Lecture on Mating Strategies and The National Student Survey

A set of vocabulary flashcards derived from lecture notes on mating strategies and the National Student Survey.

Parental Investment Theory

A theory by Robert Trivers explaining the investment conflict between mating and parenting.

It posits that the sex that invests more in offspring will be more selective in mate choice, while the sex that invests less will compete for access to the high-investing sex.

Trivers' theory helps explain patterns like:

• Courtship behaviors

• Male-male competition

• Female selectivity in partners

• Differences in long-term vs. short-term mating strategies

Sexual Selection

A process where individuals with certain traits are more likely to be chosen as mates.

• Intersexual Selection (mate choice):

  • Members of one sex (often females) choose mates based on traits like appearance, strength, or displays (e.g., peacocks' feathers).

• Intrasexual Selection (mate competition):

  • Members of the same sex (often males) compete with each other for access to mates (e.g., stags fighting).

🔹 Key Idea:
Traits favored by sexual selection may not always improve survival, but they boost reproductive success.

Inter-sexual selection

The preference of one sex for specific characteristics in potential mates.

Intra-sexual selection

Competition within one sex to secure mates.

Error Management Theory (Haselton & Buss, 2000)

A theory that predicts how misjudgments may evolve in mating contexts.

It suggests that individuals may take strategies that prioritise avoiding worst-case scenarios over making optimal decisions, leading to systematic biases in mate selection.

When faced with uncertain situations (like danger or mating), it's safer to make a "better safe than sorry" mistake, because the cost of missing a real threat or opportunity could be huge.

🔹 Examples:

• In danger:
  It's better to wrongly assume a noise is a predator (false positive) than ignore it and get attacked (false negative).

• In mating:
  Men may overestimate female interest (to avoid missing a mating chance), while women may underestimate male commitment (to avoid being deceived into risky mating).

Adaptive Problem

Challenges faced in selecting mates that influence reproductive success.

Adaptive problems involve assessing mate quality, competition, and preferences that can lead to successful reproduction.

If solving a problem helped an organism survive longer or reproduce more successfully, natural selection would favour traits (physical, behavioral, or psychological) that solved it.

🔹 Examples of Adaptive Problems:

• Finding enough food and water

• Avoiding predators

• Choosing healthy mates

• Raising offspring successfully

• Building alliances and social bonds

Sperm

The male gamete, produced in large quantities, typically lacking parental investment.

Gamete size

Refers to the difference in size between sperm (small) and egg (large).

Altricial vs Precocial

Refers to the developmental stages of offspring; altricial are less developed at birth while precocial are more developed.

Altricial (humans, puppies, song birds) species require extensive care after birth, while precocial (ducks, deer horses) species are more independent and can walk or feed themselves shortly after.

Female Mating Strategies

Refers to how women may select mates based on various factors like resources and health to maximise reproductive success.

• Selecting high-quality mates:
  Choosing partners with good genes, health, resources, or social status.

• Long-term mating:
  Preferring mates who offer commitment, protection, and resources to help raise offspring.

• Short-term mating (in some contexts):
  Sometimes females may seek genetic benefits from short-term partners, like healthier or more genetically diverse offspring.

• Mate switching:
  Leaving a current mate if a better-quality mate becomes available (adaptive if it improves survival of offspring).

🔹 Key Factors Females Prioritize:

• Resource access

• Protection

• Parental investment

• Genetic fitness (e.g., physical health, good traits)

Symmetry

A trait often associated with attractiveness and health; preferred in mate selection.

Health as a mating criterion

The concept that physical health and attractiveness can indicate genetic fitness.

The 'Good Genes' hypothesis

Suggests that women might seek mates with high genetic quality to ensure healthy offspring.

• Traits like symmetry, clear skin, physical strength, or bright feathers (in animals) are cues that the individual has strong genes.

• Choosing a mate with "good genes" can boost an offspring’s survival, attractiveness, and future reproductive success.

🔹 Examples:

• In humans, people often find symmetrical, healthy-looking faces more attractive.

• In peacocks, females prefer males with larger, more colorful tails — a sign of vitality and resistance to disease.

Masculinity

Traits associated with males that are often preferred by females during fertile phases.

Mate Switching Hypothesis

The idea that individuals may leave one mating partner for another if benefits outweigh costs.

🔹 Key ideas:

• Trigger reasons:

  • Partner’s declining status, resources, or health

  • Partner's infidelity or abuse

  • Encountering a mate with better genetic or resource benefits

• Benefits of switching:

  • Access to better protection, support, or parenting

  • Improved genetic quality for future offspring

  • Escape from a harmful or unproductive relationship

🔹 Evolutionary logic:
Mate switching could have helped individuals maximise their reproductive success in environments where loyalty to a bad mate was too costly.

Social Dominance

A trait wherein individuals gain status and resources through positions of power in social contexts.

Key ideas:

• Dominant individuals often have better reproductive opportunities and more social influence.

• Dominance hierarchies (rank orders within groups) are common in humans and animals (like wolves, primates, chickens).

• Dominance can be achieved through strength, intelligence, alliances, or social skills, not just aggression.

🔹 Benefits of dominance:

• Greater access to mates

• More control over group decisions

• Better protection and resources

• Higher chances of survival and reproductive success

Evolutionary Psychology

A field studying how evolutionary principles affect human behavior.

Parental stability

Consistency and support from parents that is attractive in potential partners.

Key ideas:

• Stable parental relationships improve offspring survival, emotional development, and access to resources.

• In evolutionary terms, stable partnerships (especially with invested fathers) helped ensure that children were fed, protected, and taught important survival skills.

• Instability (like frequent mate switching or abandonment) can negatively impact a child’s physical and psychological well-being.

🔹 Evolutionary importance:

• Parental stability increases reproductive success by helping more offspring survive to adulthood and reproduce themselves.

Compatibility in Mating

Choosing mates based on shared values, personality traits, and health factors.

This strategy enhances relationship satisfaction and increases the likelihood of long-term partnership stability.

Mate choice copying

Refers to the tendency to prefer individuals that others find attractive.

• Seeing that someone is desired by others can signal they have good traits (like health, status, or attractiveness) without needing to assess them personally.

• This behavior saves time and energy when choosing a mate.

• It’s observed in both humans and animals (like birds, fish, and mammals).

🔹 Example:

• A woman might find a man more attractive if she sees other women are interested in him.

• In guppies, females prefer males that are seen courting other females.

Cultural Influence on Mating

How societal norms and expectations impact individual mating choices.

Key ideas:

• Mate preferences (like valuing wealth, beauty, kindness) can vary across cultures based on social norms, economy, and traditions.

• Marriage customs (like arranged marriages vs. love marriages) strongly influence how mates are chosen.

• In collectivist cultures (e.g., Japan, India), family approval and group harmony often matter more.

• In individualist cultures (e.g., USA, UK), personal attraction and individual choice are emphasized.

🔹 Examples:

• Some cultures value chastity highly, others do not.

• In environments where resources are scarce, traits like financial security become especially important.

Sexual Strategies Theory

Proposes that men and women have different strategies to pursue mating based on evolution.

Key ideas:

• Women tend to be more selective because reproduction (pregnancy, childcare) is costly and requires long-term investment.

• Men can increase reproductive success through both short-term and long-term strategies — sometimes favoring quantity (more partners) and sometimes quality (high-investment, stable mates).

🔹 Typical strategies:

• Women prioritize traits like resources, commitment, protection, and good genes.

• Men may prioritize youth, fertility cues, and physical attractiveness (linked to reproductive health).

🔹 Flexibility:
Strategies change depending on:

• Personal circumstances (age, attractiveness, resources)

• Environmental factors (e.g., danger, resources, cultural expectations)

Concealed Ovulation

The phenomenon where female ovulation is not visibly apparent, affecting mating strategies.

Key ideas:

• Humans do not exhibit observable signs of ovulation, such as changes in body color or swelling (like in some primates).

• This is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation that may have evolved to encourage pair bonding and long-term male investment in offspring.

• Concealing ovulation might have helped avoid male competition for mates and promoted male commitment to the female over time.

🔹 Hypotheses:

• It encourages males to stay invested in the relationship and not just mate for short-term reproductive success.

• It may have also led to increased paternal care since males cannot "tell" when females are most fertile.

Female Short-Term Mating Strategies

Methods women might use to pursue short-term relationships, potentially influenced by context.

🔹 Key ideas:

• While long-term mating strategies (seeking committed partners) are often about finding resources and protection, short-term strategies may serve different purposes.

• Short-term mating can provide genetic benefits (e.g., mating with a male who has superior traits) or immediate resources (e.g., status or gifts from the partner).

🔹 Benefits of Short-Term Mating for Women:

1. Genetic variety: Women might seek mates who have different genetic advantages, improving offspring’s genetic diversity.

2. Mate switching: A woman might engage in short-term encounters with higher-status men while remaining in a long-term relationship with another.

3. Coping with mate deficits: If a long-term partner is not meeting her needs (emotionally, financially, sexually), she might seek short-term encounters for extra resources or satisfaction.

🔹 Traits women may seek in short-term mates:

• Good genes (physical attractiveness, health, genetic diversity)

• Status (high social position or resources)

• Dominance or confidence

Resources as a priority in Mating

The emphasis women place on potential partners' financial and social status.

🔹 Key ideas:

• Resources can include money, social status, physical protection, food, and parental investment.

• For females, especially in species where parental investment is high (like humans), selecting a mate with access to resources ensures that they can care for and protect their offspring.

• In many cultures and societies, financial stability and career success are valued in potential mates for their ability to provide shelter, food, and security.

🔹 Why Resources Matter in Mating:

• In long-term relationships, the resources a partner offers can be critical to the well-being of offspring (e.g., shelter, food, protection).

• Women might seek partners with high social status or income because it can signal ability to provide and a stable environment for raising children.

Short-term mating

Engaging in mating encounters with less emotional investment and future commitment.

Key ideas:

• Short-term mating can be driven by desire for genetic variety, sexual desire, or immediate rewards (e.g., attention, status).

• It contrasts with long-term mating strategies, where the focus is on committed partnerships that provide resources, emotional support, and parental care.

• Short-term mating is more likely to occur when individuals prioritize immediate satisfaction over long-term stability or reproduction.

🔹 Why engage in short-term mating?

• Genetic benefits: Females might seek genetically superior mates who offer desirable traits (e.g., attractiveness, genetic diversity) for a brief encounter, improving offspring quality.

• Variety and novelty: Some individuals (especially males) might pursue short-term mating simply for variety and novelty.

• Mate switching: If an individual is not fully satisfied with a long-term mate (e.g., lack of emotional fulfillment or resources), they may pursue short-term mates to satisfy their needs.

FFC (Female Fertility Cycle)

The cycling nature of female fertility impacting mate preferences.

• During ovulation, women may prefer more masculine, physically dominant men, whose traits signal strong genetic material.

• During non-fertile periods, women may find more nurturing, reliable men appealing, indicating a preference for partner investment and support.

Height in mate selection

A factor where taller stature is often preferred due to perceived advantages.

Height can influence perceptions of dominance, health, and genetic fitness, leading many individuals to favor taller partners in mate selection.

Lactation

The process of feeding an infant, a significant investment from women.

It involves the production of milk by the mammary glands and provides essential nutrients for the growth and development of the infant.

Lactation also promotes bonding between the mother and child and can have long-term health benefits for both.

It is influenced by hormonal changes after childbirth and can vary in duration and frequency based on the infant's needs.

Social Proof in Mating

The tendency to desire individuals that others also find attractive.

This phenomenon can influence mate selection, as people often perceive popular or socially validated partners as more desirable.

Sexual strategies in evolutionary context

How mating behaviours have evolved to maximise reproductive success.

These strategies often reflect the trade-offs individuals face when choosing mates, including mate selection, competition, and parental investment.

Olfactory Preferences

The use of scent, particularly masculine scent, as a mate selection criterion.

• People are often more attracted to the body odor of individuals with different MHC genes than their own, which is thought to enhance genetic diversity and improve the immune system of offspring.

• This preference can be detected through smell — people tend to find the scent of genetically dissimilar individuals more pleasant, which may lead to healthier offspring.

MHC (Major Histocompatibility Complex)

Genetic factors that influence mate choice based on immune system compatibility.

MHC refers to a group of genes that play a crucial role in the immune system, where individuals may prefer mates with different MHC alleles to enhance offspring immune diversity.

Menstrual Cycle Effects on Attraction

The fluctuation of women’s preferences for certain male characteristics based on their cycle.

Cultural systems in Mating

Different societal frameworks influencing mating and relationship behaviors.

Pheromones

Chemical signals used in social and sexual communication between individuals.

Multiple Partner Preferences

The tendency of women to seek out various partners for different benefits.

Evolutionary Adaptedness

Traits that have evolved in relation to survival and reproduction needs.

Fertility Signaling

Traits or behaviors that indicate a woman's ability to reproduce successfully.

Fertility signaling involves subtle physical, behavioral, and even vocal changes that unconsciously advertise reproductive readiness, making individuals more attractive to potential mates at the time when conception is most likely.

Media Influence on Beauty Standards

The impact of media portrayals on societal expectations of attractiveness.

This can shape individuals' self-esteem and behaviors regarding appearance, often leading to unrealistic body images.

Fear of Violence in Infidelity

Concerns women have regarding potential violence from partners during infidelity situations.

Social Status Indicators

Characteristics that reflect a person's social standing and influence mate choice.

Commitment in Relationships

The level of dedication and exclusivity expected in romantic partnerships.

Parental Investment Conflict

The tension between investing in offspring versus mating efforts.

Long-term vs Short-term Mating Strategies

Different approaches individuals employ based on their mating goals.

Positive Interactions with Children

The importance of parental engagement for developing a healthy bond.

Cues for Resource Availability

Indicators that suggest a partner can provide for future offspring.

Variation in Male Investment

Differences in how male partners may participate in child-rearing duties.