嘿嘿视频

Mating market trumps biology in relationships

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A rose with two wedding rings
When men are surrounded by other men, they want to settle down and get married, according to Ryan Schacht, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology.

The popularly held sexual stereotype concludes that men want as many partners as possible, and women want stability and commitment. But what men and women want from relationships also depends heavily on the supply of potential partners, according to a University of California, Davis, study.

The study found that in communities where men outnumbered women, men were much more likely to be looking for a committed, long-term relationship.

鈥淲e can think of the number of men and women in a population as a potential mating market where the principles of supply and demand hold sway and where commitment to a relationship is influenced by the availability of partners,鈥 said Ryan Schacht, co-author of the study. 鈥淭he rarer sex has more bargaining power and can get what they want because they are surrounded by available partners. If they aren鈥檛 pleased with a relationship they can move on to someone else.鈥

嘿嘿视频 Department of Anthropology doctoral graduate Schacht and Professor Monique Borgerhoff Mulder co-authored the study. Their paper 鈥淓xplaining Sex Differentiated Behavior in Humans: Sex Ration Effects on Reproductive Strategies鈥 is published today by Royal Society Open Science.

鈥淎 person鈥檚 gender is not the best way of determining what he or she wants in a relationship,鈥 he said.  鈥淢en respond quite counter to simple biological models when surrounded by other men -- this is when they want to settle down. We鈥檙e not saying that a person鈥檚 sex doesn鈥檛 have an impact on their view of relationships, but we need to pay attention to sex in context. We need to move away from the simplistic concept of biological propensities.鈥

The study was based on interviews with 300 people in eight villages in Guyana, South America. Among the questions the subjects were asked:

  • How many partners did you have in the last year?
  • Can you imagine enjoying having casual sex with several partners?
  • How many partners do you think you will have during the next five years?

The region of Guyana where the study took place was ideal because it has a wide range of male-to-female population ratios, said Schacht. The ratio ranged from 90 men for every 100 women in one village to 140 men to 100 women in another. The pattern of women often outnumbering men was the result of women having job opportunities outside the area.

鈥淎s you get more men they are less interested in casual relationships and more in committed relationships,鈥 Schacht said. 鈥淭his preference is context dependent and has to do with supply and demand. When partners are in short supply, men have relationship preferences more in line with women than with men. This clearly highlights that our notions of sexual stereotyping need to be revised.鈥

 

Media Resources

Jeffrey Day, Arts, humanities and social sciences, 530-219-8258, jaaday@ucdavis.edu

Ryan Schacht, Anthropology, 801-585-6840, r.schacht@utah.edu

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