Psychological foundations of human status allocation.

Competing theories of status allocation posit divergent conceptual foundations upon which human status hierarchies are built. We argue that the three prominent theories of status allocation-competence-based models, conflict-based models, and dual-pathway models-can be distinguished by the importance that they place on four key affordance dimensions: benefit-generation ability, benefit-generation willingness, cost-infliction ability, and cost-infliction willingness. In the current study, we test competing theoretical predictions about the relative centrality of each affordance dimension to clarify the foundations of human status allocation. We examined the extent to which American raters' (n = 515) perceptions of the benefit-generation and cost-infliction affordances of 240 personal characteristics predict the status impacts of those same personal characteristics as determined by separate groups of raters (n = 2,751) across 14 nations. Benefit-generation and cost-infliction affordances were both positively associated with status allocation at the zero-order level. However, the unique effects of benefit-generation affordances explained most of the variance in status allocation when competing with cost-infliction affordances, whereas cost-infliction affordances were weak or null predictors. This finding suggests that inflicting costs without generating benefits does not reliably increase status in the minds of others among established human groups around the world. Overall, the findings bolster competence-based theories of status allocation but offer little support for conflict-based and dual-pathway models.

The pandemic exposes human nature: 10 evolutionary insights.

Humans and viruses have been coevolving for millennia. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19) has been particularly successful in evading our evolved defenses. The outcome has been tragic-across the globe, millions have been sickened and hundreds of thousands have died. Moreover, the quarantine has radically changed the structure of our lives, with devastating social and economic consequences that are likely to unfold for years. An evolutionary perspective can help us understand the progression and consequences of the pandemic. Here, a diverse group of scientists, with expertise from evolutionary medicine to cultural evolution, provide insights about the pandemic and its aftermath. At the most granular level, we consider how viruses might affect social behavior, and how quarantine, ironically, could make us susceptible to other maladies, due to a lack of microbial exposure. At the psychological level, we describe the ways in which the pandemic can affect mating behavior, cooperation (or the lack thereof), and gender norms, and how we can use disgust to better activate native "behavioral immunity" to combat disease spread. At the cultural level, we describe shifting cultural norms and how we might harness them to better combat disease and the negative social consequences of the pandemic. These insights can be used to craft solutions to problems produced by the pandemic and to lay the groundwork for a scientific agenda to capture and understand what has become, in effect, a worldwide social experiment.

Niche Diversity Predicts Personality Structure Across 115 Nations.

The niche-diversity hypothesis proposes that personality structure arises from the affordances of unique trait combinations within a society. It predicts that personality traits will be both more variable and differentiated in populations with more distinct social and ecological niches. Prior tests of this hypothesis in 55 nations suffered from potential confounds associated with differences in the measurement properties of personality scales across groups. Using psychometric methods for the approximation of cross-national measurement invariance, we tested the niche-diversity hypothesis in a sample of 115 nations (N = 685,089). We found that an index of niche diversity was robustly associated with lower intertrait covariance and greater personality dimensionality across nations but was not consistently related to trait variances. These findings generally bolster the core of the niche-diversity hypothesis, demonstrating the contingency of human personality structure on socioecological contexts.

Why Hungarians Have Sex (YSEX?-HSF).

Using the same methodology as Meston and Buss (2007), three studies were conducted on a Hungarian sample (total N = 4913) which corroborate previous findings on the universal diversity of sexual motivation. Study 1 (N = 2728; 1069 women and 1659 men) identified 197 reasons for having sex based on participants' free responses. In Study 2 (N = 1161; 820 women and 341 men), participants indicated the extent to which each of the 197 reasons had led them to have sexual intercourse. Factor analyses yielded three factors and 24 subfactors. This differed from the original YSEX? four-factor questionnaire. In Study 3 (N = 1024; 578 women and 446 men), a reliable and valid 73-item short form version of the YSEX? questionnaire was developed in a Hungarian sample (YSEX?-HSF). In addition to similarities and differences in the factor structure, we found important links between reasons for having sex and age, gender, personality, and mating strategy. For example, number of reasons for having sex tended be higher in younger compared to older participants. Men exceeded women on having sex for novelty-seeking and infidelity opportunities, whereas women exceeded men on having sex for relationship commitment and mate retention. Extraversion and neuroticism were linked with reasons for having sex, and those who pursued a short-term mating strategy reported having sex for a larger variety of reasons.

Why Hungarians Have Sex: Development and Validation of a Brief 15-Item Instrument (YSEX?-15H).

The present study developed a brief version of the Hungarian Why Sex? questionnaire (Meskó et al., 2022). The study was in part based on previously reported data obtained from several samples (N = 6193; 1976 men, 4217 women). Using Mokken Scaling Procedure, Item Response Model and redundancy analysis indicated that retaining three summary scales comprising five items each was the optimal solution for the brief version. The validity of the brief scale was tested with the Sexual System Functioning Scale (SSFS), the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-Short Form (ECR-S) and, the Hungarian version of the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ-H; n = 297, 127 men, 170 women). In addition, correlations between the long and brief versions of YSEX? with sociosexual orientation (SOI-R) and the five-factor personality construct (BFI-S) were compared (n = 1024, 578 women, 446 men). The results suggest that the three summary scales of the Hungarian 15-item Form of the Why Sex Questionnaire (YSEX?-15H) provide reliable and valid measures of the previously affirmed three broad sexual motives (Personal Goal Attainment, Relational Reasons, Sex as Coping). The Relational Reasons summary scale was associated with secure emotional and sexual attachment. The Personal Goal Attainment and Sex as Coping summary scales showed coherent patterns of associations with the emotional and sexual aspects of secondary attachment strategies (over- and under-functioning). The YSEX?-15H offers both researchers and practitioners a concise and useful instrument for the assessment of sexual motivation.

Toward a more domain-specific conceptualization of female traits: A commentary on Benenson et al. (2022).

Benenson et al. (2022) amass impressive evidence of robust sex differences as support for expanding "staying alive" theory. We argue for a broader and more domain-specific conceptualization focusing on life history tradeoffs between survival and mating success. Using three examples - women's disgust, fear of rape, and cultivation of bodyguards - we illustrate these tradeoffs and suggest a broader theoretical framework.

Sex differences in human mate preferences vary across sex ratios.

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.

Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Across 45 Countries: A Large-Scale Replication.

Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives-an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective-offer alternative explanations for these findings. However, the original data on which each perspective relies are decades old, and the literature is fraught with conflicting methods, analyses, results, and conclusions. Using a new 45-country sample (N = 14,399), we attempted to replicate classic studies and test both the evolutionary and biosocial role perspectives. Support for universal sex differences in preferences remains robust: Men, more than women, prefer attractive, young mates, and women, more than men, prefer older mates with financial prospects. Cross-culturally, both sexes have mates closer to their own ages as gender equality increases. Beyond age of partner, neither pathogen prevalence nor gender equality robustly predicted sex differences or preferences across countries.

Why Humans Have Sex: Development and Psychometric Assessment of a Short-Form Version of the YSEX? Instrument.

Research has documented 237 distinct reasons for engaging in sex, which have been clustered into the 141-item, 13 subscale YSEX? instrument. Although the YSEX? has impressive psychometric properties, the required completion time is a barrier to its use in time-constrained contexts. The current studies develop and validate a short-form version of the instrument. The new 28-item, 14 subscale YSEX?-SF demonstrates acceptable model fit and good internal-reliability, with evidence for cross-form and construct validity. The YSEX?-SF maintains the original instrument's sound psychometric properties with a significantly shorter completion time, which may facilitate the study of sexual motivation.

Mate Preferences and Their Behavioral Manifestations.

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.

Mating strategy, disgust, and food neophobia.

Food neophobia and disgust are commonly thought to be linked, but this hypothesis is typically implicitly assumed rather than directly tested. Evidence for the connection has been based on conceptually and empirically unsound measures of disgust, unpublished research, and indirect findings. This study (N = 283) provides the first direct evidence of a relationship between trait-level food neophobia and trait-level pathogen disgust. Unexpectedly, we also found that food neophobia varies as a function of sexual disgust and is linked to mating strategy. Using an evolutionary framework, we propose a novel hypothesis that may account for these previously undiscovered findings: the food neophilia as mating display hypothesis. Our discussion centers on future research directions for discriminatively testing this novel hypothesis.

Women's perceptions of sexual exploitability cues and their link to sexual attractiveness.

Two studies examined women's perception of the relationship between sexual exploitability and sexual attractiveness and women's use of cues to sexual exploitability to signal sexual accessibility. Study 1 (N = 77) found that women accurately assessed other women displaying cues to sexual exploitability both as sexually exploitable and sexually attractive to men. Study 2 (N = 74) tested the predictions that women who were dispositionally inclined toward short-term mating, who were not in a committed relationship, and who perceived themselves to be low in mate value would be more likely to display cues to sexual exploitability as a mate attraction tactic. Results supported the first prediction. These results suggest that a subset of women, those dispositionally inclined toward a short-term mating strategy, employ the risky strategy of signaling sexual accessibility using cues to exploitability to advance their mating goals.

A deeper integration of Selfish Goal Theory and modern evolutionary psychology.

Conceptually integrating Selfish Goal Theory with modern evolutionary psychology amplifies theoretical power. Inconsistency, a key principle of Selfish Goal Theory, illustrates this insight. Conflicting goals of seeking sexual variety and successful mate retention furnish one example. Siblings have evolved goals to cooperate and compete, a second example. Integrating Selfish Goal Theory with evolutionary theory can explain much inconsistent goal-directed behavior.

Sexual regret: evidence for evolved sex differences.

Regret and anticipated regret enhance decision quality by helping people avoid making and repeating mistakes. Some of people's most intense regrets concern sexual decisions. We hypothesized evolved sex differences in women's and men's experiences of sexual regret. Because of women's higher obligatory costs of reproduction throughout evolutionary history, we hypothesized that sexual actions, particularly those involving casual sex, would be regretted more intensely by women than by men. In contrast, because missed sexual opportunities historically carried higher reproductive fitness costs for men than for women, we hypothesized that poorly chosen sexual inactions would be regretted more by men than by women. Across three studies (Ns = 200, 395, and 24,230), we tested these hypotheses using free responses, written scenarios, detailed checklists, and Internet sampling to achieve participant diversity, including diversity in sexual orientation. Across all data sources, results supported predicted psychological sex differences and these differences were localized in casual sex contexts. These findings are consistent with the notion that the psychology of sexual regret was shaped by recurrent sex differences in selection pressures operating over deep time.

Status-impact assessment: is accuracy linked with status motivations?

Status hierarchies are ubiquitous across cultures and have been over deep time. Position in hierarchies shows important links with fitness outcomes. Consequently, humans should possess psychological adaptations for navigating the adaptive challenges posed by living in hierarchically organised groups. One hypothesised adaptation functions to assess, track, and store the status impacts of different acts, characteristics and events in order to guide hierarchy navigation. Although this status-impact assessment system is expected to be universal, there are several ways in which differences in assessment accuracy could arise. This variation may link to broader individual difference constructs. In a preregistered study with samples from India (N = 815) and the USA (N = 822), we sought to examine how individual differences in the accuracy of status-impact assessments covary with status motivations and personality. In both countries, greater overall status-impact assessment accuracy was associated with higher status motivations, as well as higher standing on two broad personality constructs: Honesty-Humility and Conscientiousness. These findings help map broad personality constructs onto variation in the functioning of specific cognitive mechanisms and contribute to an evolutionary understanding of individual differences.

Examining the Sexual Double Standards and Hypocrisy in Partner Suitability Appraisals Within a Norwegian Sample.

Sexual double standards are social norms that impose greater social opprobrium on women versus men or that permit one sex greater sexual freedom than the other. This study examined sexual double standards when choosing a mate based on their sexual history. Using a novel approach, participants (N = 923, 64% women) were randomly assigned to make evaluations in long-term or short-term mating contexts and asked how a prospective partner's sexual history would influence their own likelihood of having sex (short-term) or entering a relationship (long-term) with them. They were then asked how the same factors would influence the appraisal they would make of male and female friends in a similar position. We found no evidence of traditional sexual double standards for promiscuous or sexually undesirable behavior. There was some evidence for small sexual double standard for self-stimulation, but this was in the opposite direction to that predicted. There was greater evidence for sexual hypocrisy as sexual history tended to have a greater negative impact on suitor assessments for the self rather than for same-sex friends. Sexual hypocrisy effects were more prominent in women, though the direction of the effects was the same for both sexes. Overall, men were more positive about women's self-stimulation than women wee, particularly in short-term contexts. Socially undesirable sexual behavior (unfaithfulness, mate poaching, and jealous/controlling) had a large negative impact on appraisals of a potential suitor across all contexts and for both sexes. Effects of religiosity, disgust, sociosexuality, and question order effects are considered.

Modernization, collectivism, and gender equality predict love experiences in 45 countries.

Recent cross-cultural and neuro-hormonal investigations have suggested that love is a near universal phenomenon that has a biological background. Therefore, the remaining important question is not whether love exists worldwide but which cultural, social, or environmental factors influence experiences and expressions of love. In the present study, we explored whether countries' modernization indexes are related to love experiences measured by three subscales (passion, intimacy, commitment) of the Triangular Love Scale. Analyzing data from 9474 individuals from 45 countries, we tested for relationships with country-level predictors, namely, modernization proxies (i.e., Human Development Index, World Modernization Index, Gender Inequality Index), collectivism, and average annual temperatures. We found that mean levels of love (especially intimacy) were higher in countries with higher modernization proxies, collectivism, and average annual temperatures. In conclusion, our results grant some support to the hypothesis that modernization processes might influence love experiences.