性别比与童年经济状况对女性长短期择偶偏好的影响:“暖男”需求变化的进化分析

The Influence of Sex Ratio and Childhood Economic Condition on Female Long-term and Short-Term Mating Preferences:An Evolutionary Explanation for the Changing Trend in Female’s Mate Preference for“Good Father”

本研究基于进化领域的生命史理论,采用实验法探讨性别比、童年经济状况和女性长短期择偶偏好间的关系。结果表明:女性在长期择偶中更为重视男性的"好爸爸"和"好资源",在短期择偶中更为重视男性的"好基因";感知性别比和童年经济状况在女性长期择偶"好爸爸"偏好上的交互效应显著:童年贫穷女性在"女多"情境下会明显提高对长期择偶"好爸爸"的偏好水平,童年富裕女性在性别失衡情境下对长期"好爸爸"的偏好保持相对稳定。

Many efforts have been made by existing literature to explore human’s mating behaviors.However,little is known whether and why the female mating preferences would change under the condition of different perceived sex ratios.Life history theory implies that human life history strategies would vary when facing certain stressful environmental cues.Adopting two experiments,the current study focused on how perceived sex ratio(current environmental clue)and childhood harshness influenced women’s mating preferences.In Experiment 1,seventy-six unmarried female participants with an average age of 20.25(SD=2.47)were recruited.Participants were divided into two groups randomly.Firstly,they filled the items on their demographic information and childhood economic background.After that,they were required to imagine the situation of"more female less male"or"more male less female"and write an article of about 400 words to describe the situation in detail.Subsequently,the participants rated the mating preference items.The results in Experiment 1 showed that females tended to demand more on their preferences for"good father"and"good resource"in long-term mating situations and demanded more for"good genes"in short-term mating situations.What is more,the interaction effect between sex ratio and childhood economic condition on female preference for"good partner"was significant in long-term mating situation.For those who had a lower level of childhood harshness,the preference for"good father"qualities was hardly influenced by perceived sex ratio;However,for those who had a relatively higher level of childhood harshness,their long-term mating preferences for"good father"qualities varied under the condition of different sex ratios:they showed significantly higher level of long-term mating preferences for"good father"qualities when primed by a low sex ratio(vs.high sex ratio)scenario.In Experiment 2,one-hundred-and-three unmarried female participants with an average age of 18.81(SD=.89)were recruited.Firstly,all the subjects were divided into two groups randomly.After filling the demographic data,subjects were required to watch carefully a series of 8 facial photos with brief introductive information following each picture.The series of pictures were used as the priming of unbalanced sex ratio with one including 6 male and 2 female facial photos and the other one including 6 female and 2 male facial photos.Finally,participants rated the mating preference items.The results in Experiment 2 were the similar as that in Experiment 1.Conclusion:both of the two experiments demonstrated that perceived sex ratio and individual’s childhood harshness showed a significant interaction on female’s long-term mating preferences for"good father".This study sheds light on the field of mating preferences from the perspective of evolutionary psychology.