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From vigilance to violence: Mate retention tactics in married couples (1997)
| Venue: | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |
| Citations: | 161 - 59 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Buss97fromvigilance,
author = {David M. Buss and Todd K. Shackelford},
title = {From vigilance to violence: Mate retention tactics in married couples},
journal = {Journal of Personality and Social Psychology},
year = {1997},
pages = {346--361}
}
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Abstract
Although much research has explored the adaptive problems of mate selection and mate attraction, little research has investigated the adaptive problem of mate retention. We tested several evolutionary psychological hypotheses about the determinants of mate retention in 214 married people. We assessed the usage of 19 mate retention tactics ranging from vigilance to violence. Key hypothesized findings include the following: Men's, but not women's, mate retention positively covaried with partner's youth and physical attractiveness. Women's, but not men's, mate retention positively covaried with partner's income and status striving. Men's mate retention positively covaried with perceived probability of partner's infidelity. Men, more than women, reported using resource display, submission and debasement, and intrasexual threats to retain their mates. Women, more than men, reported using appearance enhancement and verbal signals of possession. Discussion includes an evolutionary psychological analysis of mate retention in married couples. An individual's life, from the perspective of life history theory, consists of the allocation of effort to various adaptive problems (Chamov, 1993; Steams, 1992). At the broadest level of analysis, these problems can be partitioned into survival and growth (somatic effort), mating (reproductive effort), parenting and grandparenting (parental and grandparental effort), and investments in nondescendant genetic relatives (roughly kin effort). Within the domain of reproductive effort, much research has been conducted on effort devoted to the adaptive problems
Keyphrases
mate retention married couple mate retention tactic adaptive problem much research reproductive effort verbal signal mate attraction somatic effort nondescendant genetic relative perceived probability life history theory mate selection appearance enhancement intrasexual threat physical attractiveness status striving various adaptive problem married people evolutionary psychological analysis grandparental effort several evolutionary psychological hypothesis little research resource display
