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Intro

In evolutionary psychology and behavioral ecology, human mating strategies are a set of behaviors and goals used by individuals to attract, select, and retain mates. Mating strategies overlap with reproductive strategies, which encompass a broader set of behaviors involving the timing of reproduction and the trade-off between quantity and quality of offspring.

Relative to other animals, human mating strategies are unique as they are influenced by cultural variables such as the institution of marriage. Humans may seek to form a long-term intimate relationship, marriage, casual relationship, or friendship with other people. It is an fundamental part of human nature, and is related to huaman’s sex drive. The human mating process encompasses all of  the social and cultural processes where people form mating relationships. This may include one person meeting another to assess suitability, as well as both the processes of courtship and the forming an interpersonal relationship. Human mating strategies are an extension of mating behaviors found in animals, especially primates (see animal sexual behavior).

Theoretical Background

Parental Investment

Research on human mating strategies is guided by the theory of sexual selection, in particular, Robert Trivers' theory of parental investment. Trivers defines parental investment as “any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring's chance of surviving (and hence reproductive success) at the cost of the parent's ability to invest in other offspring.” The investment given to offspring by the parents is typically different from each other. Trivers posited that differential parental investment between males and females drives the process of sexual selection, which leads to the evolution of sexual dimorphism in mate choice, competitive ability, courtship displays (see also secondary sex characteristics), and mortality rates. In humans, females make a larger parental investment than males (i.e. lower gamete count, nine months of gestation followed by childbirth and lactation). While human males invest heavily in their offspring as well, their minimum parental investment is still lower than that of females.

This same concept can be looked at from an economic perspective regarding the costs of engaging in sexual relations. Females incur the higher costs, compared to males, as they carry the possibility of becoming pregnant. Conversely, males have comparatively minimal costs of having a sexual encounter. Therefore, evolutionary psychologists have predicted a number of sex differences in human mating strategies.

Life History Strategies

Life History Theory helps to explain differences in timing of sexual relationships, quantity of sexual partners, and parental investment. According to this theory, animals have a limited supply of energy, which used to develop the body. This energy is put on a theoretical spectrum of how animals' bodies use the prioritize the energy use. At one end of the spectrum, the bodies prioritize reaching sexual maturation quickly, which is deemed a fast strategy. On the other end of the spectrum, is slow strategy, where the bodies prioritize bodily development. Prenatal and early childhood environments dictate which strategy an animal unconsciously pursues. Additionally, where fast strategy animals seek to have sexual relationships earlier, several mates, and invest little in their offspring, slow strategy animals seek to have sexual relationships later, few mates, and invest more heavily in their offspring. Therefore, the Life History strategy influences the mating strategy of the individual animal. This concept has been applied to humans as well. Additionally, there are differences in Life History strategies both between and within species.

Pair Bonding versus Competitive Mating

Humans have a mix of both pair bonding mating and competitive mating. Pair bonding mates typically mate for life and in humans, is analogous to marriage. Competitive mating is where one sex competitions with other individuals of the same sex for mating rights with a group of the opposite sex. This is usually the males competing for access to females. Humans pursue both ends of spectrum, but usually fall somewhere in the middle.

Biological Sex Differences

Mate Value

Mate values of each sex is determined by what the opposite sex desires in a mate. Thus, male mate value is determined by what females desire and vice versa. Additionally, individuals with greater mate value are then in turn perceived to be more attractive, have a higher chance of reproduction, and are more able to choose their mates. Due to biological differences between the sexes, it is predicted that there are differences in what the sexes desire in a mate, and therefore differences in mate value composition.

Evolutionary psychologists have predicted that men generally place a greater value on youth and physical attractiveness in a mate than do women. Youth is associated with reproductive value in women, and features that men find physically attractive in women are thought to signal health and fertility. Men who preferentially mated with healthy, fertile, and reproductively valuable women would have left more descendants than men who did not. Since men's reproductive value does not decline as steeply with age as does women's, women are not expected to exhibit as strong of a preference for youth in a mate. Evolutionary psychologists have also speculated that women are relatively more attracted to ambition and social status in a mate because they associate these characteristics with men's access to resources. Women who preferentially mated with men capable of investing resources in themselves and their offspring, thereby ensuring their offspring's survival, would have left more descendants than women who did not.

Evolutionary psychologists have tested these predictions across cultures, confirming that men tend to report a greater preference for youth and physical attractiveness in a mate than do women, and that women tend to report a greater preference for ambition and social status in a mate than do men. Some sex differences in mate preferences may be attenuated by national levels of gender equity and gender empowerment. The specific role that culture plays in modulating sex differences in mate preferences is subject to debate. Cultural variations in mate preference can be due to the evolved differences between males and females in a certain culture. For example, as women gain more access to resources their mate preferences change. Finding a mate with resources becomes less of a priority and a mate with domestic skills is more important. As women's access to resources varies between cultures, so does mate preference. In light of these findings, it has been suggested that both female physical attractiveness and male access to resources be thought of as “necessities” in a mate. Other qualities, such as humor, are thought of as “luxuries.” Therefore humans first look for the necessities in a mate and then place value on the luxuries. This helps to explain some of the debate of the role of resources and attractiveness in mate value.

Sexual Desires

It is posited that male and females differ on both their perceptions and desires of sexual activity, in addition to their sex drive. Evolutionary research indicates that males have a strong desire for casual sex, whereas females do not. Men are often depicted as wanting numerous female sexual partners to maximise reproductive success. Evolutionary mechanisms for short-term mating are evident today. Mate-guarding behaviors and sexual jealousy point to an evolutionary history in which sexual relations with multiple partners became a recurrent adaptive problem, while the willingness of modern-day men to have sex with attractive strangers, and the prevalence of extramarital affairs in similar frequencies cross-culturally, are evidence of an ancestral past in which polygamous mating strategies were adopted. By contrast, journalist Daniel Bergner, who dismisses evolutionary biology, argues that monogamy has been used to control human female sexual behavior and that the human female sex drive is not lower than the human male sex drive.

Individual Differences

Sociosexual Orientation

Just as there is intersexual mating strategy difference, there are intrasexual differences and such within-sex variation is substantial. Individual differences in mating strategies are commonly measured using the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI), a questionnaire that includes items assessing past sexual behavior, anticipated future sexual behavior, and openness to casual sex. Higher scores on the SOI indicate a sexually unrestricted mating strategy, which indicates an openess to casual sex with more partners. Conversely, lower scores on the SOI indicate a sexually restricted mating strategy, with a focus on a few sexual partners.

Several studies have found that scores on the SOI are related to mate preferences, with more sexually restricted individuals preferring personal/parenting qualities in a mate (e.g. responsibility and loyalty), and with less sexual restricted individual preferring qualities related to physical attractiveness and social visibility. Other studies have shown that SOI scores are related to personality traits (i.e. extraversion, erotophilia, and low agreeableness), conspicuous consumption in men as a means to attract women, and increased allocation of visual attention to attractive opposite-sex faces.

Pluralism

The concept of sexual pluralism states that humans do not pursue the same mating strategy all of the time. There are different motivations and environmental influences that determine the mating strategy which a person will adopt. Research on the conditional nature of mating strategies has revealed that long-term and short-term mating preferences can be fairly plastic. Following exposure to cues that would have been affected mating in the ancestral past, both men and women appear to adjust their mating preferences in ways that would have historically enhanced their fitness. Such cues include the need to care for young, danger from animals and other humans, and resource availability.

Environmental Concerns

Culture

The different strategies and environmental influences have been tested across many different cultures. Specifically, Evolutionary psychologists have tested sexual attraction across cultures, confirming that men tend to report a greater preference for youth and physical attractiveness in a mate than do women, and that women tend to report a greater preference for ambition and social status in a mate than do men.  However, the specific role that culture plays in modulating sex differences in mate preferences is subject to debate. Cultural variations in mate preference can be due to the evolved differences between males and females in a given culture.

Culture also has a link to mating strategies in the form of marriage systems in the society. Specifically, pathogens have been linked to whether a society is more likely to have polygynous or monogamous marriage systems. Cultures with high pathogen stress are more likely to have polygynous marriage systems, especially exogamous polygomy systems. This is helpful for both males and females, as males obtain greater genetic diversity for their offspring and females have access to healthy males, which are typically lacking in high pathogen societies. Conversely, monogamy is often absent from high pathogen environments, but common in low pathogen environments.

Further, Since physical attractiveness is thought to signal health and disease resistance, evolutionary psychologists have predicted that, in societies high in pathogen prevalence, people value attractiveness more in a mate. Indeed, research has confirmed that pathogen prevalence is associated with preferences for attractiveness across nations. Women in nations with high pathogen prevalence also show greater preferences for facial masculinity. Researchers have also reasoned that sexual contact with multiple individuals increases the risk of disease transmission, thereby increasing the costs of pursuing a short-term mating strategy. Consistent with this reasoning, higher pathogen prevalence is associated with lower national SOI scores. Finally, several studies have found that experimentally manipulating disease salience has a causal influence on attractiveness preferences and SOI scores in predicted directions.

Income

Some sex differences in mate preferences may be diminished by national levels of gender equity and gender empowerment. For example, as women gain more access to resources their mate preferences seem to change. Finding a mate with resources becomes less of a priority and a mate with domestic skills is more important. As women's access to resources varies between cultures, so does their mate preference.

Sex Ratio

The local operational sex ratio has been shown to have an impact on mating strategies. This is defined as the ratio of marriage-age males to marriage age females, with a high ratio representing more males and a low ratio representing more females in the local area. When there is a imbalance of sexes, the rare sex typically has more choice, while the plentiful sex has to compete more strategically for the rare sex. This leads to the plentiful sex competing on specific areas that the rare sex finds attractive. Additionally, the plentiful sex will adopt more of the rare sex’s mating strategy. For example, with a low sex ratio, females will adopt a more short term mating strategy and will compete more intense on things like physical attractiveness.

In 2005, the evolutionary psychologist David Schmitt conducted a multinational survey of sexual attitudes and behaviors involving 48 countries called the International Sexual Description Project (ISSR). Schmitt assessed relationships between several societal-level variables and average scores on the SOI. One variable that was shown to significantly predict a nation's average SOI score was the Operational Sex Ratio (OSR), which was confirmed. OSR was significantly positively correlated with national SOI scores. Another variable that Schmitt predicted would influence SOI scores was the need for biparental care. In societies where extensive care from both parents is needed to ensure offspring survival, the costs of having sex with an uncommitted partner are much higher. Schmitt found significant negative correlations between several indices of need for biparental care (e.g. infant mortality, child malnutrition, and low birth-weight infants) and national SOI scores.

Political Attitudes

Some evolutionary psychologists have argued that mating strategies can influence political attitudes. According to this perspective, different mating strategies are in direct strategic conflict. For instance, the stability of long-term partnerships may be threatened by the availability of short-term sexual opportunities. Therefore, public policy measures that impose costs on casual sex may benefit people pursuing long-term mating strategies by reducing the availability of short-term mating opportunities outside of committed relationships. One public policy measure that imposes costs on people pursuing short-term mating strategies, and may thereby appeal to sexually restricted individuals, is the banning of abortion. In an influential doctoral dissertation, the psychologist Jason Weeden conducted statistical analyses on public and undergraduate datasets supporting the hypothesis that attitudes towards abortion are more strongly predicted by mating-relevant variables than by variables related to views on the sanctity of life.

Weeden and colleagues have also argued that attitudes towards drug legalization are driven by individual differences in mating strategies. Insofar as sexually restricted individuals associate recreational drug use with promiscuity, they may be motivated to oppose drug legalization. Consistent with this, one study found that the strongest predictor of attitudes towards drug legalization was scores on the SOI. This relationship remained strong even when controlling for personality traits, political orientation, and moral values. By contrast, nonsexual variables typically associated with attitudes towards drug legalization were strongly attenuated or eliminated when controlling for SOI and other sexuality-related measures. These findings were replicated in Belgium, Japan, and the Netherlands. Weeden and colleagues have made similar arguments and have conducted similar analyses in regard to religiosity; that is, religious institutions may function to facilitate high-fertility, sexually restricted mating and reproductive strategies.

Influence of mating strategy on liberalism/conservatism??

Mate Attraction

Flirting

To bond or express sexual interest, some people choose to flirt. Kate Fox, a social anthropologist, posits two main types of flirting: flirting for fun and flirting with intent. Flirting for fun can take place between friends, co-workers, or total strangers who wish to get to know each other. This type of flirting does not seek sexual intercourse or romantic relationship, but increases the bonds between two people.

Flirting with intent plays a role in mate attraction. The person flirting sends out signals of sexual availability to another, and hopes to see the interest returned to encourage continued flirting. Flirting can involve non-verbal signs, such as an exchange of glances, hand-touching, hair-touching, or verbal signs, such as chatting up, flattering comments, and exchange of telephone numbers to enable further contact.

Dating

People date to assess each other's suitability as a partner in an intimate relationship or as a spouse. Dating rules may vary across different cultures, and some societies may even replace the dating process by a courtship instead.

Matchmaking

In many cultural traditions, a date may be arranged by a third party, who may be a family member, acquaintance, or professional matchmaker. In some cultures, a marriage may be arranged by the couple's parents or an outside party. Recently, internet dating has become popular.