Fundamentals of Human Mating Strategies

Schmitt, David P.

doi:10.1002/9780470939376.ch9

Cited by 97 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 203 publications

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“…being biologically a man or woman). These and other papers throughout the social sciences find relationships between sex and other variables, such as age, relationship status, parenthood, and many other environmental influences, in patterns predicted by evolutionary theories, in particular those related to differential parental investment, costly signaling, and mate selection (e.g., Buss and Shackelford 2008; Stoet and Geary 2015; Verweij et al 2016; Wåhlin-Jacobsen et al 2015; for reviews, see Buss 2003; Schmitt 2005). It is reasonable to assume that these theoretical perspectives, by and large, explain a substantial proportion of the variance related to group or individual differences, otherwise would these approaches have waned for lack of empirical support.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Objectivity and realms of explanation in academic journal articles concerning sex/gender: a comparison of Gender studies and the other social sciences

Söderlund

Madison

2017

Scientometrics

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Gender studies (GS) has been challenged on epistemological grounds. Here, we compare samples of peer-reviewed academic journal publications written by GS authors and authors from closely related disciplines in the social sciences. The material consisted of 2805 statements from 36 peer-reviewed journal articles, sampled from the Swedish Gender Studies List, which covers >12,000 publications. Each statement was coded as expressing a lack of any of three aspects of objectivity: Bias, Normativity, or Political activism, or as considering any of four realms of explanation for the behaviours or phenomena under study: Biology/genetics, Individual/group differences, Environment/culture, or Societal institutions. Statements in GS publications did to a greater extent express bias and normativity, but not political activism. They did also to a greater extent consider cultural, environmental, social, and societal realms of explanation, and to a lesser extent biological and individual differences explanations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Objectivity and realms of explanation in academic journal articles concerning sex/gender: a comparison of Gender studies and the other social sciences

Söderlund

Madison

2017

Scientometrics

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“…The terms most commonly used by biologists and anthropologists (e.g., Clutton-Brock, 1989; Murdock, 1967; Schmitt, 2005b) to classify mating strategies include monogamous (one male mates with one female over an extended period, such as over one or more breeding seasons), polygynous (one male mates with multiple females over an extended period), polyandrous (one female mates with multiple males over an extended period), and promiscuous (or “multimale-multifemale”; multiple females engage in short-term, non-exclusive relationships with multiple males). However, the mating behaviors of a given species, culture, or individual may be complex and “strategically pluralistic” (Gangestad & Simpson, 2000), that is, characterized by more than one strategy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, consider the mating systems of humans’ closest evolutionary relatives, the greater and lesser apes. Although most commonly chimpanzees and bonobos are classified as promiscuous, gorillas and orangutans as polygynous, and gibbons as monogamous (Schmitt, 2005b; Smuts & Smuts, 1993), these categories may mask considerable strategic pluralism. For example, monogamous gibbons sometimes engage in short-term extrapair copulations and polygynous orangutans are often also considered promiscuous (Beaudrot, Kahlenberg, & Marshall, 2009; Plavcan, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anthropologists have classified more than 80 % of preindustrial societies as polygynous, 16 % as monogamous, and less than 1 % as polyandrous (Murdock, 1967; Schmitt, 2005b). Yet, within most “polygynous” societies, most long-term relationships are, in fact, monogamous; the polygynous label indicates only that polygyny is permitted and commonly observed (Stewart-Williams & Thomas, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, anthropologists estimate that extramarital sex occurs at least “occasionally” among males in 80 % and among females in 73 % of preindustrial cultures and that comparable rates for premarital sex are 88 % for males and 80 % for females. Further, wife sharing is estimated to occur in 39 % of these cultures (Broude & Greene, 1976; Schmitt, 2005b). Such within-culture co-existence of long-term and short-term mating strategies is also evident in industrialized societies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Female Economic Dependence and the Morality of Promiscuity

2014

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In environments in which female economic dependence on a male mate is higher, male parental investment is more essential. In such environments, therefore, both sexes should value paternity certainty more and thus object more to promiscuity (because promiscuity undermines paternity certainty). We tested this theory of anti-promiscuity morality in two studies (N = 656 and N = 4,626) using U.S. samples. In both, we examined whether opposition to promiscuity was higher among people who perceived greater female economic dependence in their social network. In Study 2, we also tested whether economic indicators of female economic dependence (e.g., female income, welfare availability) predicted anti-promiscuity morality at the state level. Results from both studies supported the proposed theory. At the individual level, perceived female economic dependence explained significant variance in anti-promiscuity morality, even after controlling for variance explained by age, sex, religiosity, political conservatism, and the anti-promiscuity views of geographical neighbors. At the state level, median female income was strongly negatively related to anti-promiscuity morality and this relationship was fully mediated by perceived female economic dependence. These results were consistent with the view that anti-promiscuity beliefs may function to promote paternity certainty in circumstances where male parental investment is particularly important.

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Monogamy, strongly bonded groups, and the evolution of human social structure

Chapais¹

2013

Evolutionary Anthropology

159

131

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Human social evolution has most often been treated in a piecemeal fashion, with studies focusing on the evolution of specific components of human society such as pair-bonding, cooperative hunting, male provisioning, grandmothering, cooperative breeding, food sharing, male competition, male violence, sexual coercion, territoriality, and between-group conflicts. Evolutionary models about any one of those components are usually concerned with two categories of questions, one relating to the origins of the component and the other to its impact on the evolution of human cognition and social life. Remarkably few studies have been concerned with the evolution of the entity that integrates all components, the human social system itself. That social system has as its core feature human social structure, which I define here as the common denominator of all human societies in terms of group composition, mating system, residence patterns, and kinship structures. The paucity of information on the evolution of human social structure poses substantial problems because that information is useful, if not essential, to assess both the origins and impact of any particular aspect of human society.

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Fundamentals of Human Mating Strategies

Cited by 97 publications

References 203 publications

Objectivity and realms of explanation in academic journal articles concerning sex/gender: a comparison of Gender studies and the other social sciences

Objectivity and realms of explanation in academic journal articles concerning sex/gender: a comparison of Gender studies and the other social sciences

Female Economic Dependence and the Morality of Promiscuity

Monogamy, strongly bonded groups, and the evolution of human social structure

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