Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/10789
Appears in Collections:Psychology Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Do women really like taken men? Results from a large questionnaire study
Author(s): Vakirtzis, Antonios
Roberts, S Craig
Contact Email: craig.roberts@stir.ac.uk
Keywords: Nonindependent mate choice
mate choice copying
mate quality bias
questionnaire
sex differences
humans
Issue Date: Jan-2012
Date Deposited: 30-Jan-2013
Citation: Vakirtzis A & Roberts SC (2012) Do women really like taken men? Results from a large questionnaire study. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 6 (1), pp. 50-65. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0099225
Abstract: 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 influenced. In humans the study of this phenomenon has been almost exclusively experimental, with the perceived level of attractiveness of opposite-sex faces being influenced by manipulation of the attractiveness of their putative partner. As useful as these experimental studies are, the question of how validly they capture real-life social processes has not been addressed. Here we present the results of a questionnaire study which analyzed responses from 206 male and 175 female participants, both singles and people in a relationship. As predicted, paired men reported more opposite-sex interest than paired women, whereas the opposite was true for single respondents. Furthermore, the amount of opposite-sex interest reported by paired men correlated with the attractiveness of their partner, whereas this correlation between partner attractiveness and opposite-sex interest did not hold for female respondents. We suggest that this contrast is related to sex differences in benefits of nonindependent mate choice arising from sex-specific reproductive constraints. Our results are consistent with the kinds of effects recorded in laboratory studies, and provide evidence that non-independent mate choice plays at least some role in actual relationship dynamics.
DOI Link: 10.1037/h0099225
Rights: Publisher is open-access. Open access publishing allows free access to and distribution of published articles where the author retains copyright of their work by employing a Creative Commons attribution licence. Proper attribution of authorship and correct citation details should be given.
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

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