Transcript EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY, SESSION 6: MALE MATE PREFERENCES.

Evolutionary Psychology Lecture 8:
Jealousy and Mate Retention.
Thoughts for the day.
 “No woman no cry”. Bob Marley.
 “He that is not jealous is not in love” St Augustine.
 “Hey Joe. Where you goin’ with that gun in your
hand? Goin’ down to shoot my old lady. You know
I caught her messin’ around with another man”.
(“Hey Joe” Billy Roberts, 1966).
 “When you’re in love with a beautiful woman,
watch your friends” (Dr Hook).
Learning Outcomes.
 At the end of this session you should be able to:
 1. Discuss the evidence for the adaptive
significance of romantic jealousy.
 2. Evaluate theoretical predictions concerning sex
differences in jealousy.
Jealousy.
 Romantic jealousy has been defined as:
 "a fear and rage reaction fitted to protect,
maintain, and prolong the intimate association of
love" (Davis 1948).
 Jealousy is generated:
 "when there is a threat to, or an actual loss of a
valued relationship due to an actual or imagined
rival for one's partners attention” (DeSteno &
Salovey, 1996).
Evolutionary Explanations For Jealousy.
 Mate retention is very important for both sexes, so males and
females should show jealousy to the same degree.
 However, evolutionary psychologists predict that the sexes
may differ in terms of the events that activate jealousy, due
to the following:
 1. Paternity Uncertainty: Males can never be certain that an
offspring is theirs. E.g. 9-13% of human children are being
unknowingly raised by their non-genetic father (Baker,
1996).
 2. Mate Value: Young females are more reproductively
valuable, and a few males can monopolise them, so there will
always be males seeking to steal mates of other males.
Females may also seek extra-pair copulations if they find a
superior mate (Buss, 1999).
Costs of Cuckoldry.
 Investing resources in another males offspring leads to
high costs for an unwitting cuckold:
 1. He has lost the considerable efforts he has put into
courting the female - time, energy, risk, resources.
 2. The time spent courting the unfaithful female could have
been better spent finding another.
 3. He may unknowingly continue to pour resources into a
child who does not carry his genetic material.
 We might therefore expect males to be particularly
sensitive about their partners possible sexual infidelity.
Psychological Adaptations.
 Wilson & Daly (1992) argued that sexual proprietary
behaviours such as:
 Mate guarding.
 Male aggression.
 Spousal Violence.




and certain attitudes such as:
Valuing female chastity.
Culture-wide concept of adultery as a property violation.
are evolved male solutions to the adaptive problem of
paternity uncertainty.
The Female Dilemma.
 Females have faced a slightly different set of adaptive
problems.
 If their partner commits a sexual infidelity, it has no effect
on her parenthood certainty.
 However, she and her offspring stand to lose a considerable
loss of protection, status, and resources if the male devotes
his time to another female and her offspring.
 We might therefore expect females to be particularly
sensitive to behaviours signalling their partners potential
emotional (and of course sexual) infidelity.
 The emotion of jealousy is therefore adaptive for both
sexes.
But Males Stand To Lose More!
 As males stand more to lose than females through sexual
infidelity, we would expect the following to be particularly
common in males:
 1. Increased sensitivity to circumstances in which their
partner may have the chance to be unfaithful.
 2. The increased likelihood of mate guarding behaviours to
reduce possible contact between their partner and other
males.
 3. Greater willingness to perform actions to keep their
partner.
 4. Increase of threatening and hostile behaviour to other
males.
 Is there any evidence for this?
1. Mate Guarding.
 Extreme mate guarding (harems, concubines, multiple
wives) arises when the chance for resource acquisition and
hoarding exist.
 Even males with access to a single female will engage in a
variety of guarding behaviours:
 Chaperoning.
 Veiling.
 Purdah (keeping males and females separate).
 Chastity belts.
 Genital mutilation.
 Limiting education and equality.
 Such cultural actions only occur with women of
reproductive age. They are often conducted by female
relatives to increase a girl’s mate value
Real-Life Example.
 In an anthropological study of relationships in a Caribbean
village, Flinn (1988) found that:
 Males whose mates were of reproductive age were more
often in their company than males whose mates were at
post-reproductive age, or were pregnant.
 A woman’s fecundity was proportionally associated with
more antagonism in her mate’s interactions with her.
 There was greater antagonism amongst mated couples who
were not strictly monogamous.
 Males who were vying for the attentions of a particular
women were more antagonistic than during other malemale interactions.
2. Mate Retention.
 Divorce is very common across all human societies and
cultures, e.g. between 50-67% of couples will divorce in
America (sexual infidelity being cited as a key cause).
 This indicates that mate retention is a significant and
difficult adaptive problem.
 Buss (1988) tried to isolate the kinds of behaviours that
individuals employ to retain a mate.
 Sex differences emerged as males were more likely to
monopolise her time, display or provide resources and
threaten other males.
 Women were more likely to use appearance enhancement,
and the inducement of jealousy as tactics of mate
retention.
Mate Poaching.
 Schmitt & Buss (2001) found that around 50% reported
attempting mate poaching, while around 85% had been the
target of poaching attempts.
 Nearly a quarter of males and females admitted that their
current relationship was the result of a successful poaching
attempt.
 What makes a good mate poacher?
 Schmitt & Buss (2001) found that successful female
poachers are assumed to use enhancement of their
appearance, and suggestions of sexual access.
 Successful male poachers are assumed to be socially
dominant and have access to plentiful resources.
 Successful poachers of both sexes are assumed to
denigrate the same sex partner by questioning their
commitment and attractiveness.
Retention Behaviour in Context.
 Buss & Shackelford (1997) argued that the psychological
adaptations underlying mate retention behaviours may be
sensitive to 3 contexts:
 1. Mate value: Reproductive or parental potential is a key
factor. Age and attractiveness (for males), resource
acquisition or potential (for females).
 2. Perceived mate value discrepancies: In some pair bonds
there will be differences in the couples respective mate
values.
 3. Perceived probability of infidelity: An important cue
signalling a failure of mate retention is that of the suspicion
of infidelity.
Predictions.
 Buss & Shackelford (1997) assessed mate retention
behaviours. They predicted that individuals fulfilling the
following criteria would devote more time to mate
retention:
 Men married to younger and more attractive women.
 Women married to men with many resources, or excellent
prospects.
 Individuals who suspected that their partner may be
unfaithful.
 They also predicted that:
 Males would attempt to retain their mates by providing
resources.
 Females would attempt to retain their mates by enhancing
their physical appearance.
Results.
 1. Men married to younger women and to women they
perceived as being more very attractive devoted great
efforts to mate retention.
 2. Women married to males with plentiful resources also
showed more mate retention behaviours.
 3. Men (but not women) whose partners they suspected
may become unfaithful significantly increased certain
retention behaviours.
 4. Men were more likely to use resource-based tactics (and
aggression) to retain a mate, while women were much
more likely to use physical enhancement.
3. Adultery and Culture.
 All human societies have some form of ritualised ‘marriage’
arrangement, and all have strict laws dealing with adultery.
 In most societies, adultery is defined only as a married
woman having an affair with another man.
 Adultery is often explicitly treated as a property violation,
with the victim being entitled to violent or economic
revenge (return of the dowry).
 In many countries, and in several states of the USA (up to
the 1970’s), murder on the discovery of a wife’s infidelity is
not considered a crime.
 Until recently, husbands were legally entitled to confine
their wives against their will and use force to obtain their
conjugal rights.
Psychological Studies of Jealousy.
 Buss et al., (1992) predicted that males and females would
be differentially concerned about potential sexual and
emotional infidelity.
 Males >distress to sexual infidelity.
 Females >distress to emotional infidelity.
 Participants presented with 2 dilemmas, each concerning
hypothetical sexual or emotional infidelity of their partner.
 60% of males reported greater distress to sexual infidelity
compared to 17% of females. 83% of females showed
greater distress to emotional infidelity.
 The findings were confirmed using electrophysiology.
 Males with experience of a sexual relationship showed
more distress to sexual infidelity than those lacking such
experiences.
Cross-Cultural Studies.
 Buunk et al., (1996) presented the jealousy-invoking
scenarios to participants from the USA, Germany and the
Netherlands.
 In each sample (containing more than 200 participants)
males were much more likely to choose the sexual infidelity
scenario as the most upsetting.
 The largest effect was for the American group - the
Germans and Dutch have long histories of sexual freedom
and equality.
 Culture can influence the strength of the adaptive response
but the response is still significant.
Buunk et al., (1996) Results.
From Buunk et al., 1996, p361
Comparison of the Techniques.
 Pietrzak et al., (2002) compared the various techniques.
 Participants selected a scenario which would distress them
more and provided continuous ratings while physiological
variables were being monitored.
 73% of males reported greater distress to the sexual
infidelity scenario.
 96% of females opted for the emotional distress scenario.
 Males reported stronger feelings of anger, rage and
betrayal whilst imagining sexual infidelity.
 Females reported stronger feelings of anger, anxiety and
fear while imagining emotional infidelity.
 Males showed greater physiological responses to the sexual
infidelity scenario while females showed greater
physiological responses to emotional infidelity
Experience of Infidelity.
 Sagarin et al., (2003) also used both forced-choice and
continuous rating scales and found the predicted sex
differences using both measures.
 In addition they assessed prior experience of infidelity,
hypothesising that such experiences would make the
individual particularly sensitive to the possibility of future
infidelity.
 As predicted the experience of being the victim of a
previous infidelity led to males reporting greater distress in
response to sexual infidelity, but this did not occur for
women.
 However, women that had perpetrated an infidelity showed
greater distress while men who had perpetrated an
infidelity did not.
Responses to Infidelity.
 Shackelford et al., (2002) focused upon sex differences in
response to a partner's infidelity.
 They reasoned that a single instance of female infidelity
would have a large impact on male paternity certainty.
 A single instance of male infidelity would have no impact on
female reproductive success. However, continued male
infidelity resulting in a shift in his emotional commitment
could have long-term consequences for the female in
question.
 They thus predicted:
 Men would find it more difficult to forgive and be more
likely to break up with a partner who committed a sexual
infidelity.
 Women would be less likely to forgive and more likely to
break up with a male who committed emotional infidelity.
Shackelford et al (2002) Findings.
 In their study 256 students were presented with several
forced-choice dilemmas covering their responses to a
sexual and emotional infidelity.
 Which would they find more difficult to forgive?
 Which would they consider more likely to lead to a breakup of the relationship?
 As predicted, the majority of males (65%) found it more
difficult to forgive a sexual infidelity and felt that such an
infidelity (55%) would be more likely to break up the
relationship.
 The comparable figures for females were 52% and 42% of
women respectively.
Characteristics of a Rival.
 The status of a jealousy-inducing rival is of course
important.
 Dijkstra & Buunk (2001) presented men and women with
scenarios of rivals flirting with their partners at a party.
 After reading the scenario participants turned the page and
saw a photograph of the rival (attractive or unattractive)
and a personality description (dominant or passive).
 The physical attractiveness of a rival did not affect men's
feelings of jealousy but their dominance status did.
 The reverse was true for females as physical attraction
made a big impact but status did not.
 The sexes are thus primarily threatened by rivals who
embody what their partners may seek.