An evolutionary perspective on intergroup dating bias. Issue 1 (2nd January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brindley, Samantha; McDonald, Melissa M.; Welling, Lisa L. M.; Zeigler-Hill, Virgil
• Is Part Of: Comprehensive results in social psychology. Volume 3:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 28
• Page End: 55
• Publication Date: 2018-01-02
• Subjects: Intergroup bias -- mate choice -- dating -- threat-management -- female preferences; Social psychology -- Periodicals; 302
• DOI: 10.1080/23743603.2018.1436939
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2374-3603

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Across a diversity of contexts, men tend to exhibit greater intergroup bias than do women. However, in the domain of dating, this trend is reversed, such that women more strongly prefer to date men of their own racial group. Researchers employing an evolutionary perspective suggest that this sex difference can be explained by an evolutionary history in which men and women faced distinct adaptive challenges in their interactions with outgroup men. For women, outgroup men posed a recurrent threat of sexual coercion. Given the importance of reproductive choice in female mating strategies, this may have exerted selection pressure for psychological mechanisms that promote avoidance of outgroup men. Here we pre-registered a two-study design to examine whether women's intergroup dating bias, manipulated via nationality to control for racial stereotypes, could be altered by manipulating the formidability of outgroup dating targets, thereby ameliorating or exacerbating their perceived threat. The design did not produce the predicted pattern of intergroup bias, suggesting that the manipulation of group status may need to be stronger. Implications and future directions are discussed.