Men were more likely than women and older participants were more likely than younger participants to indicate that they would cheat on their partners if they were in a long-term intimate relationship

Plurality in mating: Exploring the occurrence and contingencies of mating strategies. Menelaos Apostolou. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 175, June 2021, 110689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110689

Highlights

• Nominates nine different mating strategies

• Finds that 68% of the participants preferred a mixed mating strategy

• Finds that 82.8% of the participants preferred to have initially or eventually one long-term partner

• Finds significant sex, age and sexual orientation differences in the adoption of mating strategies

Abstract: People adopt a variety of strategies in order to achieve specific mating goals. The current research nominated nine different mating strategies, and attempted to estimate their occurrence. Evidence from an online sample of 6273 Greek-speaking participants, indicated that a mixed strategy was in the highest occurrence, followed by a long-term and a short-term mating strategy. Men were more likely than women to prefer a short-term and a mixed mating strategy, and that younger participants were more likely to prefer a mixed than a long-term mating strategy. In addition, heterosexual women with same-sex attraction were more likely than exclusively heterosexual women to prefer a short-term and a mixed strategy than a long-term mating strategy. Furthermore, we found that men were more likely than women and older participants were more likely than younger participants to indicate that they would cheat on their partners if they were in a long-term intimate relationship. Furthermore, heterosexual with same-sex attraction, bisexual and homosexual men and women were more likely than exclusive heterosexual participants to indicate that they would cheat on their partners when in a long-term intimate relationship.

Keywords: Mating strategiesMatingSex differencesCheatingInfidelity