Do Females Promote Sperm Competition? Data for Humans

Bellis, Mark A; Baker, R. Robin

doi:10.1007/0-387-28039-1_9

Cited by 25 publications

(41 citation statements)

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“…However, the latter response may be related to heightened sexual interest during this time in the cycle, rather than to a change in bias toward one type of partner infidelity or the other (Harris 2000;Wood 1994). Either way, the finding of a consistent relation between week two estradiol levels and responses to partner infidelity is consistent with previous findings of changes in female sexual behavior and mate preferences during this time (Bellis and Baker 1990;Gangestad and Thornhill 1998;Penton-Voak and Perrett 2000;PentonVoak et al 1999;Thornhill and Gangestad 1999). It appears that patterns of sexual and relationship jealousy can be added to the suite of psychological and sexual behavior changes that occur during the time of rising and high fertility risk for females.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The most intriguing result was that responses to partner infidelity were related to estradiol levels and primarily, although not entirely, during the time of rising and high fertility risk, a pattern that is in keeping with studies of female sexual behavior and mate preferences (Bellis and Baker 1990;Chavanne and Gallup 1998;Gangestad and Thornhill 1998;Penton-Voak and Perrett 2000;Penton-Voak et al 1999;Thornhill and Gangestad 1999;Wedekind et al 1995). It appears that during the time of rising and high fertility risk, high estradiol levels are associated with changes in relative degree of hurt/anger to different forms of partner infidelity (i.e., emotional or sexual), and to "a tendency toward greater distress over a partner's sexual infidelity than emotional infidelity.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 67%

“…Females who are not taking hormone-based birth control exhibit, as a group, systematic changes in cognition, sexual behavior, and mate preferences during the second week of the menstrual cycle, that is, during the time of rising and high fertility risk (Bellis and Baker 1990;Chavanne and Gallup 1998;Gangestad and Thornhill 1998;Kimura 1999;Penton-Voak and Perrett 2000;Penton-Voak et al 1999;Thornhill and Gangestad 1999;Wedekind et al 1995;Wilcox et al 2000). Bellis and Baker found that females who engage in an extra-pair copulation are most likely to do so during the time of high fertility risk and are less likely to use a contraceptive than during copulations with their long-term social partner.…”

Section: Female Sexuality and The Menstrual Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The pattern also suggests that female sexuality can involve a mixed social and reproductive strategy, whereby the female's social partner---the male providing paternal investment---may not be the father of her offspring (Bellis and Baker 1990;Simpson 1990, 2000;Gangestad and Thornhill 1998;Geary 1998). In this view, females are generally attentive to the relationship with the social partner and thus maintain his investment (Geary 2000), becoming sensitive to the cues of a more fit male only during the brief period of rising and high fertility risk.…”

Section: Female Sexuality and The Menstrual Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

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Estrogens and relationship jealousy

Geary

DeSoto

Hoard

et al. 2001

Hum Nat

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The relation between sex hormones and responses to partner infidelity was explored in two studies reported here. The first confirmed the standard sex difference in relationship jealousy, that males (n = 133) are relatively more distressed by a partner's sexual infidelity and females (n=159) by a partner's emotional infidelity. The study also revealed that females using hormone-based birth control (n = 61) tended more toward sexual jealousy than did other females, and reported more intense affective responses to partner infidelity (n = 77). In study two, 47 females were assessed four times across one month. Patterns of response to partner infidelity did not vary by week of menstrual cycle, but significant relations between salivary estradiol level and jealousy responses were obtained during the time of rising and high fertility risk. The implications, at least for females, are that any evolved psychological, affective, or behavioral dispositions regarding reproduction-related relationships are potentially moderated by estradiol, and that the use of synthetic hormones may disrupt this relation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Female Sexuality and The Menstrual Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Female Sexuality and The Menstrual Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Estrogens and relationship jealousy

Geary

DeSoto

Hoard

et al. 2001

Hum Nat

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“…In their large-scale study in Britain, Wellings, Fields, Johnson, and Wadsworth (1994) found that 10.1% of married or cohabiting women 4 reported having heterosexual relations with two or more concurrent partners in the previous 12 months. Similarly, Bellis and Baker (1990) obtained estimates of 6.9% to 13.8% in the reported frequency of extra-pair sex of respondents to a national magazine survey.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Sex Differences in Subjective Estimates of Non-Paternity Rates in Austria

2009

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The determination of paternity is important due to the possibility of cuckoldry and the subsequent squandering of male reproductive effort. Men may be attuned to prevalence rates of cuckoldry in the local environment to assess risk. However, women may have an enhanced ability to assess paternity and may have superior insight into women's sexual infidelity. Accordingly, this study examined subjective estimates of human non-paternity (HNP), the discrepancy between social/legal versus genetic paternity. The hypothesis was that women would provide higher estimates of HNP than men. A sex difference in the hypothesized direction was observed across four community samples of Austrian adults (totalling 763 men and 795 women), with women overall providing higher HNP estimates than men (14.5% versus 9.1%). Furthermore, key demographic variables impacted HNP estimates for both sexes: individuals who were unmarried, childless, currently unpartnered, or currently in a romantic relationship of a shorter duration provided higher HNP estimates than their counterparts, thus suggesting that such estimates might be attuned to mating effort and strategies, as well as relationship quality and investment.

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Evolution of Paternal Investment

Geary

2015

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology

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Male parental investment is unusual in mammals, occurring in less than 5% of species, including humans. The chapter reviews the cost–benefit trade‐offs that likely contributed to the evolution and maintenance of human paternal investment and the proximate mechanisms that influence individual differences in the expression of this investment. The latter include biological (e.g., hormones), social (e.g., quality of the marital relationship), and wider cultural (e.g., rules for polygynous marriages) mechanisms.

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Do Females Promote Sperm Competition? Data for Humans

Cited by 25 publications

References 0 publications

Estrogens and relationship jealousy

Estrogens and relationship jealousy

Sex Differences in Subjective Estimates of Non-Paternity Rates in Austria

Evolution of Paternal Investment

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