Cross-Cultural Codes on Husband-Wife Relationships

2016

Parents across societies and across time have been exercising considerable influence over their children's mate choices. Parents desire specific traits in a prospective spouse for their children; however, the contribution of those traits to the parents' fitness is contingent upon whether they are found in a daughter-or a son-in-law. Furthermore, certain traits can potentially make a different fitness contribution to mothers and fathers. On this basis, by using a comprehensive instrument of in-law preferences and a within-family design, the present study tests the hypotheses that (a) in-law preferences are contingent upon the sex of the in-law and (b) in-law preferences are contingent upon the sex of the parent. Evidence from a sample of 541 families finds support for both hypotheses.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In-Law Preferences: Do Fathers and Mothers Agree on What They Want in a Daughter-in-Law and in a Son-in-Law?

2016

“…More specifically, in a pre-industrial context, mating is regulated with arranged marriage being the most common type of long-term mating (Broude and Green 1983;Stephens 1963). In more detail, one study collected evidence on mating patterns from a sample of 190 contemporary foraging societies (Apostolou 2007).…”

Section: Ancestral Context and Male Reproductive Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual Dysfunctions in Men: An Evolutionary Perspective

2015

Successful sexual intercourse is a prerequisite for successful reproduction, a fact that translates into strong evolutionary pressures being exercised on mechanisms that regulate sexual functioning to work optimally. In effect, selection forces would remove from the gene pool any alleles that predispose for sexual dysfunctions, limiting their prevalence to very low levels. But this did not happen with epidemiological studies indicating that sexual dysfunctions are common, with approximately one in three men facing such a difficulty. This raises the question why evolutionary forces have allowed such variation in sexual functioning given its importance in reproduction. The present paper attempts to address this question by applying three evolutionary models on anthropological and historical evidence that depicts the ancestral human condition. It is argued that the high prevalence of sexual dysfunctions in men is predominantly explained by the mismatch between ancestral and modern environments, with selection forces not having sufficient time to optimize sexual functioning mechanisms to the demands of modern conditions. The proposed evolutionary framework is employed to derive predictions which are examined against the available evidence on sexual dysfunctions.

“…In a pre-industrial context, parents can exercise direct control over their daughters' and sons' mating behavior and impose on them their in-law choices (Broude and Green 1983;Stephens 1963). In particular, across pre-industrial societies, the most common mode of long-term mating is arranged marriage where parents choose spouses for their children (Apostolou 2014).…”

Section: Agreement and Disagreement Over Mate Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

Will They Do As We Wish? An Investigation of the Effectiveness of Parental Manipulation on Mating Behavior

Kasapi

Arakliti

2014

Parents have vested interests in their children's mating behavior. Accordingly, they employ a battery of tactics to manipulate the mate choices of their daughters and sons. This paper attempts to investigate how effective these tactics are in accomplishing this goal and which tactics are more effective than others. It aims further to investigate how accurately parents can assess the effectiveness of their manipulation tactics. Evidence from two independent studies indicates that parental manipulation has an effect which is, nevertheless, small with some tactics being more effective than others. It is also found that parents accurately assess the effectiveness of their manipulation on mating behavior. The implications of these findings are further discussed.