ABSTRACT

Mate copying is a sexual strategy whereby individuals attend to socially available information about their prospective mate. This allows for more accurate decision making in regard to mating. This phenomenon was originally demonstrated among nonhumans, but there is an increasing weight of evidence suggesting that humans also engage in mate copying. Research typically focuses on heterosexual cisgender women, with no previous studies having looked at those identifying outside of the traditional gender binary. The current study aimed to address this gap by examining the impact of gender identity and sexual orientation on the propensity to engage in mate copying. Participants (N = 831) completed an online survey providing desirability ratings for photographs alone (T₁) and then rated the same photographs after receiving social information about the relationship status and previous relationship history of the pictured individual (T₂). It was found that both gender identity (F(4, 713) = 3.94, η_p² = .02) and sexual orientation (F(4, 713) = 4.40, η_p² = .02) influenced an individual’s overall propensity to mate copy, and that desirability patterns for individuals were very different depending on these variables. It was concluded that while mate copying certainly is evident among humans, the phenomenon is extremely nuanced and sensitive.

摘要

伴侣复制是一种性策略，个人通过这种策略关注有关其未来伴侣的社会可用信息。这允许在交配方面做出更准确的决策。这种现象最初在非人类中得到证实，但越来越多的证据表明人类也参与了配偶复制。研究通常侧重于异性恋顺性别女性，之前没有研究关注那些在传统性别二元之外识别的女性。当前的研究旨在通过检查性别认同和性取向对参与配偶复制倾向的影响来解决这一差距。参与者 ( N = 831) 完成了一项在线调查，仅对照片 (T ₁) 然后在收到有关照片中个人的关系状态和以前的关系历史的社会信息后对相同的照片进行评级 (T ₂ )。结果发现，性别认同 ( F (4, 713) = 3.94, η _p ²  = .02) 和性取向 ( F (4, 713) = 4.40, η _p ²  = .02) 都会影响个体的总体倾向mate copy，并且根据这些变量，个人的可取性模式非常不同。得出的结论是，虽然配偶复制在人类中确实很明显，但这种现象极其微妙和敏感。