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The near totality of human mate choice research occurs in large-scale, urban, industrial populations. It is unclear to what extent lessons learned from such populations reflect generalizable features of human mating psychology as opposed to localized responses to the demands of these historically unusual environments. Here, we use couple simulation, an agent-based modeling technique, to compare models of mate choice across both a U.S. sample (n = 1678) and a sample of k = 15 couples from Conambo, Ecuador—a relatively remote community of horticultural-foragers in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Conambo sample provides a unique opportunity to evaluate models of mate choice in that (1) this sample represents approximately 50% of the households within this community and (2) all of the participants in this sample are acquainted with one another. Participants in Conambo completed a ranking task in which each participant ranked each opposite-sex adult in the community in terms of their quality as a spouse. We used these rankings to simulate the mating market in Conambo under alternative models of mate choice. We find that these models are able to reproduce Conambo marriages at a high degree of accuracy and perform comparably across both the Conambo sample and U.S. samples. Specifically, the resource allocation model performs best in reproducing mate choices in both the U.S. and Conambo samples. These results suggest that at least some aspects of human mating psychology generalize across both large-scale industrialized and small-scale populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test a novel evolutionary hypothesis predicting that mate value discrepancies, but not mate preference fulfillment, will regulate relationship satisfaction. Across Study 1 ( n = 259) and Study 2 ( n = 300), we employed new Euclidean measures able to capture preference fulfillment and compute estimates of mate value discrepancies. Relationship satisfaction was not related to how well mates fulfilled their partner's preferences. Mate value discrepancies, in contrast, interacted to predict relationship satisfaction: relationship satisfaction declined for participants whose mates were less desirable than their alternatives, but only for participants who were higher in mate value than their mates. Additionally, these satisfaction differences mediated a relationship between mate value discrepancies and mate retention behavior. This mediation pathway is unique to satisfaction; the same pathway was not observed through trust, a functionally distinct relationship affective state. Study 3 ( n = 301) addressed a methodological limitation of Studies 1 and 2. We replicated the mate value discrepancy interaction to predict relationship satisfaction, but found an effect of ideal preference fulfillment on relationship satisfaction. These results provide evidence that mate preferences have important, functionally specific effects on within-relationship processes through contributing to two independent discrepancy variables: partner–self and partner-potential mate value discrepancies. They also largely contravene the hypothesis that mate preference fulfillment is the key to relationship satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although antiexploitation adaptations, such as cheater-detection mechanisms, have been well explored, comparatively little research has focused on identifying adaptations for exploitation. The present study had two purposes: (1) to identify observable cues that afford information about which women are sexually exploitable and (2) to test the hypothesis that men find cues to sexual exploitability sexually attractive, an adaptation that functions to motivate pursuit of accessible women. Male participants rated photographs of women who displayed varying levels of hypothesized cues to exploitability. We identified 22 cues indicative of sexual exploitability. Nineteen of these cues were correlated significantly with sexual attractiveness, supporting the central hypothesis. Results suggest that sexual attraction to exploitability cues functions to motivate men to employ exploitative strategies towards accessible targets, and contribute foundational knowledge to the diverse classes of cues that afford information about which women are and are not sexually exploitable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]