Social exclusion and female mating behavior: rejected women show strategic enhancement of short-term mating interest

Abstract

Because cost asymmetries in sexual reproduction have historically enabled women to exchange sexual access for other resources, including social resources, we tested the possibility that social exclusion would lead women to display an elevated preference for short-term mating strategies in the service of reaffiliation. In Study 1, women were given false feedback to manipulate social inclusion or exclusion prior to indicating their endorsement of short and long-term mating behaviors. Socially excluded women indicated greater interest in short-term mating and reduced interest in long-term mating. In Study 2, women wrote about a social inclusion, social exclusion, or control experience and then indicated their preference for different male body types. Women in the social exclusion condition preferred more muscular male partners--a pattern of preference typical of short-term mating--than women in the other conditions. Collectively, these results are consistent with a social exchange theory of women's sexual behavior following social exclusion.

Figure 1.

Participant mating interest by condition in Study 1. Sociosexuality Inventory (SOI) scores are displayed in the top panel and Mini-K scores are displayed in the bottom panel.

Figure 2.

Participants' preference for a muscular body type in a short-term mate by condition in Study 2.