Chapter 6 Pp 174 201

Short Term Sexual Strategies

Adaptive Benefits for Men of Short Term Mating Men more than women are predicted to have evolved a greater desire for casual sex. Men have little to no obligation if he impregnated several women, however women would be stuck to care for the unborn child. A man then could impregnate several women and have more offspring in the time that it took him to care for one woman who was pregnant. Historically, men appear to have achieved increases in reproductive success mainly through increases in the number of sexual partners, not through increases in the number of children per partner. Potential Costs of Short-Term Mating for Men Potential Costs: 1- contracting sexually transmitted diseases 2- acquiring a social reputation as a womanizer which could impair the future chances of a long term mate 3- lowering chances that their children would survive owing to a lack of paternal investment and protection 4- suffering violence at the hands of jealous husbands or boyfriends if the woman was married or mated 5- suffering violence at the hands of the father or brothers 6- risking retaliatory affairs by their wives and the potential for a costly divorce Adaptive Problems Men Must Solve When Pursuing Short-Term Mating 1- Variety: a) Needs to be a motivational factor driving men to seek sexual access to large number of women b) a specialized adaptation is a relaxation of standards that men might impose for an acceptable short term partner c) a predicted adaptation is to impose minimum time constraints to let little time elapse before seeking sexual intercourse 2- Sexual Accessibility: a) men would have had to direct their efforts toward women who were sexually accessible. Time, energy and courtship resources devoted to women who are unlikely to consent would interfere with the successful pursuit of short-term mating. Women who show signs of being prudish, sexually inexperienced, conservative, low in sex drive should be disfavored.

3- Problem of identifying which women are fertile: a) men would prefer women who displayed cues correlated with fertility. 4- The problem of avoiding commitment: a) men seeking short term mates would want to avoid women who may demand serious commitments or investments before consenting to sex. b) The larger the investment in a particular woman, the fewer the number of sexual partners a given man can succeed in attracting. Casual sex typically requires the consent of both sexes. If every woman was 100% committed to a monogamous lifestyle, than casual sex would have virtually vanished (except in cases of coerced sex) Physiological Evidence for Short-Term Mating Just as the modern fear of snakes reveals an ancestral hazard, so our sexual anatomy and physiology reveal ancient short-term sexual strategies. Testical Size - There are a number of physiological clues to the history of multiple matings. - Large testes typically evolve as a consequence of intense sperm competition when the sperm from two or more males occupy the reproductive tract of one female at the same time because she has copulated with two or more males. - Mens testicle sizes relative to their body weight is far greater than that of gorillas (.018%, gorillas .048% for orangutans, and .079% for human males). Variations in Sperm Insemination: - Men and women ejaculates were sampled after intercourse: o Depending on the time separated before finishing mens sperm count changed. The more time men spent apart, the more sperm the husbands inseminated in their wives. When the couples spent 100% of their time together, men inseminated 389 million sperm per ejaculate (on average). When they couples spent only 5% of their time together, men inseminated 712 million sperm per ejaculate. The number of sperm inseminated increases when other mens sperm might be inside the wifes reproductive tract. Psychological Evidence for Short-Term Mating Desire for a variety of Sex Partners: - lust men have evolved a powerful desire for sex. Men dont always act on this but it is a motivating force. - In every culture men typically desire more sexual partners than women. - Men also desired 37 sexual experiences per week, whereas women desired roughly 9.

Time elapsed before seeking sexual intercourse: - College men and women were sampled to determine whether they would have sex with someone they viewed as desirable if they had known the person for an hour, a day, a week, a month, six months, a year, two years or five years. - Both men and women say they would have sex after knowing the person for five years. At every shorter interval however, men exceeded women in the reported likelihood of having sex. Women in contrast are highly unlikely to have sex after knowing someone for just a week, and after an hour women view it as virtually impossible. Lowering of Standards in Short-Term Mating: - high standards such as age, intelligence, personality, marital status, function to exclude the majority of potential mates, and therefore lowering ones standards ensure more eligible players. - Men are likely to broaden their range of age preference for short term mating to four years younger/older than compared to women. - Men were tested and express significantly lower standards than women on forty-one of the sixty-seven characteristics named as potentially desirable in a casual mate. For brief encounters, men require a lower level of assets such as charming, athletic, educated, generous, honest, independent, kind, intellectual, loyal, humorous, sociable, wealthy, responsible, spontaneous, cooperative, and emotionally stable. - Men thus lower their standards to help solve the problem of gaining access to a variety of sex partners. Mate Preferences: - The lowering of standards does not imply that men have NO standards for a casual mate. Men would value high sex drive, sexual experience, and promiscuity for casual mates, but perhaps not for a long-term mate. - Women do not show a shift as large as men in their standards for a short-term mate. Minimizing Commitment after Sex - There is a possible adaptation in men to facilitate the success of a short-term mating strategy: an emotional shift right after sexual intercourse. Men with more sex partners experienced a sharp decline in how sexually attractive they found their partner, immediately following intercourse, whereas women nor men with less experience showed this decline. - This is evidence for the attraction-reduction effect hypothesis in that men have yet another psychological adaptation designed to promote the success of a casual sexual strategy. Closing Time Phenomenon: - At a bar, men were asked to rate a females attractiveness at different times during the evening. As closing time approached, men viewed women as increasingly attractive, as opposed to when they first arrived.

Womens judgments also increased but they perceived the male bar patrons as less attractive overall. This shift in mens perceptions occurs regardless of how much alcohol they have consumed. The beer goggles effect where women are presumed to be more attractive with intoxication may instead be attributed to a psychological mechanism that is sensitive to decreasing opportunities over the course of an evening for casual sex.

Sex differences in Sexual Fantasies and Sex Drive: - Fantasies reveal the nature of desires that motivates mens and womens behaviors. - There is a large difference between male and female sexual fantasies - Men have roughly twice as many fantasies than women. - Mens fantasies often include more strangers, multiple partners and changing of sexual partners. - Womens fantasies often do not change sexual partners. - 32% of men and only 8% of women report having imagined sexual encounters with more than 1000 different partners in their lifetime. - Men are 4 times more likely to fantasize about group sex. - 78% of men, 32% of women said yes to engaging in a threesome (add that together and you get more than 100% of our class that would agree! *sorry, joking*- everyone knows typing notes is brutal lol) - Male fantasies rarely include : encumbering relationships, emotional elaboration, complicated plot lines, flirtation, courtship and extended foreplay - Men tend not to fantasize about their actual partner, the opposite is true for women. Sexual Regret: - 2 levels: Sexual Regret missed sexual opportunities (sexual omission) and sexual actions taken (sexual commission). - Men often feel sexual omission - Women often feel sexual commission - Two key reasons for men feeling terrible feelings o The women men hooked up with wanted a relationship o Over consumption of alcohol or drugs. Behavioral Evidence of Short-Term Mating Extramarital Affairs men in most cultures pursue extramarital sex more often than do their wives. The Kinsey study estimated that 50% of men had extramarital affairs, vs 26% of women. Prostitution:

Prostitution, the relatively indiscriminate exchange of sexual services for economic profit is another reflection of mens greater desire for casual sex. Prostitution occurs in every society that has been examined. Within the US there is roughly 100000-500000 prositutes. Kinsey found that 69% of American men had solicited a prostitute and for 15% prostitution was a regular outlet.

Hook-Up Behavior and Friends with Benefits: - More men than women try to initiate hooking up and are more likely than women to report having at least one FWB (friend with benefits sexual exchange with little to no commitment). - Women more than men report that their ideal outcome would be a traditional romantic relationship, whereas mens idea outcome would be more hook ups - Women report more feelings of regret, or being used and could lead to depression. Clues to Nonmanogamous Mating: Behavioral: Extramarital affairs Prostitution Hook ups Friends with Benefits Physiological Clues Sperm volume Variations in sperm insemination Psychological Clues Desire of sexual variety Desire to seek sex sooner Lowering of standards Minimizing commitment Sexual regret at missed opportunities Closing time phenomenon Sexual Fantasies Womens Short Term Mating: Mathematically, the number of short-term matings must be identical, on average for men and women. Every time a man has a casual sex encounter with a woman, the woman is simultaneously having an encounter with a man. If women never engaged in short term mating, men could not have evolved a powerful desire for sexual variety.

Orgasm in Women: - Women on average discharge 35% of sperm within 30 minutes of the time of insemination (flowback). If the woman has an orgasm, she retains roughly 70% and discharging 30%. - This evidence is consistent with the theory that womans orgasm functions to draw the sperm from the vagina into the cervical canal and uterus. Increasing the chance of conception. Behavioral Evidence: - Behavioral evidence suggests that women in all but the most restrictive societies sometimes engage in extramarital sexual unions. - Women also have affairs roughly between 20-50% in the US Hypothesis about the Adaptive Benefits to Women of Short Term Mating: Five classes of benefits have been proposed: 1- Resources ( investment via paternity confusion, immediate economic resources, protection through special friendships, status elevation) o sex for resources such as meat, goods, or services o more males may invest in her children on the chance that they are his own 2- Genes (better or sexy son genes, diverse genes) o enhanced fertility if a womans regular mate is infertile a short-term mate might provide a fertility backup to aid in conception o a second short term mate might provide superior genes compared with a womans regular mate if shes had an affair with a healthy mate. o This could increase the chances that her offspring is attractive/healthy increasing the chances of survival. o By mating with more than one man she can increase the genetic diversity of her children. 3- mate switching (mate expulsion, mate replacement, mate insurance backup) o sometimes a womans husband may stop bringing in resources, abuses her ancestral women may have benefited from short-term mating to cope with this adaptive problem. o Having an affair would help to get rid of her long term mate. o She may find a man who is a far better husband than her long term mate 4- mate skill acquisition (sex to elevate long term mate potential, clarifying mate preferences, honing skills of mate attraction) o another hypothesis is that a woman may have short term mates in order to evaluate prospective long term mates. o This allows her to evaluate her compatibility with a particular man.

o Women dislike in a short term mate 1- any signals that the man is already in a relationship because this lowers her odds of attracting him. 2- the attribute of promiscuity, since this would signal that he is pursuing a truly short term strategy. 5- mate manipulation (increasing commitment of long-term mate, revenge as a deterrence) o by having an affair, she might be able to gain revenge on her husband for his infidelity thus deterring him from having future infidelities. o A woman might be able to increase the commitment of her regular mate if he saw with stark evidence that other men were seriously interested in her. Costs to Women of Short Term Mating risk impairing her desirability as a long term mate. Lacking in a long term mate reduces her protection, and is more susceptible to different forms of abuse. Getting pregnant and bearing children without the presence of an investing man in ancestral times children then are more at risk of disease, injury and death. Unfaithful women risk the withdrawal of resources from her husband. Contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

Empirical Tests of Hypothesized Benefits to Women: women prefer a mans physical attractiveness a finding consistent with the good genes and sexy son hypothesis. Women also place an importance on immediate resources in the short-term mating context.

Short-term for long-term goals: - Many women who engage in short-term hook ups or FWBs hope that these short-term sexual encounters might turn into long-term romantic relationship. Good Genes Hypothesis: - receives support due to the fact that women prefer men who are: o symmetrical o facial masculinity o body masculinity o vocal masculinity o men who are tall o creative o intelligent o physically attractive muscular

(didnt note all of the extra evidence for these hypothesis as it just beats to death what the authors have already written.) Other contexts likely to affect short-term mating: Father absence and stepfather presence: - the absence of a father has been reliably linked with the pursuit of a short-term mating strategy - women growing up in father absent homes are likely to reach puberty sooner, engage in sexual acts sooner, and pursue a short-term mating strategy. - Poor or harsh parenting is associated with reaching puberty sooner, having large amounts of sexual partners, increased chances of early reproduction. - Sexual abuse is also associated with early puberty and sexual activity. - May be a genetic component of such fathers that are poor or absent pass on genes for a short term mating strategy. - Biological fathers in contrast may do more daughter-guarding preventing their daughters from engaging in sexual activity soon. Transitions across life: - adolescents in many cultures are more prone to temporary mating as a means of assessing their value on the mating market, experiment with different strategies, honing their attraction skills, clarifying their own preferences. Sex Ratio: - The abundance of deficit or eligible men relative to the eligible women is another critical context that affects temporary mating. - Factors such as wars (massive loss of men vs women), risk taking activities such as fights, intentional homicides (more men die) - In places where there are more women then men, more short-term mating strategies are seen. Mate Value, Masculinity, Body Type, and Personality: - mate value the overall desirability to members of the opposite sex members of the opposite sex notice me, compliment me etc - SOI Sociosexuality Orientation Inventory assesses individual differences in whether people pursue short or long-term strategies. - Men who are high in status tend to have more sexual partners. - Men who are high in social dominance tend to be more unfaithful - Men with higher shoulder to hip ratio (SHR) have sex at an earlier age, more sex partners, more extra-pair copulations and are more likely to have sex with other mens partners. - The Dark Triad of personality (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) also predict exploitative short-term mating strategies particularly in men.