Men's sociosexuality is sensitive to changes in mate availability

Abstract

Correlational research has linked mate availability to human sexual behavior, whereby unrestricted sociosexuality seems to be most common under conditions of female abundance. In this study, 71 heterosexual men were randomly assigned to one of two mate availability priming conditions, mate scarcity or mate abundance, and subsequently completed measures of sociosexuality as well as infidelity intentions. Results indicated that men in the mate abundance condition reported stronger sociosexual attitudes and desires, and among those currently in relationships, stronger infidelity intentions. These findings were contrasted with those from a separate sample of 66 heterosexual undergraduate women. Mate scarcity had no effects on women's sociosexuality or infidelity intentions. Findings suggest that when mates are scarce, men will adopt a sociosexual orientation aimed at maintaining a single partner.

Testing the effects of pathogen threat and sexual strategies on political ideology

“…Attitude toward sexual strategies was manipulated using a fictitious magazine article about low mate availability (adapted from Spielmann et al, 2009). Arnocky et al (2016) found that this manipulation affected sociosexual attitudes (with stronger effects for men), such that those in the low mate availability condition more strongly endorsed monogamy than those in the high mate availability condition. All study materials are available at https://osf.io/bfgmk/.…”

“…Two studies were conducted, one with a college student sample and one with an online community sample, to assess replicability and generalization of findings. For each study, participants were randomly assigned to a pathogen threat (White et al, 2013), low mate availability (Arnocky et al, 2016), or control condition. Political ideology, attitudes toward sexual strategies, and disgust were assessed.…”

“…Participants Based on an a priori power analysis for an ANCOVA with three conditions and three covariates, assuming a small effect (Arnocky et al, 2016), alpha = .05, and power = .80, a minimum of 970 participants were required. Undergraduate students were recruited from West Virginia University (n = 569) and Montana State University (n = 333).…”

“…The only eligibility criteria were that participants had to be 18 years or older and U.S. residents. Based on an a priori power analysis for ANCOVA with three conditions and three covariates, assuming a small effect (Arnocky et al, 2016), alpha = .05, and power = .80, a minimum of 970 participants were required. A total of 1,431 respondents completed the study.…”

Better relationships shut the wandering eye: Sociosexual orientation mediates the association between relationship quality and infidelity intentions

“…The spectrum of sociosexuality provides plurality in mating tactics, which can be adaptive in different contexts (Gangestad & Simpson, 2000). For example, in a context where sharing of resources and parental investment is needed, people can be inclined to be more restrictive in sociosexuality (Conroy-Beam et al, 2015), whereas in a context where accessibility to mates is low, people can be inclined to be more unrestricted in sociosexuality (Arnocky et al, 2016).…”