Men's Long-Term Mating Strategies PDF

5 MEN’S LONG-TERM MATiNG STRATEGiES Two studies have failed to replicate this efect—one in Peru (Yu & Shepard, 1998) and one among the Hadza in Tanzania (Marlowe & Wetsman, 2001). In fact, among the Hadza, men were found to prefer somewhat heavier women with a higher WHR. But these apparent failur...

5 MEN’S LONG-TERM MATiNG STRATEGiES Two studies have failed to replicate this efect—one in Peru (Yu & Shepard, 1998) and one among the Hadza in Tanzania (Marlowe & Wetsman, 2001). In fact, among the Hadza, men were found to prefer somewhat heavier women with a higher WHR. But these apparent failures to replicate turn out not to be as straightforward as initially believed. It is becoming increasingly clear that WHR assessment is more complex than an “invariant preference” for a specifc WHR such as .70. Notably, the normal range of women’s WHR is higher in foraging societies than in Western populations, and the average WHR of the most fertile females is higher in foraging societies (Sugiyama, 2005). Thus, when stimuli are used that more accurately characterize the local cultural range of WHR, men tend to fnd attractive a WHR that is lower than the local average (Sugiyama, 2004a). One of the failures to replicate previously noted for the Hadza turned out diferently when the stimuli included profle views of buttocks rather than frontal views (Marlowe, Apicella, & Reed, 2005). As the authors concluded, “these results imply that there is less disparity between American and Hadza preferences for the actual WHR of real women” (Marlowe et al., 2005, p. 458). Although studies of more traditional cultures are rare, a recent study examined the link between WHR and number of children women had in seven traditional societies—three from sub-Saharan Africa (Hadza, Datoga, and Isanzu), one from western Siberia (Ob Ugric people), one from South America (Tsimane), and two from south Asia (Minahasans and Sangirese) (Butovskaya et al., 2017). They discovered a culturally stable fnding—the fewer the kids a woman had, controlling for age, the lower her WHR. The authors interpret this to mean that WHR is a reliable sign of a woman’s reproductive history. Women with a lower WHR have a higher future reproductive potential, whereas women with a higher WHR have already reproduced a lot and so have less future reproductive potential remaining. Individuals difer in preferences for WHR in ways that are contingent on sexual strategy pursued. Specifcally, men who tend to pursue a short-term sexual strategy have a stronger preference for low WHR than men pursuing a long-term mating strategy (Schmalt, 2006). And men pursuing a short-term mating strategy are more likely than men pursuing a long-term strategy to approach women with a low WHR (Brase & Walker, 2004). Perhaps men with higher mate value are initiating contact with the most physically attractive women. In sum, WHR is an important bodily cue to female attractiveness and is linked to female fertility. Nonetheless, preferences for specifc WHR values vary predictably with the actual values of WHR in the local culture and also with sexual strategy pursued. Another hypothesized cue to female body attractiveness is body mass index (BMI), a measure of overall body fat as calculated from a person’s weight and height. BMI and WHR are positively correlated—as WHR increases, so does BMI. One study found that a low BMI was a better predictor of attractiveness judgments than WHR, and that statistically controlling for BMI, WHR did not predict attractiveness judgments (Cornelissen, Tovee, & Bateson, 2009). The authors conclude that although WHR is indeed an important predictor of attractiveness, this is largely explained by the efect of total body fat on WHR. Another study using an eye-tracking procedure reinforced this conclusion, fnding that eye fxations clustered around the waist and breasts but not on the pelvic or hip regions (Cornelissen, Hancock, Kiviniemi, George, & Tovee, 2009). Other research, in contrast, supports the primacy of WHR over BMI. A brain imaging study found that male brain reward centers (especially the nucleus accumbens) were activated in response to naked female bodies with a low WHR, but were not activated by those with a lower BMI (Platek & Singh, 2010). Another study found that attractiveness of 10 photographs of rear-facing nude women was signifcantly infuenced by WHR, even after controlling for BMI (Perilloux, Webster, & Gaulin, 2010). Two studies by diferent researchers found that both WHR and BMI predicted attractiveness judgments but also found that waist circumference was a stronger predictor than either (Lassek & Gaulin, 2016; Rilling, Kaufman, Smith, Patel, & Worthman, 2009). Another study that examined half a dozen attributes found that a small waist and relatively long legs were the two strongest predictors of women’s bodily attractiveness (Brooks, Shelly, Jordan, & Dixson, 2015). Future research is needed to resolve the controversy over the relative contributions of WHR, BMI, waist circumference, and other cues to judgments of women’s body shape attractiveness. 141 142 ChALLENGES OF SEx AND MATiNG Sex Diferences in the Importance of Physical Appearance Because of the abundance of cues conveyed by a woman’s physical appearance, and because male standards of beauty have evolved to correspond to these cues, men place a premium on physical appearance and attractiveness in their mate preferences. A crossgenerational mating study spanning a 57-year period from 1939 to 1996 in the United States gauged the value men and women place on diferent characteristics in a mate (Buss et al., 2001). The same 18 characteristics were measured at roughly one-decade intervals to determine how mating preferences have changed over time in the United States. In all cases, men rated physical attractiveness and good looks as more important than did women. This does not mean that the importance people place on attractiveness is forever fxed. On the contrary, the importance of attractiveness has increased dramatically in the United States in the 20th century (Buss et al., 2001). For example, the importance attached to good looks in a marriage partner on a scale of 0 to 3 increased between 1939 and 1996 from 1.50 to 2.11 for men and from 0.94 to 1.67 for women, showing that mate preferences can change. Indeed, these changes point to the importance of cultural evolution and the impact of input from the social environment. The sex diference, however, so far remains invariant. These sex diferences are not limited to the United States or even to Western cultures. Regardless of location, habitat, marriage system, or cultural living arrangement, men in all 37 cultures included in the study on choosing a mate—from Australians to Zambians—valued physical appearance in a potential mate more than women (see Figure 5.4). China typifes the average diference in importance attached to beauty, with men a 2.06 and women a 1.59. This internationally consistent sex diference persists despite variations in race, ethnicity, religion, hemisphere, political system, or mating system. Among the Hadza, more than fve times as many men as women placed great importance on the fertility of a potential spouse—one who could bear many children (Marlowe, 2004). When asked “How can you tell?” most Hadza men responded by saying, “You can tell just by looking,” suggesting that men are aware that physical appearance conveys vital information about fertility. Men’s preference for physically attractive mates appears to be the product of a species-wide psychological adaptation that transcends cultural variation. Figure 5.4 Desire for Physical Attractiveness in a Long-Term Mate N = sample size. p values less than .05 indicate that sex diference is signifcant. Source: Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100, 204–232. Copyright © 1993 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission. 5 MEN’S LONG-TERM MATiNG STRATEGiES Participants in 37 cultures rated this variable, in the context of 18 other variables, on how desirable it would be in a potential long-term mate or marriage partner using a four-point rating scale, ranging from 0 (irrelevant or unimportant) to 3 (indispensable). Do Men Have a Preference for Ovulating Women? Perhaps one of the most obvious predictions one could make about men’s desires is that they should show a strong attraction to women at the time women ovulate—when the egg is released into the woman’s uterus to be potentially fertilized by a sperm. Most non-human primate species exhibit attraction to ovulating females (Puts et al., 2013). Ancestral men who were able to detect ovulating women would have several reproductive advantages over men who could not. First, they could channel their courtship, seduction, and sexual behavior toward ovulating women at that time, thus maximizing the odds of successful fertilization. Second, they could save efort by avoiding women who were not ovulating. Third, a married man could restrict his mateguarding eforts to the period in which his spouse was ovulating. In humans, however, ovulation is concealed or cryptic; conventional scientifc wisdom is that there is no evidence that men can detect when women are ovulating (Symons, 1992, p. 144). Despite the tremendous potential reproductive advantages of detecting and desiring ovulating women, selection seems not to have given men these adaptations. Perhaps this conclusion is too hasty. There are several lines of evidence that suggest that men might, in fact, be able to detect when women ovulate (Symons, 1995). First, during ovulation, women’s skin becomes sufused with blood. This corresponds to the “glow” that women sometimes appear to have, a healthy reddening of the cheeks. Second, women’s skin lightens slightly during ovulation as compared with other times of the menstrual cycle—a cue universally thought to be a sexual attractant (Frost, 2011; van den Berghe & Frost, 1986). A cross-cultural survey found that “of the 51 societies for which any mention of native skin preferences . . . is made, 47 state a preference for the lighter end of the locally represented spectrum, although not necessarily for the lightest possible skin color” (van den Berghe & Frost, 1986, p. 92). Third, during ovulation, women’s level of circulating estrogen increases, which produces a corresponding decrease in women’s WHR (Symons, 1995, p. 93). Fourth, ovulating women are touched more often by men in singles bars (Grammer, 1996). Fifth, men fnd the body odor of women to be more attractive and pleasant smelling during the follicular (fertile) stage of the menstrual cycle (Gildersleeve, Haselton, Larson, & Pillsworth, 2012; Havlicek, Dvorakova, Bartos, & Flegr, 2005; Singh & Bronstad, 2001). Sixth, men who smell T-shirts worn by ovulating women display a subsequent rise in testosterone levels compared to men who smell shirts worn by non-ovulating women or shirts with a control scent (Miller & Maner, 2010), although a subsequent study failed to replicate this efect (Roney & Simmons, 2012). Seventh, there are vocal cues to ovulation—women’s voices rise in pitch, in the attractive feminine direction, at ovulation (Bryant & Haselton, 2009). Eighth, women’s faces are judged by both sexes to be more attractive during the fertile than during the luteal phase (Puts et al., 2013; Roberts et al., 2004). Ninth, men perceive their romantic partners to be more attractive around ovulation (Cobey, Buunk, Pollet, Klipping, & Roberts, 2013). Tenth, women report feeling more attractive and desirable, as well as an increased interest in sex, around the time of ovulation (Röder, Brewer, & Fink, 2009). And 11th, a study of professional lap dancers working in gentlemen’s clubs found that ovulating women received signifcantly higher tips than women in the non-ovulation phases of their cycle (Miller, Tybur, & Jordan, 2007). So we have 11 pieces of circumstantial evidence pointing to the possibility that men can detect when women ovulate. 143 ChALLENGES OF SEx AND MATiNG 144 Women may initiate more sexual contact when ovulating. Researchers studied married women over a period of 24 months (Stanislaw & Rice, 1988). Ovulation was determined by measuring basal body temperature, which rises just prior to ovulation. Over the 24 months, women put an “X” on a chart on those days on which they experienced “sexual desire.” Women’s reported desire increased steadily as ovulation approached, peaked at or just after ovulation, and then decreased steadily as they approached the infertile period of menstruation. Women may act in a more sexual manner when ovulating, and when they wear tighter clothes, increase exposure of skin, and perhaps emit other sexual signals that create efects such as greater male attention at bars and other locations (Durante, Griskevicius, Hill, Perilloux, & Li, 2011; Haselton & Gildersleeve, 2011). Moreover, ovulating women selectively increased their firting with attractive but not with unattractive men (Cantú et al., 2014). In summary, the available evidence is sufcient to suggest that there are potentially observable, albeit subtle, physical changes in a woman’s skin, face, body, voice, and behavior when she ovulates—changes known to be sexually attractive to men. Solutions to the Problem of Paternity Uncertainty Women are rare among primates in possessing the unusual adaptation of concealed or cryptic ovulation, although it may be less concealed than traditionally believed. Such relatively cryptic female ovulation obscures a woman’s current reproductive status. Concealed ovulation dramatically changed the ground rules of human mating. Women became attractive to men not just during ovulation but throughout the ovulatory cycle. Cryptic ovulation created a special adaptive problem for men by decreasing the certainty of their paternity. Consider a primate male who prevents other males from mating with a female for the brief period during which she is in estrus. In contrast to human males, he can be fairly “confdent” of his paternity. The period during which he must sequester and have sex with her is sharply constrained. Before and afer her estrus, he can go about his fnding food and solving other adaptive problems without running the risk that his partner will become impregnated by another male. Ancestral men did not have this luxury. Because mating is not the sole activity needed for humans to survive and reproduce, women could not be “guarded” around the clock. The more time a man spent guarding, the less time he had available for grappling with other adaptive problems. Ancestral men, therefore, were faced with a unique paternity problem not faced by other primate males: how to be certain of their paternity when ovulation was concealed. Marriage potentially provided one solution (Alexander & Noonan, 1979; Strassman, 1981). Men who married would beneft reproductively relative to other men by substantially increasing their certainty of paternity. Repeated sexual contact throughout the ovulation cycle raised the odds that a woman would bear a given man’s child. Moreover, relatively concealed ovulation itself may have evolved to facilitate long-term committed mating. The social tradition of marriage functions as a public joining of the couple, providing a clear signal about who is mated with whom and potentially reducing confict within male coalitions. Marriage also provides opportunities to learn intimately about one’s mate’s personality and behavior patterns, making it difcult for her to hide signs of infdelity. For an ancestral man to reap the reproductive benefts of marriage, he had to seek reasonable assurances that his wife would remain sexually faithful to him. Men who failed to recognize cues to fdelity or infdelity would have sufered in reproductive success. By failing to be sensitive to these cues, a man risked losing the benefts of the woman’s parental investment, which might be diverted to another man’s children rather than his own. Failure to ensure fdelity meant that his own eforts would be channeled to another man’s ofspring. Our forebears could have solved this uniquely male adaptive problem by seeking qualities in a potential mate that might increase the odds of securing their paternity. At least two preferences in a mate could solve the problem for males: (1) the desire for premarital chastity and (2) the quest for postmarital sexual fdelity. Before the use of modern contraceptives, chastity would 5 MEN’S LONG-TERM MATiNG STRATEGiES 145 likely have provided a clue to the future certainty of paternity. On the assumption that a woman’s proclivities toward chaste behavior would be stable over time, her premarital chastity would signal her likely future fdelity. A man who didn’t select a chaste mate may have risked becoming involved with a woman who would cuckold him. Men do value virgin brides more than women value virgin grooms, at least in the United States, according to a cross-generational mating study. But the value men place on virginity has declined substantially, coinciding with the increasing availability of birth control (Buss et al., 2001). In the 1930s, men viewed chastity as close to indispensable, but in the past few decades, they have rated it desirable but not crucial. Among 18 characteristics, chastity went from the 10th most valued in 1939 to the 17th most valued in the 1990s. Despite the decline in the value of chastity in the 20th century, a signifcant sex diference remains—men more than women emphasize chastity as being important in a potential long-term mate. Similar trends have been documented in China (Chang, Wang, Shackelford, & Buss, 2011) and Brazil (Souza, ConroyBeam, & Buss, 2016). In both cultures, the importance of virginity has declined, although a statistically signifcant sex diference exists for the most recent assessments. In contrast, the importance of virginity has remained high in India, which shows that men continue to value it more than women in this country (Kamble, Shackelford, Pham, & Buss, 2014). The trend for men to value chastity more than women holds up to some degree worldwide, but it varies tremendously among cultures. At one extreme, people in China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Taiwan, and the Palestinian Arab areas of Israel attach a high value to chastity in a potential mate. At the opposite extreme, people in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, and France believe that virginity is largely irrelevant or unimportant in a potential mate (Buss, 1989a; see Figure 5.5). Participants in 37 cultures rated this variable, in the context of 18 other variables, on how desirable it would be in a potential long-term mate or marriage partner using a four-point rating scale, ranging from 0 (irrelevant or unimportant) to 3 (indispensable). Figure 5.5 Desire for Chastity, or No Previous Experience with Sexual Intercourse, in a Long-Term Mate N = sample size. p values less than .05 indicate that sex diference is signifcant. NS indicates that sex diference is not signifcant. Source: Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100, 204–232. Copyright © 1993 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission. 146 ChALLENGES OF SEx AND MATiNG In contrast to the worldwide consistency in the diferent preferences by sex for youth and physical attractiveness, only 62 percent of the cultures in the international study on choosing a mate placed a signifcantly diferent value by gender on chastity. Where sex diferences in the value of virginity are found, however, men invariably place a greater value on it than do women. The cultural variability in the preference of each sex for chastity may be due to several factors: the prevailing incidence of premarital sex, the degree to which chastity can be demanded in a mate, the economic independence of women, or the reliability with which it can be evaluated. Chastity difers from other attributes, such as a woman’s physical attractiveness, in that it is less directly observable. Even physical tests of female virginity are unreliable, whether from variations in the structure of the hymen, its rupture due to non-sexual causes, or its deliberate alteration (Dickemann, 1981). Variation in the value that people place on chastity may be traceable in part to variability in the economic independence of women and in women’s control of their own sexuality. In some cultures, such as Sweden, premarital sex is not discouraged, and practically no one is a virgin at marriage (Posner, 1992). One reason may be that women in Sweden are far less economically reliant on men than in most other cultures. Marriage provides few benefts for Swedish women as compared with women in most other cultures (Posner, 1992). The Swedish social welfare system includes daycare for children, long paid maternity leaves, and many other material benefts. Swedish taxpayers efectively provide what husbands formerly provided, freeing women from their economic dependence on men. That independence lowers the cost to women of a free and active sex life before marriage, or as an alternative to marriage. From a man’s reproductive perspective, a more important cue than virginity to paternity certainty is a reliable signal of future fdelity. One of the best predictors of extramarital sex is premarital sexual permissiveness—people who have many sexual partners before marriage are more likely to be unfaithful than those who have few sexual partners before marriage (Thompson, 1983; Weiss & Slosnerick, 1981). When U.S. men evaluated 67 possible characteristics for their desirability in a committed mateship, faithfulness and sexual loyalty emerged as the most highly valued traits (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). Nearly all men gave these traits the highest rating possible, an average of +2.85 on a scale of −3 to +3. Men regard unfaithfulness as the least desirable characteristic in a wife, rating it a −2.93, refecting the high value that men place on fdelity. Unfaithfulness proves to be more upsetting to men than any other pain a spouse could infict on her mate—a fnding for which there is excellent cross-cultural evidence (Betzig, 1989; Buss, 1989b; Daly & Wilson, 1988). Women also strategically self-present cues to sexual fdelity when in a long-term mating mind-set (Dosmukhambetova & Manstead, 2011). In the presence of a potential long-term partner, for example, women express more rejecting emotions toward other women who are known to be unfaithful, presumably to derogate those rivals and signal the high value they place on sexual fdelity. In summary, we now have the outlines of some of the qualities that men desire in a longterm mate (but see Box 5.1 for a mystery of men’s mating). In addition to the personality characteristics of kindness, dependability, and compatibility, men place a premium on youth and physical attractiveness. Standards of attractiveness correlate highly with female fertility. In essence, men’s desire for physical attractiveness solves the problem of seeking women who are reproductively capable. Reproductive capability, however, is not enough. Internal female fertilization posed a second adaptive problem for men, who value sexual fdelity and perhaps cues to controllability (Brown & Lewis, 2004) in a long-term mate as solutions to the problem of paternity uncertainty. The fact that non-paternity rates tend to be quite low in many cultures, some as low as 1 to 3 percent (Greef et al., 2012; Wolf, Musch, Enczmann, & Fischer, 2012), suggests that most men who commit to marriage have largely been successful at solving this key adaptive problem.