On the Plasticity of Human Mating Strategies: Experimental Evidence for Mating Strategy Change in Response to Evolutionarily Relevant Stimuli

Thomas, Andrew G.

doi:10.23889/Suthesis.41184

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On the Plasticity of Human Mating Strategies: Experimental Evidence for Mating Strategy Change in Response to Evolutionarily Relevant Stimuli / Andrew G. Thomas

Swansea University Author: Andrew G. Thomas

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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/Suthesis.41184

Abstract

Evolutionary psychological theory explains the large variance found in humanmating behaviour through the use of a mating strategies perspective. Specifically, both sexes have short-term and long-term mating strategies containing sets of evolved psychological adaptations which guide mating effort. In...

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Published:	2015
Institution:	Swansea University
Degree level:	Doctoral
Degree name:	Ph.D
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa41184
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first_indexed	2018-07-30T13:34:43Z
last_indexed	2020-09-04T03:02:59Z
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spelling	2020-09-03T08:22:01.8064305 v2 41184 2018-07-30 On the Plasticity of Human Mating Strategies: Experimental Evidence for Mating Strategy Change in Response to Evolutionarily Relevant Stimuli eeb1d105d3d196c7106cb384302af781 0000-0001-5251-7923 Andrew G. Thomas Andrew G. Thomas true true 2018-07-30 Evolutionary psychological theory explains the large variance found in humanmating behaviour through the use of a mating strategies perspective. Specifically, both sexes have short-term and long-term mating strategies containing sets of evolved psychological adaptations which guide mating effort. Individuals vary in their mating behaviour due to the differential activation of these two strategies which are thought to be activated conditionally. That is, an individual is hypothesized to engage in a short- term mating strategy over a long-term one in circumstances where, ancestrally, a short- term strategy would have led to the best fitness outcome.Despite a large body of evidence for the existence of mating strategies in humans, evidence for the ability to conditionally switch between strategies is less robust. To date, such evidence is either in the form of correlational studies, or experimental studies which demonstrate changes to behaviours only partly related to mating strategies. The aim of this thesis was to fill the gap in this literature by demonstrating that participants can change their mating strategies in response to evolutionarily relevant stimuli. A novel measure of mating strategies was developed in order to capture a participants’ propensity towards short- and long-term mating before and after exposure to cues hypothesized to have affected the effectiveness of the two mating strategies in the ancestral environment. These included cues related to a skewed local sex-ratio, self-perceived dominance, and environmental danger. Of the ten experimental hypotheses tested, support (or partial support) was found for seven and the experimental effects were typically small-to-medium in size. Thus, moderate support was found that humans are flexible in their mating strategy implementation and respond to evolutionarily relevant cues, although it was concluded that marked changes in an individual’s environment would be required for any lasting effect on their matingbehaviour to occur. E-Thesis Psychology, Evolution, Sex Differences, Mating Strategies, Mating Preferences, Evolutionary Psychology 31 12 2015 2015-12-31 10.23889/Suthesis.41184 A selection of third party content is redacted or is partially redacted from this thesis. COLLEGE NANME Psychology COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Doctoral Ph.D 2020-09-03T08:22:01.8064305 2018-07-30T12:58:32.6847499 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Andrew G. Thomas 0000-0001-5251-7923 1 0041184-30072018150156.pdf Thomas_Andrew_G_2015_Final_Redacted.pdf 2018-07-30T15:01:56.8830000 Output 6024425 application/pdf Redacted version - open access true 2018-07-30T00:00:00.0000000 A selection of third party content is redacted or is partially redacted from this thesis. true
title	On the Plasticity of Human Mating Strategies: Experimental Evidence for Mating Strategy Change in Response to Evolutionarily Relevant Stimuli
spellingShingle	On the Plasticity of Human Mating Strategies: Experimental Evidence for Mating Strategy Change in Response to Evolutionarily Relevant Stimuli Andrew G. Thomas
title_short	On the Plasticity of Human Mating Strategies: Experimental Evidence for Mating Strategy Change in Response to Evolutionarily Relevant Stimuli
title_full	On the Plasticity of Human Mating Strategies: Experimental Evidence for Mating Strategy Change in Response to Evolutionarily Relevant Stimuli
title_fullStr	On the Plasticity of Human Mating Strategies: Experimental Evidence for Mating Strategy Change in Response to Evolutionarily Relevant Stimuli
title_full_unstemmed	On the Plasticity of Human Mating Strategies: Experimental Evidence for Mating Strategy Change in Response to Evolutionarily Relevant Stimuli
title_sort	On the Plasticity of Human Mating Strategies: Experimental Evidence for Mating Strategy Change in Response to Evolutionarily Relevant Stimuli
author_id_str_mv	eeb1d105d3d196c7106cb384302af781
author_id_fullname_str_mv	eeb1d105d3d196c7106cb384302af781_***_Andrew G. Thomas
author	Andrew G. Thomas
author2	Andrew G. Thomas
format	E-Thesis
publishDate	2015
institution	Swansea University
doi_str_mv	10.23889/Suthesis.41184
college_str	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id	facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id	facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str	School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
document_store_str	1
active_str	0
description	Evolutionary psychological theory explains the large variance found in humanmating behaviour through the use of a mating strategies perspective. Specifically, both sexes have short-term and long-term mating strategies containing sets of evolved psychological adaptations which guide mating effort. Individuals vary in their mating behaviour due to the differential activation of these two strategies which are thought to be activated conditionally. That is, an individual is hypothesized to engage in a short- term mating strategy over a long-term one in circumstances where, ancestrally, a short- term strategy would have led to the best fitness outcome.Despite a large body of evidence for the existence of mating strategies in humans, evidence for the ability to conditionally switch between strategies is less robust. To date, such evidence is either in the form of correlational studies, or experimental studies which demonstrate changes to behaviours only partly related to mating strategies. The aim of this thesis was to fill the gap in this literature by demonstrating that participants can change their mating strategies in response to evolutionarily relevant stimuli. A novel measure of mating strategies was developed in order to capture a participants’ propensity towards short- and long-term mating before and after exposure to cues hypothesized to have affected the effectiveness of the two mating strategies in the ancestral environment. These included cues related to a skewed local sex-ratio, self-perceived dominance, and environmental danger. Of the ten experimental hypotheses tested, support (or partial support) was found for seven and the experimental effects were typically small-to-medium in size. Thus, moderate support was found that humans are flexible in their mating strategy implementation and respond to evolutionarily relevant cues, although it was concluded that marked changes in an individual’s environment would be required for any lasting effect on their matingbehaviour to occur.
published_date	2015-12-31T03:52:30Z
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score	11.036684

On the Plasticity of Human Mating Strategies: Experimental Evidence for Mating Strategy Change in Response to Evolutionarily Relevant Stimuli / Andrew G. Thomas

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