The meta-analysis provides evidence that men’s self-perceived mate value positively predicts their tendency to engage in short-term mating, but that the total effect size is small

Men’s Mate Value Correlates with a Less Restricted Sociosexual Orientation: A Meta-Analysis. Steven Arnocky, Jessica Desrochers, Amanda Rotella, Graham Albert, Carolyn Hodges-Simeon, Ashley Locke, Jacob Belanger, Danielle Lynch & Benjamin Kelly. Archives of Sexual Behavior, Jul 29 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-021-01937-6

Abstract: Men, relative to women, can benefit their total reproductive success by engaging in short-term pluralistic mating. Yet not all men enact such a mating strategy. It has previously been hypothesized that high mate value men should be most likely to adopt a short-term mating strategy, with this prediction being firmly grounded in some important mid-level evolutionary psychological theories. Yet evidence to support such a link has been mixed. This paper presents a comprehensive meta-analysis of 33 published and unpublished studies (N = 5928) in which we find that that self-reported mate value accounts for roughly 6% of variance in men’s sociosexual orientation. The meta-analysis provides evidence that men’s self-perceived mate value positively predicts their tendency to engage in short-term mating, but that the total effect size is small.