From vigilance to violence: Tactics of mate retention in American undergraduates

doi:10.1016/0162-3095(88)90010-6

Ethology and Sociobiology

Volume 9, Issue 5, September 1988, Pages 291-317

https://doi.org/10.1016/0162-3095(88)90010-6 Get rights and content

Abstract

Although the attraction and selection of mates are central to human reproduction, the retention of acquired mates is often necessary to actualize the promise of reproductive effort. Three empirical studies used act frequency methods to identify, assess the reported performance frequencies of, and evaluate the perceived effectiveness of 19 tactics and 104 acts of human mate guarding and retention. In Study 1 (N = 105), a hierarchical taxonomy of tactics was developed from a pool of nominated acts. We then assessed the reported performance frequencies of 19 retention tactics and 104 acts and tested three hypotheses derived from evolutionary models in an undergraduate sample (N = 102). Study 2 (N = 46) provided an independent test of these hypotheses by assessing the perceived effectiveness of each tactic. Discussion draws implications for sexual poaching, susceptibility to pair-bond defection, and the power of act frequency methods for preserving the proximate specificity and systemic complexity inherent in human mating processes.

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From vigilance to violence: Tactics of mate retention in American undergraduates

Abstract

Sociobiology and Behavior

Human mate selection

American Scientist

Can social science be anchored in evolutionary biology? Four problems and a strategic solution

Revue Européenne des Sciences Sociales

Sex differences in human mate selection criteria: An evolutionary perspective

The act frequency approach to personality

Psychological Review

Acts, dispositions and personality

Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests

Psychometrika

Sex, Evolution, and Behavior

The Selfish Gene

Mate selection in man: Evidence, theory, and outcome

Social Biology