One of the most important decisions an individual can make is to invest in a relationship. For women, the process of mate selection can be time-intensive, and fraught with costs and dangers. However, these risks can be minimised by modelling the mate choices of others. The propensity to imitate another’s mate choices is referred to as mate copying. Most research has focused on this behaviour in nonhumans, but evidence of its existence in humans is emerging. In the current study, 750 women evaluated men’s desirability based on vignettes containing information provided by men’s former partners. A man’s desirability was enhanced in the presence of positive cues (i.e. when he was described as a “good” partner and his former relationship ended mutually). In contrast, a man’s desirability diminished in the presence of negative cues (i.e. when he was described as a “bad” partner and/or his former relationship breakup was female initiated). Overall, the current study adds to the existing body of knowledge on mate copying by demonstrating how females incorporate social learning and innate evolutionary drives to facilitate decision-making and behaviour relating to mate selection.

中文翻译：

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女性伴侣复制：衡量前伴侣提供的伴侣相关信息的效果

个人可以做出的最重要的决定之一就是投资一段恋爱关系。对于女性而言，选择伴侣的过程可能很耗时，并且充满了成本和危险。但是，可以通过对其他选择进行建模来将这些风险降到最低。模仿他人的配偶选择的倾向被称为配偶复制。大多数研究都将重点放在非人类的这种行为上，但是在人类中存在这种行为的证据正在出现。在当前的研究中，有750名妇女根据小插曲评估了男人的可取性，这些小插曲包含了男性前任伴侣提供的信息。有了积极的暗示（例如，当他被描述为“好”伴侣并且他以前的恋爱关系相互终止时），男人的渴望就增强了。相反，在存在负面暗示的情况下，一个人的可取性降低了（即 当他被描述为“坏”伴侣和/或他以前的恋爱关系破裂是女性发起的。总体而言，本研究通过展示女性如何融入社会学习和与生俱来的进化驱动力来促进与配偶选择有关的决策和行为，从而增加了现有的配偶复制知识。