Sociosexuality from Argentina to Zimbabwe: A 48-nation study of sex, culture, and strategies of human mating

Abstract

The Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI; Simpson & Gangestad 1991) is a self-report measure of individual differences in human mating strategies. Low SOI scores signify that a person is sociosexually restricted, or follows a more monogamous mating strategy. High SOI scores indicate that an individual is unrestricted, or has a more promiscuous mating strategy. As part of the International Sexuality Description Project (ISDP), the SOI was translated from English into 25 additional languages and administered to a total sample of 14,059 people across 48 nations. Responses to the SOI were used to address four main issues. First, the psychometric properties of the SOI were examined in cross-cultural perspective. The SOI possessed adequate reliability and validity both within and across a diverse range of modern cultures. Second, theories concerning the systematic distribution of sociosexuality across cultures were evaluated. Both operational sex ratios and reproductively demanding environments related in evolutionary-predicted ways to national levels of sociosexuality. Third, sex differences in sociosexuality were generally large and demonstrated cross-cultural universality across the 48 nations of the ISDP, confirming several evolutionary theories of human mating. Fourth, sex differences in sociosexuality were significantly larger when reproductive environments were demanding but were reduced to more moderate levels in cultures with more political and economic gender equality. Implications for evolutionary and social role theories of human sexuality are discussed.

Too many men: the violence problem?

“…A more recent example comes from Colombia, where high male mortality rates, yielding an abundance of women in some regions, are associated with decreased marriage rates and higher proportions of men in concurrent relationships [35]. Cross-cultural research corroborates this pattern, revealing female-biased sex ratios associated with lower levels of male parental investment and higher rates of femaleheaded households [36]. Indeed, when there are too many men, the nature of relationships change.…”

“…For example, Angrist found that, among immigrants to the USA, high sex ratios had a large positive effect on the likelihood of female marriage and a large negative effect on female labor force participation; with men providing investment, women could avoid wage labor [37]. In general, malebiased sex ratios are associated with a greater proportion of males being married [34,38], less promiscuity in both sexes [36,39,40], and greater conjugal stability [41], all of which might contribute to the lower I s values for men shown in Box 2.…”

Sex Differences in Young Adults’ Attraction to Opposite-Sex Friends: Natural Sampling versus Mental Concepts

“…1 Men's and women's mean level of physical attraction to the opposite-sex friend they were with when they were approached in men's and women's mating adaptations might influence how they think about friends. For example, men's stronger orientation toward short-term mating relative to women's (Buss and Schmitt 1993;Schmitt 2005) corresponds with differences in how the sexes select and feel about their oppositesex friends. Men more than women view sexual attraction as a benefit of opposite-sex friendships (Bleske and Buss 2000), and men more than women desire (Bleske-Rechek and Buss 2001) and prioritize (Lewis et al 2011(Lewis et al , 2012 attractiveness in an opposite-sex friend.…”

A evolução do comportamento cultural humano: apontamentos sobre darwinismo e complexidade

“…Entre as hipóteses mais testadas, Confer et al (2010) defendem os mecanismos que lidam com "aproveitadores" em grupos cooperativos, trapaceiros, localização espacial feminina e outros, como as preferências e estratégias no relacionamento (Buss, 2007) e, também, as estratégias de cópula (Schmitt, 2005).…”