Intrasexual Mating Competition

Abstract

In the mating domain, same-sex conspecifics can be competitors when pursuing, attracting, and retaining desirable partners. We provide (a) an overview of the major metatheories (e.g., obligate parental investment and biological markets) that bear on intrasexual competition for mates; (b) explore support for predictions derived from these metatheories in empirical research on females’ and males’ intrasexual mating competition; and also discuss (c) robust evidence consistent with the core premise of intrasexual mating competition—that members of each sex compete with rivals to gain and retain access to mates, and that this competition centers on features that the other sex finds particularly desirable. Moreover, the tactics of this competition often differ in revealing ways. Whereas examples in both human and nonhuman animals are considered, the current work focuses on the causes, consequences, and modes of intrasexual mating competition among heterosexual men and women, but we nevertheless conclude by highlighting important qualifiers and limitations in existing work with an eye toward future research (e.g., on women, non-heterosexual relationships, and parents) that challenges our current conceptualizations of the boundaries of intrasexual mating competition.

Resource availability differentially influences women’s perceptions of same- (versus cross-) sex others’ competitiveness.

“…While the majority of the extant literature on women’s same-sex competition has focused on mate attraction (for review see Fisher & Krems, in press; Krems et al, in press), evolutionary theoretical perspectives suggest that women’s competition with same-sex others centers on issues related to both mate attraction and resource acquisition (Benenson, 2013; Campbell, 2004). 3 Given that access to resources poses a greater limiting factor on female reproductive success than access to mates (Stockley & Bro-Jørgensen, 2011), women are expected to exhibit competition over resources (Stockley & Campbell, 2013).…”

“…2Here, we focus on women’s same-sex competition (for an overview of men’s competition, see Benenson, 2014; Krems et al, in press). …”

A secret language of aggression: disgust expressions are treated as cues of impending social exclusion among women

“…Despite a focus on aggression from its inception, social psychology and related areas have historically overlooked the types of aggression typically associated with girls and women (e.g., Maccoby and Jacklin, 1974;Krems et al, 2020;Fisher and The current work is based on a straightforward premise, but one unexamined owing to an historical implicit focus on men's social cognition and behavior: If women recurrently employ some distinct tactics of intrasexual aggression, then-as targetswomen also recurrently face some distinct tactics of intrasexual aggression. Women might thus also possess social cognitive repertoires for managing with these recurrently-faced tactics as targets (Krems et al, 2015(Krems et al, , 2016(Krems et al, , 2020(Krems et al, , 2022(Krems et al, , 2023. For example, if certain facial expressions, phrases, or intonations have distinct and potentially aggressive meaning among women (Campbell, 2002;Reynolds, 2022;Reynolds and Palmer-Hague, 2022; e.g., You're so adorable, I love how hard she tries), women might have distinct responses to them.…”