Partner Status Influences Women's Interest in the Opposite Sex

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that hormones, relationship goals, and social context influence interest in the opposite sex. It has not been previously reported, however, whether having a current sexual partner also influences interest in members of the opposite sex. To test this, we obtained explicit and implicit measures of interest by measuring men's and women's subjective ratings and response times while they evaluated photos of opposite-sex faces. Fifty-nine men and 56 women rated 510 photos of opposite-sex faces for realism, masculinity, attractiveness, or affect. We found that these subjective ratings were not influenced by partner status in either men or women. However, women who did not report having a current sexual partner spent more time evaluating the photos than women who did have partners, demonstrating greater interest in the photos. Sexual partner status did not predict men's response times. These findings may reveal that relationship commitment in women suppresses interest in alternative partners.

Figure 1

Mean response times (seconds) collapsed across all ratings by sexual partner status for male and female participants. * denotes a significant difference within females between groups (p < 0.01).

Figure 2

Scatterplot of women’s mean subjective evaluations of attractiveness (x-axis) with their mean response times (y-axis). Response times and ratings were significantly correlated (r = 0.44, p = 0.05).