1. Short Term Sexual Strategies
Chapter 6

2. Rewards and Risks to Men
Triver’s parental investment theory
Short term mating increases number of potential offspring
Risks
Disease
Reputational damage
Decrease in parental investment
Violent attacks
Retaliatory affairs

3. Adaptive Problems for Men to Solve in Short-term Mating
Partner variety
Motivational mechanism- desire for variety
Relaxed standards
Minimum time constraints
Accessibility
Identifying fertile women
Avoiding commitment

4. Evidence for Evolved Short-term Mating Strategies
Physiological Evidence
Testicle size
Variations in sperm insemination

5. Psychological Evidence: Desire for Sexual Variety

6. Psychological Evidence: Time Elapsed Before Seeking Intercourse

7. Psychological Evidence: Lowered Standards
Relaxed standards for many characteristics, including
Kindness
Intelligence
Loyalty
Emotionally stable
Higher standards for experience and promiscuity

8. Psychological Evidence
Minimizing Commitment
The Affective Shift Hypothesis
The Closing Time Phenomenon
Sexual Fantasies
Men report twice the number
More often report variety, greater number, switching partners
Sexual Regret
Omission vs. commission

9. Behavioral Evidence Extramarital Affairs Prostitution
Statistics vary, but men more likely than women to have affairs
Prostitution
“They’re not paying you for the sex… they’re paying you to go away afterwards”

10. Women’s Short-term Mating
The biological irony of the double standard is that males could not have been selected for promiscuity is historically females had always denied them opportunity for expression of the trait
Robert Smith (1984)

11. Are Women Naturally Monogamous?
20-50% of women have affairs
Women seek extrapair copulations (ECP’s) more often during fertile phase of cycle
Women more likely to experience orgasm with affair partner than with long-term partner

12. Rewards of Short-term Mating for Women
Resources- financial, protection, access to status
Good genes- “sexy son hypothesis”
Mate switching and expulsion
Short-term for long-term goals
Mate assessment
Testing her own mate value
Mate skill acquisition
Mate manipulation: retaliatory affairs, increase commitment

13. Risks of Short-term Mating for Women
Reputational damage
Greater risk for abuse
Abandonment
Lost opportunities for long-term mating
Loss of resources from long-term mate
Increased sibling competition among half siblings
Disease

14. Empirical Evidence Limited evidence overall Mate switching
Women report that affairs make it easier to break up
Women report that affairs help them to find a better mate
Resource accrual
Access to resources is critical factor in women’s assessments of their likelihood of affairs

15. Empirical Evidence Short-term for Long-term Goals
Women prefer short-term mates who are not in a relationship and who are not promiscuous
Good Genes
Symmetrical men more likely to have affairs with women in committed relationships
Women place greater value of physical attractiveness and masculinity for short-term mates

16. Empirical Evidence
Good GenesMenstrual phase shifts in preferences for
Symmetry and overall attractiveness
Facial masculinity
Height
Creative intelligence
Muscular build
Social dominance
Women who rate regular partners as low on sexual attractiveness have more desire for ECP’s but only during ovulation

17. Context Effects: Individual Differences
Based on Sociosexual Inventory, short-term strategists
emphasize sexual gratification with partners, mate skill development, and resources
Place less importance on commitment
Worry less about reputational damage

18. Additional Contextual Factors
Father absence- stepfather presence
Developmental stage in life
Sex ratio
Mate value and self-esteem
Higher mate value men have more opportunities and are more likely to use short-term strategies
Higher mate value in women NOT related to strategy
Low self-esteem in women related to more short-term strategies