Women Want Short-Term Mates, Too?
Evolutionary Psychology Says Yes!
Posted January 24, 2015
In a recent investigation of sexual diversity among eight Makushi communities in Guyana, Schacht and Mulder (2015) asked dozens of people about their “sociosexuality” (i.e., the degree one is willing to have sex without commitment). They found in Makushi communities with extremely high sex ratios (where many more men than women exist), men’s sociosexuality was so low that it was nearly identical to women’s. Does this mean that men’s and women’s evolved sexual psychology is identical in adaptive design? No, not even close. Let me explain why.
It seems just about every year a new group of researchers asserts they have “debunked” some basic tenet of evolutionary psychology . A recurring claim is evolutionary explanations of human sex differences must be wrong if researchers are able to show women are at all interested in short-term mating, particularly when they seem just as interested as men are (Schacht & Mulder, 2015). In truth, finding women are acutely interested in short-term mating is entirely unsurprising to evolutionary psychologists. In fact, they have been predicting and confirming women’s short-term mating tendencies for decades.
It is simply untrue that evolutionary psychologists expect all women are solely monogamous and all men are entirely promiscuous, or that researchers should expect humans comport to a “coy females and ardent males” stereotype (Schacht & Mulder, 2015, p. 1). When scientists make such a misguided claim about evolutionary psychology they are engaging in a Straw Man argument. In short, they are setting up a false portrayal of evolutionary psychological science. Although I have written about this before (see http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sexual-personalities/201202/men-women-and-interplanetary-promiscuity ), let me revisit two fundamental reasons why this is clearly a Straw Man argument.
First, more than 20 years of empirical evidence has been accumulated by evolutionary psychologists confirming that women are, in all likelihood, “specially-designed” for short-term mating. That women possess highly evolved short-term mating strategies has been a foundational feature of evolutionary psychology since the early 1990s (Buss & Schmitt, 1993*; Kenrick et al., 1990), and several programs of research, many supported by literally dozens of studies, strongly support this assertion.
Historically, evolutionary psychologists were among the first psychologists to treat women’s short-term mating as an adaptive reproductive strategy (most other psychologists did, and still do, treat short-term mating as entirely dysfunctional or pathological, a failure to "bond" with your one true love; I call it the Disney-fication of women’s sexuality by majority of sex researchers who follow the Standard Social Science Model).
What evidence is there that evolutionary psychologists expected women to be designed for short-term mating? Some of the earliest studies by evolutionary psychologists on women’s adaptive desires for short-term mating include:
Buss, D. M. & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100 , 204–232.
Kenrick, D. T., Groth, G. E., Trost, M. R., & Sadalla, E. K. (1993). Integrating evolutionary and social exchange perspectives on relationships: Effects of gender , self-appraisal, and involvement level on mate selection criteria. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 951–969.
Kenrick, D. T., Sadalla, E. K., Groth, G., & Trost, M. R. (1990). Evolution, traits, and the stages of human courtship: Qualifying the parental investment model. Journal of Personality, 58 , 97–116.
Scheib, J.E. (1994). Sperm donor selection and the psychology of female mate choice. Ethology & Sociobiology, 15 , 113-129.
Seal, D.W., Agostinelli, G. & Hannett, C.A. (1994). Extradyadic romantic involvement: Moderating effects of sociosexuality and gender. Sex Roles, 31, 1–22.
Simpson, J. A., & Gangestad, S. W. (1992). Sociosexuality and romantic partner choice. Journal of Personality, 60 , 31–51.
And evolutionary psychologists kept digging into the special psychology of women’s short-term mating desires in the late 90s:
Regan, P. C. (1998). Minimum mate selection standards as a function of perceived mate value, relationship context, and gender. Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 10 , 53–73.
Regan, P. C. (1998). What if you can’t get what you want? Willingness to compromise ideal mate selection standards as a function of sex, mate value, and relationship context. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24 , 1294–1303.
Regan, P. C., & Berscheid, E. (1997). Gender differences in characteristics desired in a potential sexual and marriage partner. Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 9, 25–37.
Simpson, J. A., Gangestad, S. W., Christensen, P., Niels, K. (1999). Fluctuating asymmetry, sociosexuality, and intrasexual competitive tactics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 159-172.
Wiederman, M. W., & Dubois, S. L. (1998). Evolution and sex differences in preferences for short-term mates: Results from a policy capturing study. Evolution and Human Behavior, 19, 153–170.
And into the early 2000s, some of the studies included:
Gangestad, S. W., & Simpson, J. A. (2000). The evolution of human mating: Trade-offs and strategic pluralism. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23 , 573-587.
Grammer, K., Renninger, L. and Fischer, B. (2004). Disco clothing, female sexual motivation , and relationship status: Is she dressed to impress? Journal of Sex Research, 41, 66–74.
Greiling, H. and Buss, D. M. (2000). Women’s sexual strategies: The hidden dimension of short-term mating. Personality and Individual Differences, 28 , 929–963.
Little, A.C., Jones, B.C., Penton-Voak, I.S., Burt, D.M., & Perrett, D.I. (2002). Partnership status and the temporal context of relationships influence human female preferences for sexual dimorphism in male face shape. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 269 , 1095-1103.
Pawlowski, B., & Jasienska, G. (2005). Women’s preferences for sexual dimorphism in height depend on menstrual cycle phase and expected duration of relationship. Biological Psychology, 70 , 38-43.
Penton-Voak, I. S., Little, A. C., Jones, B. C., Burt, D. M., Tiddeman, B. P., Perrett, D. I. (2003): Female condition influences preferences for sexual dimorphism in faces of male humans (Homo sapiens). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 117 , 264–271.
Regan, P.C., Levin, L., Sprecher, S., Christopher, F. S., & Cate, R. (2000). Partner preferences: What characteristics do men and women desire in their short-term and long-term romantic partners? Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 12, 1–21.
Regan, P.C., Medina, R., & Joshi, A. (2001). Partner preferences among homosexual men and women: What is desirable in a sex partner is not necessarily desirable in a romantic partner. Social Behavior and Personality, 29 , 625-633.
Schmitt, D. P., Couden, A., & Baker, M. (2001). Sex, temporal context, and romantic desire: An experimental evaluation of Sexual Strategies Theory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 833–847.
Scheib, J.E. (2001). Context-specific mate choice criteria: Women's trade-offs in the contexts of long-term and extra-pair mateships. Personal Relationships, 8, 371-389.
Shackelford, T. K., Weekes, V. A., LeBlanc, G. J., Bleske, A. L., Euler, H. A., & Hoier, S. (2000). Female coital orgasm and male attractiveness . Human Nature, 11 , 299-306.
Stewart, S., Stinnett, H., & Rosenfeld, L. B. (2000). Sex differences in desired characteristics of short-term and long-term relationship partners. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 17, 843–853.
Thornhill, R., & Gangestad, S. W. (2003). Do women have evolved adaptation for extra-pair copulation? In Evolutionary aesthetics (pp. 341-368). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Then into the late 2000s:
Haselton, M. G. & Miller, G. F. (2006). Women’s fertility across the cycle increases the short-term attractiveness of creative intelligence . Human Nature, 17, 50–73.
Li, N. (2007). Mate preference necessities in long- and short-term mating: People prioritize in themselves what their mates prioritize in them. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 39, 528-535.
Li, N. P., & Kenrick, D. T. (2006). Sex similarities and differences in preferences for short-term mates: What, whether, and why. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 468–489.
Pillsworth, E. G., & Haselton, M. G. (2006). Male sexual attractiveness predicts differential ovulatory shifts in female extra-pair attraction and male mate retention. Evolution & Human Behavior, 27, 247–258.
Pipitone, R. N., & Gallup Jr, G. G. (2008). Women's voice attractiveness varies across the menstrual cycle. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29 , 268-274.
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