scholarly journals Contrasting Computational Models of Mate Preference Integration Across 45 Countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Conroy-Beam ◽  
David M. Buss ◽  
Kelly Asao ◽  
Agnieszka Sorokowska ◽  
Piotr Sorokowski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Computational Models ◽  
Computational Design ◽  
Romantic Partners ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Mate Preference ◽  
Mate Value ◽  
The World ◽  
Power Of Choice ◽  
Mating Psychology ◽  
Human Mating

AbstractHumans express a wide array of ideal mate preferences. Around the world, people desire romantic partners who are intelligent, healthy, kind, physically attractive, wealthy, and more. In order for these ideal preferences to guide the choice of actual romantic partners, human mating psychology must possess a means to integrate information across these many preference dimensions into summaries of the overall mate value of their potential mates. Here we explore the computational design of this mate preference integration process using a large sample of n = 14,487 people from 45 countries around the world. We combine this large cross-cultural sample with agent-based models to compare eight hypothesized models of human mating markets. Across cultures, people higher in mate value appear to experience greater power of choice on the mating market in that they set higher ideal standards, better fulfill their preferences in choice, and pair with higher mate value partners. Furthermore, we find that this cross-culturally universal pattern of mate choice is most consistent with a Euclidean model of mate preference integration.

Euclidean Mate Value and Power of Choice on the Mating Market

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Conroy-Beam
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Computational Design ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Euclidean Algorithm ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mate Value ◽  
Ideal Standards ◽  
Power Of Choice ◽  
Mating Psychology ◽  
Human Mating

Three studies tested the hypothesis that human mate choice psychology uses a Euclidean algorithm to integrate mate preferences into estimates of mate value. In Study 1, a series of agent-based models identify a pattern of results relatively unique to mating markets where individuals high in Euclidean mate value experience greater power of choice: strong preference fulfillment overall and correlations between mate value and (a) preference fulfillment, (b) ideal standards, and (c) partner mate value. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that this pattern of results that emerges in human romantic relationships, is specific to mate value as a long-term partner, and is not accounted for by participant biases. These results suggest that human mate choice psychology uses a Euclidean algorithm to integrate mate preferences in mate choice, providing insight into the computational design of human mating psychology and validating this algorithm as a useful tool for future research.

scholarly journals Sex differences in human mate preferences vary across sex ratios

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1955) ◽  
pp. 20211115
Author(s):  
Kathryn V. Walter ◽  
Daniel Conroy-Beam ◽  
David M. Buss ◽  
Kelly Asao ◽  
Agnieszka Sorokowska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Divorce Rates ◽  
Power Of Choice ◽  
Human Mating ◽  
The Relationship

A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attention has been directed towards the relationship between sex ratio and mate preferences, despite the importance of mate preferences in the human mating literature. To address this gap, we examined sex ratio's relationship to the variation in preferences for attractiveness, resources, kindness, intelligence and health in a long-term mate across 45 countries ( n = 14 487). We predicted that mate preferences would vary according to relative power of choice on the mating market, with increased power derived from having relatively few competitors and numerous potential mates. We found that each sex tended to report more demanding preferences for attractiveness and resources where the opposite sex was abundant, compared to where the opposite sex was scarce. This pattern dovetails with those found for mating strategies in humans and mate preferences across species, highlighting the importance of sex ratio for understanding variation in human mate preferences.

The Influence of Women’s Mate Value on Intrasexual Competition

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryanne L. Fisher ◽  
Ana María Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Intrasexual Competition ◽  
Romantic Partners ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
Mate Value ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Self Assessments ◽  
Mating Market

In order to engage in assortative mating, people must be accurate in self-assessments of their current worth on the mating market. We argue that people intrinsically know their worth (i.e., mate value), and that this knowledge has far-reaching implications on a variety of behaviors and decisions. Here our focus is on women’s mate value and how it relates to their intrasexual competition for access to, and retention of, romantic partners. We start with a review of definitions and the components of female mate value, discuss mate preferences in relation to assessment of mate value, and then briefly provide a sample of some auxiliary issues, such as how feelings of control over mate value influence one’s well-being. We then turn to female intrasexual competition and specifically review competitive strategy use in relation to mate value. In the last section, we provide areas for further investigation.

scholarly journals Mate Preferences and Their Behavioral Manifestations

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Buss ◽  
David P. Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Life History Strategy ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Causal Process ◽  
Sexual Strategies ◽  
Sexual Regret ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Mating Psychology ◽  
Human Mating ◽  
The Impact

Evolved mate preferences comprise a central causal process in Darwin's theory of sexual selection. Their powerful influences have been documented in all sexually reproducing species, including in sexual strategies in humans. This article reviews the science of human mate preferences and their myriad behavioral manifestations. We discuss sex differences and sex similarities in human sexual psychology, which vary according to short-term and long-term mating contexts. We review context-specific shifts in mating strategy depending on individual, social, and ecological qualities such as mate value, life history strategy, sex ratio, gender economic inequality, and cultural norms. We review the empirical evidence for the impact of mate preferences on actual mating decisions. Mate preferences also dramatically influence tactics of mate attraction, tactics of mate retention, patterns of deception, causes of sexual regret, attraction to cues to sexual exploitability, attraction to cues to fertility, attraction to cues to resources and protection, derogation of competitors, causes of breakups, and patterns of remarriage. We conclude by articulating unresolved issues and offer a future agenda for the science of human mating, including how humans invent novel cultural technologies to better implement ancient sexual strategies and how cultural evolution may be dramatically influencing our evolved mating psychology.

Performance in video games affects self-perceived mate value and mate preferences.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael M. Kasumovic ◽  
Elisabeth Hatcher ◽  
Khandis R. Blake ◽  
Thomas F. Denson
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Mate Value

Who gets mad and who feels bad? Mate value discrepancies predict anger and shame in response to transgressions in romantic relationships

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (10) ◽  
pp. 2963-2982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cari D. Goetz ◽  
Nestor M. Maria
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Relationship Satisfaction ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Mate Value ◽  
Committed Relationships ◽  
Relational Transgressions ◽  
Medium Level ◽  
Theories Of Emotions

Mate value discrepancies (MVDs) predict multiple outcomes in romantic relationships, including relationship satisfaction, jealousy, and forgiveness. We tested the hypotheses that MVDs would predict anger and shame in response to both medium and strong transgressions within romantic relationships. Participants in long-term committed relationships read scenarios describing relational transgressions and rated how much anger and shame they would feel if they were either the victim or the perpetrator of the transgressions in their current relationship. We found partial support for our hypotheses. Victims of medium-level transgressions were angrier the more alternative potential mates there were that were closer to their ideal mate preferences than their current partner. Perpetrators of strong transgressions felt more shame the higher in mate value their partner was compared to them. Results suggest that different MVDs may predict different outcomes in relationships and highlight the importance of using functional theories of emotions to predict individual differences in emotional responses.

scholarly journals The Environment Is Not A System

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-165
Author(s):  
Tega Brain
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Rapid Climate Change ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of Ecology ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Control ◽  
Systems View ◽  
Manipulation And Control

This paper considers some of the limitations and possibilities of computational models in the context of environmental inquiry, specifically exploring the modes of knowledge production that it mobilizes. Historic computational attempts to model, simulate and make predictions about environmental assemblages, both emerge from and reinforce a systems view on the world. The word eco-system itself stands as a reminder that the history of ecology is enmeshed with systems theory and presup-poses that species entanglements are operational or functional. More surreptitiously, a systematic view of the environment connotes it as bounded, knowable and made up of components operating in chains of cause and effect. This framing strongly invokes possibilities of manipulation and control and implicitly asks: what should an ecosystem be optimized for? This question is particularly relevant at a time of rapid climate change, mass extinction and, conveniently, an unprecedented surplus of computing.

scholarly journals Primary Cognitive Categories Are Determined by Their Invariances

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Gärdenfors
Keyword(s):  
Computational Models ◽  
External World ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Sensory Signals ◽  
The World

The world as we perceive it is structured into objects, actions and places that form parts of events. In this article, my aim is to explain why these categories are cognitively primary. From an empiricist and evolutionary standpoint, it is argued that the reduction of the complexity of sensory signals is based on the brain's capacity to identify various types of invariances that are evolutionarily relevant for the activities of the organism. The first aim of the article is to explain why places, object and actions are primary cognitive categories in our constructions of the external world. It is shown that the invariances that determine these categories have their separate characteristics and that they are, by and large, independent of each other. This separation is supported by what is known about the neural mechanisms. The second aim is to show that the category of events can be analyzed as being constituted of the primary categories. The category of numbers is briefly discussed. Some implications for computational models of the categories are also presented.

Sweet savage love: FA, BO, and SES in the EEA

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 604-605
Author(s):  
Edward H. Hagen ◽  
Nicole Hess
Keyword(s):  
Fluctuating Asymmetry ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Mate Value ◽  
Good Case ◽  
Male Investment ◽  
Financial Variables ◽  
Male Mate ◽  
Human Mating

Proxies of mate value must be evolutionarily salient. Gangestad & Simpson (G&S) have made a good case that fluctuating asymmetry is an important proxy of male mate value that correlates well with genetic and developmental quality. The use of financial variables as proxies for male investment ability by Gangestad, Simpson, and virtually every other investigator of human mating in evolutionary perspective, is, however, more problematic.

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