk mitigation, specifically highlighting negotiations around fluid exchange or fluid bonding. Changes in sexual desire arose for many couples, often due to hormonal changes during gender-affirming measures. Most couples navigated these shifts successfully, by changing their relationship agreement or sexual practices. Changing sexual behavior included addressing motivations for sex that were unrelated to one's own sexual pleasure; this motivation is called "maintenance sex." Alarmingly, nearly half of the couples interviewed reported discrepant agreements, which is associated with higher sexual risk. With an apparent ambiguity in defining agreements, it is imperative to trans communities' sexual health that relationship agreements are explicitly communicated to partners and healthcare providers.
    Keywords:  sexual health; sexual negotiation; trans couples
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2057402
  2. J Fam Psychol. 2022 Apr 11.
    Relationship, marriage, and parenthood aspirations among sexual and gender minority youth assigned female at birth.
    Lisa M Godfrey, Neslihan James-Kangal, Michael E Newcomb, Sarah W Whitton.
      This study examined aspirations for future long-term committed relationships, marriage, and parenthood in a sample of 392 racially diverse sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth assigned female at birth (AFAB) aged 16-20. Differences by gender identity, sexual identity, and race/ethnicity were assessed, as were associations with contextual variables including minority stressors, SGM community involvement, perceived partner availability, and relationship experiences. Results showed that the majority of SGM-AFAB youth viewed long-term committed relationships as important and likely, whereas only about half of participants had high aspirations to get married and have children someday. Those who did view marriage and parenthood as important perceived that it is feasible for them to achieve these outcomes someday. These constructs did not differ by race/ethnicity. There were differences by gender identity and sexual identity, such that cisgender women reported higher aspirations for marriage and parenthood than did gender minorities, and those with binary sexual identities reported higher aspirations for marriage than did those with nonbinary sexual identities. Examination of the contextual variables revealed that relationship experience variables were the most consistently associated with aspirations for committed relationships, marriage, and parenthood. In contrast, victimization and perceived partner availability were not associated with any of the family formation aspirations. As SGM individuals are increasingly granted legal rights affecting their ability to marry and form families, research is needed to help inform efforts to promote their relationship health while considering that they may have unique aspirations for relationships, marriage, and parenthood compared to the general public. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000990
  3. Behaviour. 2021 May;158(6): 447-478
    The role of personality traits in pair bond formation: pairing is influenced by the trait of exploration.
    Katerina M Faust, Michael H Goldstein.
      In species with long-term pair bonds, such as zebra finches, evaluating the quality of potential mates is critically important. Courtship is an opportunity to evaluate information from dynamic behavioural cues. Personality traits, as stable individual differences in behaviour, could predict the quality of a potential mate. How might personality traits influence mate choice? We examined the influence of several personality traits, including exploration, aggression, and social preference, on pair formation in zebra finches. We provided birds with a variety of potential mates and allowed them to select a pair partner. Our semi-naturalistic mate choice paradigm allowed birds to observe social information over an extended period, simulating the challenges of social evaluation that birds encounter in the wild. We found that pairing is influenced by personality, with birds selecting mates similar to them in exploration. The partner's exploration score relative to their own was more important than the absolute exploration score.
    Keywords:  assortative mating; courtship; exploration; mate choice; pair bond; personality; zebra finch
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539x-bja10076
  4. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Mar 23. pii: 3833. [Epub ahead of print]19(7):
    Mass Media Beauty Standards, Body Surveillance, and Relationship Satisfaction within Romantic Couples.
    Chiara Rollero.
      As part of objectification processes, individuals engage in body surveillance, whereby they constantly assess the extent to which their external appearance conforms to culturally valued ideals. Mass media play a key role in fostering the objectification and internalization of media beauty standards and increases body surveillance. At the individual level, the literature has largely demonstrated that body surveillance leads to a variety of negative psychological outcomes, but little research has focused on the consequences of body surveillance in the context of romantic relationships. Using dyadic data from couples who identified as heterosexual, the present study examined relations among internalization of media standards, body surveillance, surveillance of the partner's body, surveillance from the partner, and relationship satisfaction. There were 438 participants (219 couples) recruited using snowball sampling. They were surveyed with an anonymous online questionnaire. Results showed that internalization of media standards was related to body surveillance in both men and women, and to surveillance of the partner's body and relationship satisfaction in men only. For both sexes, surveillance of the partner's body was negatively associated with relationship satisfaction. For women only, surveillance from the partner was also negatively related to relationship satisfaction. Implications are discussed.
    Keywords:  body surveillance; mass media; objectification processes; psychosocial perspective; relationship satisfaction
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073833
  5. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Mar 24. pii: 3842. [Epub ahead of print]19(7):
    Sex Differences in Physical Attractiveness Investments: Overlooked Side of Masculinity.
    Marta Kowal, Piotr Sorokowski.
       BACKGROUND: Public opinion on who performs more beauty-enhancing behaviors (men or women) seems unanimous. Women are often depicted as primarily interested in how they look, opposed to men, who are presumably less focused on their appearance. However, previous studies might have overlooked how masculinity relates to self-modification among men.
    METHODS: We explored this issue in depth by conducting a qualitative Study 1 aimed to establish how men and women enhance their attractiveness (N = 121) and a quantitative Study 2 aimed to test time spent on activities that increase one's attractiveness in a longitudinal design (with seven repeated measures from 62 participants; N(total) = 367).
    RESULTS: We observed no sex differences in beauty investments. Although women spent more time on make-up and cosmetics usage, men caught up with women in exercising and bodybuilding.
    CONCLUSION: Our study provides evidence that there may not be such wide sex differences in the intensity of enhancing one's appearance as has been previously thought. We hypothesize that this might partly stem from changes in gender roles regarding masculinity.
    Keywords:  diary study; enhancing beauty; gender; self-modification; sex comparison
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073842
  6. Fam Process. 2022 Apr 13.
    Love in the time of COVID-19: A systematic mapping review of empirical research on romantic relationships one year into the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Roi Estlein, Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan, Eugenia Opuda.
      The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every area of daily life, including romantic relationships. With the pandemic still ongoing, this study reviewed the existing scholarly literature to document the status of empirical research on how COVID-19 has affected couples during its first year. Studies were identified through searching five databases as well as sources of gray literature. Overall, 42 studies on committed romantic relationships during the first year of the pandemic were identified. The mapping process revealed four main themes: (1) relationship quality; (2) sexuality; (3) couple daily adjustment; and (4) intimate partner violence. The findings suggest that the way romantic relationships were affected by the pandemic depends on a variety of demographic, individual, and couple-level factors. Implications include a call for both the development of evidence-based interventions that consider the current findings and further research to continue exploring the clinical implications of future findings to promote healthy intimate relationships during the ongoing global pandemic.
    Keywords:  COVID-19; IPV; couples; romantic relationships; sexuality; systematic review; 夫妻; 性; 浪漫的关系; 系统综述
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12775
  7. J Eat Disord. 2022 Apr 15. 10(1): 52
    Sexual attraction to men as a risk factor for eating disorders: the role of mating expectancies and drive for thinness.
    Pedro María Ruiz de Assin Varela, Jose Manuel Caperos, Elena Gismero-González.
       BACKGROUND: Men tend to give more importance than women to physical aspects when selecting a partner; thus, the internalization of beauty standards and the ideal of thinness may be greater in populations attracted to men, placing them at a higher risk of eating disorders.
    METHODS: In a sample (n = 398) of heterosexual and gay men and women, we evaluated the drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and bulimic symptomatology. Using ANCOVAs, we analyzed the differences in symptoms score according to sex, sexual orientation and relational status including body mass index (BMI) as covariate; we also evaluated the mediating role of drive for thinness in the relationship between sexual orientation and body dissatisfaction.
    RESULTS: We found an increased drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction in men-attracted compared with women-attracted participants; also, body dissatisfaction was greater in women than in men. Heterosexual women presented higher bulimia scores than lesbian women. Gay men open to relationships presented higher drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction scores than those not-open to relationships. Finally, differences in body dissatisfaction between gay and heterosexual men were fully explained by drive for thinness, while, in the case of women, drive for thinness only partially explained these differences.
    CONCLUSIONS: Attraction to men seems to be a risk factor for EDs in the case of gay men and heterosexual women. In addition, in the case of heterosexual women, other factors independent of the desire to attract men seem to be important.
    Keywords:  Body dissatisfaction; Eating disorders; Epidemiologic studies; Sexual orientation; Thinness
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-022-00576-z
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