Males benefit twice—The influence of equity on affective and physical attraction in couples

Abstract

We examined whether relationship satisfaction mediates the association between perceptions of equity in central areas of a relationship (feelings and attractiveness) and the experience of sexuality in a sample of 93 couples. Results reveal that greater levels of an individual's own relationship satisfaction significantly predict greater levels of an individual's affective and physical sexual attraction. Furthermore, findings also provide some support for the mediating role of relationship satisfaction between an individual's own equity perceptions and an individual's own experience of sexuality within the dyad. Moreover, males benefit from the females' perception of equity in the sense that equity considerations among females significantly contribute to their partners' relationship satisfaction, which, in turn, intensifies their partners' experience of passionate and emotional sex.In recent decades, the majority of romantic relationships in the Western world are characterized by love, tenderness, and affection. Equity considerations and fairness, however, usually do not play a prominent role when entering into a romantic relationship. Rohmann (2000) emphasizes that romantic relationships are indeed dominated first by love, affection, and tenderness. Nonetheless, the importance of fairness and equity should not to be underestimated.

The Association Between Relationship Orientation, Relationship Quality and Sexual Satisfaction

“…For instance, previous research on sociosexuality has shown that relationship agreement moderates the negative association between unrestricted sociosexuality and relationship quality, independent of gender (Rodrigues et al, 2017). Studies on dyadic data have examined whether there are congruencies or discrepancies in relationship aspects, e.g., using polynomial regression analyses (Quittschalle & Herzberg, 2017). Further research should address this issue.…”