The Development of the Liking Gap: Children Older Than 5 Years Think That Partners Evaluate Them Less Positively Than They Evaluate Their Partners

The Development of the Liking Gap: Children Older Than 5 Years Think That Partners Evaluate Them Less Positively Than They Evaluate Their Partners. Wouter Wolf, Amanda Nafe, Michael Tomasello. Psychological Science, April 29, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620980754

Abstract: After two strangers have briefly interacted with one another, both believe that they like their partner more than their partner likes them. A plausible explanation for this liking gap is that people are constantly worrying about how others are evaluating them. If so, one would expect the liking gap to emerge in young children as they become more concerned with their reputations and the impression they make on other people. The current study (N = 241 U.S. children; age range = 4–11 years) supported this hypothesis, showing a liking gap beginning when children were 5 years old, the age at which they first become concerned with other people’s evaluations of them. Moreover, the liking gap became more pronounced as children got older. These findings provide the first developmental description of the liking gap and support the hypothesis that this phenomenon is related to individuals’ concerns for how others evaluate them.

Keywords: childhood development, interpersonal interaction, social interaction, social perception, self-esteem, open data, preregistered

Couple Simulation: A Novel Approach for Evaluating Models of Human Mate Choice

Couple Simulation: A Novel Approach for Evaluating Models of Human Mate Choice. Daniel Conroy-Beam. Personality and Social Psychology Review, January 7, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868320971258

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Abstract: Choosing a mate is perhaps the most important decision a sexually reproducing organism makes in its lifetime. And yet, psychologists lack a precise description of human mate choice, despite sustained attention from several theoretical perspectives. Here, I argue this limited progress owes to the complexity of mate choice and describe a new modeling approach, called “couple simulation,” designed to compare models of mate choice by challenging them to reproduce real couples within simulated mating markets. I present proof-of-concept simulations that demonstrate couple simulation can identify a population’s true model of mate choice. Furthermore, I apply couple simulation to two samples of real couples and find that the method (a) successfully reconstructs real-world couples, (b) discriminates between models of mate choice, and (c) predicts a wide range of dimensions of relationship quality. Collectively, these results provide evidence that couple simulation offers a framework useful for evaluating theories of human mate choice.

Keywords: mate choice, human mating, relationships, agent-based modeling

The (bidirectional) associations between romantic attachment orientations and mate retention behavior in male-female romantic couples

The (bidirectional) associations between romantic attachment orientations and mate retention behavior in male-female romantic couples. Nicole Barbaro et al. Evolution and Human Behavior, April 29 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.04.005

Abstract: Attachment orientations of anxiety and avoidance are associated with many important romantic relationship outcomes. An evolutionary perspective has informed research on the associations between attachment orientations and mate retention behaviors, which individuals perform to retain their romantic partner and maintain their relationship. In the current article, we report two dyadic studies (n = 104, United States; n = 978, Germany, Switzerland, Austria) that evaluated: (1) whether bivariate associations between attachment orientations and mate retention domains are replicable; (2) whether an individual's attachment orientation predicts their partner's mate retention behaviors; and (3) whether, over time, mate retention behaviors predict attachment orientations within couples. Results of both studies replicated previous bivariate associations between attachment anxiety and cost-inflicting mate retention behaviors. Longitudinal dyadic data from Study 2 demonstrated that cost-inflicting mate retention behaviors, specifically, predict future attachment anxiety in romantic partners. These results contribute to the emerging body of research addressing the associations between attachment orientations and mate retention behaviors, and suggest an important (bidirectional) role of attachment anxiety in predicting negative partner-directed behaviors in romantic relationships.

Keywords: AttachmentClose relationshipsMate retentionAPIM