Why women cheat: testing evolutionary hypotheses for female infidelity in a multinational sample

IF 3 1区 心理学 Q1 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
Macken Murphy , Caroline A. Phillips , Khandis R. Blake
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Abstract

While scholars largely agree men's infidelity evolved by increasing offspring quantity, the evolutionary drivers of women's infidelity remain debated. The “good genes” (dual mating strategy) hypothesis posits infidelity allows women to pair the preferred genes of an affair partner with the preferred investment of their primary partner (Gangstad & Thornhill, 1998). The mate-switching hypothesis instead argues infidelity helps women obtain a new mate without a period of deprivation (Buss et al., 2017). To test these hypotheses, we conducted a pre-registered survey of 254 individuals from 19 countries and 6 continents who were previously or currently engaged in infidelity. We measured individuals' perception of their primary partner and their affair partner across four domains: physical attractiveness, personal attractiveness, attractiveness as a co-parent, and overall desirability (mate value). We also asked participants to report their motivations for the affair. Consistent with a dual mating strategy, women experienced stronger physical attraction to their affair partners and stronger parental attraction to their primary partners. Contrary to the mate-switching hypothesis, women did not prefer their affair partners overall, parentally, or personally. There were no significant gender differences in these findings, suggesting strategic dualism in men as well. Our qualitative data revealed a more nuanced story at the individual level, with participants reporting motives consistent with a variety of evolutionarily coherent strategies. While our quantitative results speak to the relevance of the dual-mating hypothesis to understanding infidelity, our findings also suggest that seeking infidelity's primary explanation in either gender is, perhaps, too simple an approach to the issue.

女性为何出轨:在多国样本中检验女性不忠的进化假设
尽管学者们普遍认为男性的不忠行为是通过增加后代数量进化而来的,但对女性不忠行为的进化动因仍存在争议。好基因"(双重交配策略)假说认为,不忠行为可以让女性将外遇伴侣的偏好基因与其主要伴侣的偏好投资配对(Gangstad & Thornhill, 1998)。伴侣转换假说则认为,不忠行为有助于女性在没有剥夺期的情况下获得新伴侣(Buss 等人,2017 年)。为了验证这些假设,我们对来自 6 大洲 19 个国家的 254 名曾经或目前有不忠行为的人进行了预先登记的调查。我们测量了个人对其主要伴侣和外遇伴侣在以下四个方面的看法:外貌吸引力、个人吸引力、作为共同父母的吸引力以及总体可取性(伴侣价值)。我们还要求参与者报告他们外遇的动机。与双重交配策略一致的是,女性对外遇伴侣的身体吸引力更强,而对主要伴侣的父母吸引力更强。与伴侣转换假说相反,女性并不更喜欢外遇伴侣的整体、父母或个人。这些研究结果没有明显的性别差异,这表明男性也存在策略双重性。我们的定性数据揭示了个人层面上更细微的故事,参与者报告的动机与各种进化上一致的策略相一致。虽然我们的定量结果说明了双重交配假说与理解不忠行为的相关性,但我们的研究结果也表明,在两性中寻找不忠行为的主要解释也许是一种过于简单的方法。
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来源期刊
Evolution and Human Behavior
Evolution and Human Behavior 生物-行为科学
CiteScore
8.30
自引率
9.80%
发文量
62
审稿时长
82 days
期刊介绍: Evolution and Human Behavior is an interdisciplinary journal, presenting research reports and theory in which evolutionary perspectives are brought to bear on the study of human behavior. It is primarily a scientific journal, but submissions from scholars in the humanities are also encouraged. Papers reporting on theoretical and empirical work on other species will be welcome if their relevance to the human animal is apparent.
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