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Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents

Andrew G. Thomas Orcid Logo, William Costello, Mons Bendixen, Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair, Menelaos Apostolou, Klára Bártová, Ondrej Burysek, Rob Lowe Orcid Logo, Peter Jonason, Marta Kowal, Yago Luksevicius de Moraes, Jiaqing O, Piotr Sorokowski, Danielle Sulikowski, Zuzana Štěrbová, Jaroslava Varella Valentova, Marco Antonio Correa Varella, Yan Wang, Arnaud Wisman, Paula Wright, Steve Stewart-Williams

Scientific Reports, Volume: 15, Start page: 27947

Swansea University Authors: Andrew G. Thomas Orcid Logo, William Costello, Ondrej Burysek, Rob Lowe Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1038/s41598-025-12607-1

Abstract

A prospective partner’s sexual history provides important information that can be used to minimise mating-related risks. Such information includes the number of past sexual partners, which has an inverse relationship with positive suitor evaluation. However, sexual encounters with new partners vary...

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Published in: Scientific Reports
ISSN: 2045-2322
Published: Springer Nature 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70091
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spelling 2025-09-12T11:14:40.7968697 v2 70091 2025-08-01 Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents eeb1d105d3d196c7106cb384302af781 0000-0001-5251-7923 Andrew G. Thomas Andrew G. Thomas true true e0d81929917163f850de7ea654435685 William Costello William Costello true false 9508f9ba5f8c35d5d2345788179398f4 Ondrej Burysek Ondrej Burysek true false 7ad109f9711b62759349755e005b7cb6 0000-0003-4067-4029 Rob Lowe Rob Lowe true false 2025-08-01 A prospective partner’s sexual history provides important information that can be used to minimise mating-related risks. Such information includes the number of past sexual partners, which has an inverse relationship with positive suitor evaluation. However, sexual encounters with new partners vary in frequency over time, providing an additional dimension of context not previously considered. Across three studies (N = 5,331) with 15 samples, we demonstrate that the impact of past partner number on a suitor’s desirability as a long-term partner varies as a function of distribution over time. Using graphical representations of a suitor’s sexual history, we found that past partner number effects were smaller when the frequency of new sexual encounters decreased over time. This moderation effect was stronger, and often curvilinear, when past partner numbers were higher. We replicated these findings in 11 countries from five world regions. Sex differences were minimal and inconsistent pointing to a lack of a sexual double standards. Sociosexuality (openness to casual sex) was a consistent moderator and tended to mute the sexual history effects. These findings suggest that people not only attend to a potential long-term mate’s quantity of sexual partners, but also the context surrounding these encounters such as pattern and timing. Together, the findings raise the possibility of an evolved mechanism for managing mating risks present in both sexes and across populations and adds nuance to a contentious topic of public interest. Journal Article Scientific Reports 15 27947 Springer Nature 2045-2322 Evolutionary psychology; Cross-cultural psychology; Sex; Mate preferences; Sociosexuality 31 7 2025 2025-07-31 10.1038/s41598-025-12607-1 COLLEGE NANME Psychology COLLEGE CODE Swansea University SU College/Department paid the OA fee Data collection in Poland was made possible by funding from the IDN Being Human Lab, University of Wrocław, Poland. Marta Kowal was supported by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) START scholarship. Marco Antonio Correa Varella and Yago Luksevicius de Moraes were funded by the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education at the time of data collection and Jaroslava Varella Valentova was funded by The Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (315952/2021-0). Andrew G. Thomas and Yan Wang were supported through internal departmental research funds from their institutions. Jiaqing O was supported by internal department funding from both Aberystwyth University and University of Macau at time of data collection. Danielle Sulikowski self-funded data collection for the Australian sample. William Costello was funded by the Student Research Development Award (SRDA) and the Best Student Manuscript Award from the International Academy of Sex Research. 2025-09-12T11:14:40.7968697 2025-08-01T12:03:03.1293827 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Andrew G. Thomas 0000-0001-5251-7923 1 William Costello 2 Mons Bendixen 3 Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair 4 Menelaos Apostolou 5 Klára Bártová 6 Ondrej Burysek 7 Rob Lowe 0000-0003-4067-4029 8 Peter Jonason 9 Marta Kowal 10 Yago Luksevicius de Moraes 11 Jiaqing O 12 Piotr Sorokowski 13 Danielle Sulikowski 14 Zuzana Štěrbová 15 Jaroslava Varella Valentova 16 Marco Antonio Correa Varella 17 Yan Wang 18 Arnaud Wisman 19 Paula Wright 20 Steve Stewart-Williams 21 70091__35080__fe5ba6034c364c34ae38c09430aa3f30.pdf 70091.VOR.pdf 2025-09-12T11:09:51.3355455 Output 2285644 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents
spellingShingle Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents
Andrew G. Thomas
William Costello
Ondrej Burysek
Rob Lowe
title_short Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents
title_full Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents
title_fullStr Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents
title_full_unstemmed Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents
title_sort Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents
author_id_str_mv eeb1d105d3d196c7106cb384302af781
e0d81929917163f850de7ea654435685
9508f9ba5f8c35d5d2345788179398f4
7ad109f9711b62759349755e005b7cb6
author_id_fullname_str_mv eeb1d105d3d196c7106cb384302af781_***_Andrew G. Thomas
e0d81929917163f850de7ea654435685_***_William Costello
9508f9ba5f8c35d5d2345788179398f4_***_Ondrej Burysek
7ad109f9711b62759349755e005b7cb6_***_Rob Lowe
author Andrew G. Thomas
William Costello
Ondrej Burysek
Rob Lowe
author2 Andrew G. Thomas
William Costello
Mons Bendixen
Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair
Menelaos Apostolou
Klára Bártová
Ondrej Burysek
Rob Lowe
Peter Jonason
Marta Kowal
Yago Luksevicius de Moraes
Jiaqing O
Piotr Sorokowski
Danielle Sulikowski
Zuzana Štěrbová
Jaroslava Varella Valentova
Marco Antonio Correa Varella
Yan Wang
Arnaud Wisman
Paula Wright
Steve Stewart-Williams
format Journal article
container_title Scientific Reports
container_volume 15
container_start_page 27947
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 2045-2322
doi_str_mv 10.1038/s41598-025-12607-1
publisher Springer Nature
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
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description A prospective partner’s sexual history provides important information that can be used to minimise mating-related risks. Such information includes the number of past sexual partners, which has an inverse relationship with positive suitor evaluation. However, sexual encounters with new partners vary in frequency over time, providing an additional dimension of context not previously considered. Across three studies (N = 5,331) with 15 samples, we demonstrate that the impact of past partner number on a suitor’s desirability as a long-term partner varies as a function of distribution over time. Using graphical representations of a suitor’s sexual history, we found that past partner number effects were smaller when the frequency of new sexual encounters decreased over time. This moderation effect was stronger, and often curvilinear, when past partner numbers were higher. We replicated these findings in 11 countries from five world regions. Sex differences were minimal and inconsistent pointing to a lack of a sexual double standards. Sociosexuality (openness to casual sex) was a consistent moderator and tended to mute the sexual history effects. These findings suggest that people not only attend to a potential long-term mate’s quantity of sexual partners, but also the context surrounding these encounters such as pattern and timing. Together, the findings raise the possibility of an evolved mechanism for managing mating risks present in both sexes and across populations and adds nuance to a contentious topic of public interest.
published_date 2025-07-31T12:35:56Z
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