Understanding Sexual Conflict in Social Relationships and Mating
School
University of Texas**We aren't endorsed by this school
Course
PSY 306
Subject
Sociology
Date
Dec 12, 2024
Pages
15
Uploaded by BailiffCrowPerson492
10/9110/9 SEXUAL CONFLICTSexual Conflict in Social Relationshipsoccurs in many social relationshipshierarchal → work, business, position in power harassment sexual abuse in step families conflict between parents and children, daughter guarding → focus more on daughters, tend to influence or manipulate their sexual conduct and mate choice, curfews, occurs cross culturally coalitions → ritual prior to raids where they exclude women from group → sexual jealousy (mate poaching, affairs) → increase unity of the coalitionopposite sex friendships → women fiind it easier to be just friendships, men find it more difficult → more likely to become attracted → not reciprocated results in conflict in friendshipsame sex → mate poachingHistorical Assumption of Mating Harmony within evolutionary biologysexual reproducing species, male and females need to cooperate, mate and produce offspring , cooperating mutual interest in offspring within psychology any sexual conflict within a marriage → sign of dysfunction and need for therapy Harmony Assumption Challenged
10/92difficult to reconcile with the observation that sexual conflicts pervade human social interactiontheoretical developments in sexual conflict theory have caused radical shift away from harmony assumptionnot entirely wrong → tons of cooperation is present but sexual conflict can also occur in the context of long term relationships Sexual Conflict Began w/ Sexual Reproduction: 1.2 - 2B Years Agowith the origin of sexual reproductionasexual reproduction present before mothers created daughters that were essentially genetic cloneseasier process → don’t have to search, attract, or select a mate → eliminates barriers clonal species ( NOT HUMANS) Sexual Conflict Wrapped in Silkmale spiders give female spiders of prey wrapped in silk to attract matesfemale can’t steal it as it is wrapped in silk → female has to unwrap and male is able to copulatesometimes male just wrap random trash to trick female → females smelling become strong → males learn to rub food to trick them moreoffset of defenses / offenses → sexual conflict Intersexual Conflict Defined“A conflict between the evolutionary interests of individuals of the two sexes” (Parker, 2006)key point: Notbetween “males as a group” and “females as a group”, which cannot occur from an evolutionary perspectivebetween males and females
10/93A conflict between the evolutionary interestindividual female and male having a specific conflictmale are primarily in conflict with other men to have access for womencompetition within the same sex → not united in sex convergence and alliance with some member of the other sex → men with mothers, sisters, friends, daughters → women with sons, fathers, brothersYoutube VideoTemporal Dimension of Sexual Conflictshort term and long term mating high level of monogamy some level nonmonogamyinfidelity and cheating counter adaptations to themsexual conflict prior to matingsexual harassmentdeceptionsexual conflict during a mateshipsexual, emotional, financial infidelitysexual jealousysexual conflict after a breakupstalking unrequited love Sexual Conflict Prior to Mating
10/94male optimum and female optimum elapsed before seeking or consenting to sexmen allow less time, women with more time(short term) sex can be more costly for women → widen the window to asses the quality of the male and any deception zone of conflict will create selection pressures for men to adapt to influence or manipulate women to be closer to his optimum and vice versa amount of investment → will differ in both sexes
10/95guy might overcompensate his mate value and try mating with mates with higher mate values especially those with narcissism a partner in an already formed relationship tries to diminish partner’s mate value to keep them Meta-Theory of Sex Differencesmen and women differ in domains where they have recurrently faced different adaptive problems over human evolutionary history fall heavily within the domains of sexuality and mating similar adaptive problems - similar in their evolved psychologyRecurrently Different Adaptive Problems of the Sexesinternal female fertilizationgenetic cuckoldryparental uncertainty potential for misdirected parental investmentobligatory parental investment9th monthsmetabolic demands of breast feeding
10/96babies rely on mother’s breastfeeding Unwanted Sexual Attention and Sexual HarassmentSexual Over-Perception Biassome cues are ambiguoussmiling interested or polite or nervous eye contactincidental touch on the armmake influences of the desires and goals of the other personError Management Theory(Haselton & Buss, 2000)we live in an uncertain social worldmany psychological states are concealed or crypticwe don’t know what goes on in other people’s mindsmake inferences on probabilistic cues chaos of probabilistic cuestwo ways to err:failing to detect statewomen gives hint of being interested but man is oblivious falsely inferring statewomen smiled to be polite but interpreted as a sign to approachcost asymmetry between the two types of errors
10/97you think there’s a snake in bush → go in bush and die because of snake or circumnavigate the bush and there is no snake → it is more costly to die avoids more costly errors reproduction opportunities were rare for men→ not that many women around limited time where women were fertile and available → breast feeding and pregnancy takes a huge chunk conclusion: “Adaptive biases” to avoid more costly errorminimizing on missing out the other opportunitytheir are social costs of rejectionadaptations that distort perceptionsRatings of Women’s Sexual Interest, Given Cuemen and women are evaluating the same cues differently Sexual Over-Perception Bias
10/98speed dating experimentinteract with one another for a time and then asked how interested they were to each othermen has overperception bias → more likely to think she’s interested in himwoman underperception bias → he’s not interested in meDefending Against Unwanted Sexual Attentionfemale sexual under-perception bias in some contexts → ‘not seeing’ or ignoring unwanted sexual attention
10/99sometimes it turns on woman when a guy is not interested hypothesized reversal: female sexual over-perception bias with strange males might think male strangers are more interested even if they’re dangerous Male Sexual Over-Perception and Sexual Harassmentsupermarket chain: ‘superior customer service’clerks instructed to smile and make eye contact with customers led to requests for dates, sexual propositions, and in some cases stalking women filed sexual harassment lawsuitseliminating the policy dramatically reduced sexual harassment Sexual Over-Perception Biasnot all menmen high on Narcissismmen high on SOI, short term mating strategy these men are prone to itSOI → Socio-Sexual Orientation Inventory measure of what degree are you pursuing a short term mating strategy or not maximize quantity Features of Male Sexual Psychology Produce Unwanted Persistencemale sexual over-perception bias (Haselton & Buss, 2000)strongest for attractive women (Perilloux, Confer, & Buss, 2012)failures at cross sex mind reading (Buss Lab ongoing: Bas Costello, Hahnel-Peeters, Schmitt)
10/910woman are more accurate in infrences and men are less accurate misperceptions of own mate valuelow thresholds for sexual attraction (Symons, 1979)men are more likely to be sexually attracted to a much larger array of women than women are to menwomen are more selective and attracted to a smaller amoutn of menSex Differences in “How Harassing Is This Act?”he stared at her chest while talking with herhe asked her if she would take off her clotheshe leered at her as she walked byhe told her about his sexual expertisehe told her that if she women view these acts as more harassing than men Sex Differences in Perceptions of Sexual Harassmentwomen more upset than men by the same actionswomen perceive the same acts as more sexual harassing than do menThe “Reasonable Person” Standard in Sexual Harassment Policiesif men and women differ, then this is a problem since there is no generic reasonable personwomen have different perceptions of what is harassment than menvictims are overwhelmingly mainly women (90%), most perpetrators are menmale victims are harassed by men and minority targeted by women Deceptionmen and women both deceive in the mating market
10/911(mostly) men → height, status, relationship status women → weight Sexually Antagonistic Co-Evolutionreciprocal evolutionary changes between the sexes produced by sexual conflictproducing offensive adaptations that favor one sex, defensive counter-adaptations in the other sex, counter-counter adaptations, etcresulting in perpetual arms racesMale Initiated Sexual Deception
10/912if men deceive, women evolved defenses against deception → decline in fitness or reproductive success of men → more sophisticated deception methodsMost Frequent Forms of Deception Experiences by Women in Short-Termfalsely implied he has stronger feelings than he really had44%exaggerated how sincere, trustworthy or kind he was ou 42%led you to believe more compatible than really were36%concealed having flirted with others while involved with you34%misled you by indicating he wanted a long-term commitment28%concealed having a large number of previous sex partners27%Emotional Upset About Deception: Pre- and Post Copulation
10/913Female Initiated Sexual Deception
10/914Upset Over Sexual Deceptionmen are more upset with certain things than womenDyadic Antagonistic Coevolution: Sexual Deceptionfemale adaptationsfalsely imply sex to extract resources Bait and switch: imply “costless sex” and then infiltrate the man’s mind for LT relationshipcoevolved male defensesemotional upset about sexual deceptiontactics for avoiding entanglementsConclusions About Deceptionsex-linked deceptive strategiessex-linked emotional reactions, presumably co-evolved defenses against strategic interferenceeach corresponding precisely to recurrent adaptive men and women confront
10/915