Mate Quality Bias: Sex Differences in Humans
@inproceedings{Vakirtzis2010MateQB, title={Mate Quality Bias: Sex Differences in Humans}, author={Antonios Vakirtzis and Susan C. Roberts}, year={2010} }
In mate choice copying, a male is more likely to be chosen by other females simply by being observed mating. A recent finding is that women are influenced in their assessments of men by the phenotypic quality of males' sexual partners. We recently proposed that the term ‘mate quality bias’ should be used to differentiate this phenomenon from ‘mate choice copying’. Here, under the guise of a dating preferences survey we replicated and extended some earlier results. We found that when presented…
21 Citations
Women’s Sensitivity to Men’s Past Relationships: Reliable Information Use for Mate-Choice Copying in Humans
- PsychologyEvolutionary Psychological Science
- 2021
Mate-choice copying is a phenomenon whereby females assess the mate quality of males based on the mating decisions of other females. Previous studies demonstrated that the presence of a partner…
Female mate copying explored: an inconsistent effect
- PsychologyCurrent Psychology
- 2020
Mate copying is a social phenomenon whereby individuals differentially evaluate opposite-sex others based on their relationship history. Here we report two studies that aimed to look at mate copying…
Female Mate Copying: Measuring the Effect of Mate-Relevant Information Provided by Former Partners
- Psychology
- 2020
One of the most important decisions an individual can make is to invest in a relationship. For women, the process of mate selection can be time-intensive, and fraught with costs and dangers. However,…
Mate Choice Copying in Humans: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
- Psychology, BiologyAdaptive Human Behavior and Physiology
- 2018
The authors' results provide clarification for documented sex differences (or lack thereof) in human MCC and discuss the importance of method consistency in studies that transfer ideas from non-human to human behavioral studies, highlighting replication issues in the light of the publication crisis in psychological science.
Nonindependent mate choice in humans
- Psychology
- 2012
Mate choice copying is the most studied type of nonindependent mate choice, i.e. mate choice that is influenced by the choices of other same-sex conspecifics (usually females). In copying, the…
Women Choosing Younger Men: Exploring Evolved Mate Preferences and Mate Choice Copying
- PsychologySexuality & Culture
- 2021
The present study explored the phenomenon of women choosing younger men—seemingly a violation of evolved mate preferences of males preferring young mates and females preferring resource-laden mates…
Women Choosing Younger Men: Exploring Evolved Mate Preferences and Mate Choice Copying
- PsychologySexuality & Culture
- 2021
The present study explored the phenomenon of women choosing younger men—seemingly a violation of evolved mate preferences of males preferring young mates and females preferring resource-laden mates…
Do women really like taken men? Results from a large questionnaire study.
- Psychology
- 2012
Nonindependent mate choice occurs when a female (focal female) is influenced in her mate choice by the choices of other females (model females), though sometimes male choice can be similarly…
Nonindependent mate choice: the first study with real-life couples in a Greek sample
- Psychology
- 2018
In humans, as in other species, nonindependent mate choice takes place when females are influenced in their mate choice by the choices of other females. Previous studies have used almost exclusively…
Human Nonindependent Mate Choice: Is Model Female Attractiveness Everything?
- PsychologyEvolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior
- 2012
It is found that the model female's attractiveness is the primary cue and there is no evidence that female raters prefer partners of slightly older model females, contrary to some earlier findings.
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 63 REFERENCES
Mate Choice Copying in Humans
- PsychologyHuman nature
- 2007
It is suggested that copying may be a conditional female mating tactic aimed at solving the problem of informational constraints on assessing male suitability for long-term sexual relationships, and that lack of mate choice experience is also an important determinant of copying.
Mate choice copying and mate quality bias: different processes, different species
- Biology
- 2009
It is shown that this type of nonindependent mate choice is characterized by distinct evolutionary dynamics and ecological requirements, will have usually evolved in different species, and must therefore be urgently distinguished from mate choice copying.
Male friends, not female company, make a man more attractive
- Psychology
- 2007
It is tested if male or female company affected the attractiveness of men in photos or influenced the respondent's willingness to date the men, and no indication of mate choice copying was found.
Independent Versus Nonindependent Mate Choice: Do Females Copy Each Other?
- PsychologyThe American Naturalist
- 1992
A gametheory model suggests that the adaptive significance of female copying may depend primarily on the ratio of the costs to the benefits of active mate choice.
Preference for older over younger models during mate-choice copying in young guppies
- Psychology
- 2005
This work presented an observer young female with information on the mate preferences of a younger and older model female simultaneously, and examined which model had a stronger effect on the subsequent mate choice of the observer.
Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures
- PsychologyBehavioral and Brain Sciences
- 1989
Abstract Contemporary mate preferences can provide important clues to human reproductive history. Little is known about which characteristics people value in potential mates. Five predictions were…
Sexual Selection and Imitation: Females Copy the Mate Choice of Others
- Biology, PsychologyThe American Naturalist
- 1992
Female copying behavior during mate choice in the Trinidadian guppy is examined, which shows that female mate copying behavior increases the variance in male reproductive success and thus the potential for sexual selection.
Costs and Benefits of Female Mate Choice: Is There a Lek Paradox?
- BiologyThe American Naturalist
- 1990
It is argued that, although females are expected to pay lower costs in noneconomic mating systems, this need not translate into examining fewer males or spending less time in this activity, and there may be no lek paradox.
Influences of social learning on mate-choice decisions
- Psychology, BiologyLearning & behavior
- 2004
Female quail gain preferences for males seen mating with other females, whereas males avoid females that they had observed mating withother males, which provides an example of how costs and benefits of sexual behavior can shape decision-making processes.
Female copying increases the variance in male mating success.
- BiologyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- 1990
It is shown that copying behavior by females is an adaptive alternative to random choice whenever there is a cost to mate choice and a statistical means of estimating the degree of female copying in natural populations where it occurs is developed.