Department of Psychology, Nipissing University, North Bay, P1B 8L7, ON, Canada.
Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Arch Sex Behav. 2021 Nov;50(8):3675-3685. doi: 10.1007/s10508-021-01945-6. Epub 2021 Oct 18.
Sex differences in mate preferences are well established. It is also well understood that humans often seek to manipulate their standing on important mate-value traits. Yet, there is a paucity of work examining potential sex differences in response to deception along these important dimensions. In Study 1, a sample of 280 undergraduates (123 females) responded to a hypothetical online dating scenario asking participants to rank how upset they would be if deceived about a date's attractiveness, occupation, or volunteerism. Women ranked occupation deception as more upsetting than men did, and men ranked attractiveness deception as more upsetting than women did. Given potential measurement differences between forced-choice and continuous response options, Study 2 randomly assigned 364 undergraduates (188 females) to one of the deceptions conditions and asked them to report their level of upset and willingness to go on the date using a continuous response scale. Women were more likely than men to cancel the date if the deception involved volunteerism or occupation. There was no significant sex difference in the attractiveness condition. Neither mate value nor sociosexuality moderated the sex difference in the levels of upset due to the deception. Together, these findings demonstrate that women and men exhibit differences in the degree to which they become upset by opposite sex deceptions in online dating, regardless of self-perceived mate value and sociosexuality, in alignment with evolved sex differences in mate preferences.
性别在伴侣偏好上的差异是既定的。人们也很清楚，人类经常试图操纵自己在重要伴侣价值特征上的地位。然而，很少有研究探讨在这些重要维度上，欺骗行为可能存在的性别差异。在研究 1 中，280 名本科生（123 名女性）参与了一项假设的在线约会情景，要求参与者对约会对象的吸引力、职业或志愿工作方面的欺骗行为表示不满的程度进行排名。女性对职业欺骗的不满程度高于男性，而男性对吸引力欺骗的不满程度高于女性。鉴于强制选择和连续反应选项之间可能存在测量差异，研究 2 随机将 364 名本科生（188 名女性）分配到欺骗条件之一，并要求他们使用连续反应量表报告自己的不满程度和约会意愿。如果欺骗涉及志愿工作或职业，女性比男性更有可能取消约会。在吸引力条件下，性别差异不显著。无论是伴侣价值还是社交性，都不能调节欺骗行为引起的性别的不满程度差异。综上所述，这些发现表明，无论自我感知的伴侣价值和社交性如何，女性和男性在因在线约会中的异性欺骗而感到不满的程度上存在差异，这与伴侣偏好方面的进化性别差异一致。
