Young adults' sexual strategies and mating displays in the virtual world: an evolutionary perspective

Abstract

Life History Theory (LHT) predicts that natural selection favours a degree of developmental plasticity when it comes to sexual strategies and mating displays. Individuals should develop a faster life history strategy (showing, for example, higher mating effort and a preference for a variety of mates) when they are raised in a relatively unstable environment with high extrinsic mortality. In contrast, individuals should develop a slower life history strategy (showing, for example, lower mating effort and a preference for investment in longterm parenting) when they are raised in a relatively stable environment with low extrinsic mortality. Most previous research examining predictions derived from LHT regarding sexual strategies and mating displays has used survey designs and self-report instruments exclusively. The current study represents a departure from such designs in that I used a quasiexperimental design to examine sexual strategies and mating displays in virtual chatrooms, and to test LHT-based predictions about those strategies and displays. Specifically, I tested the hypotheses that, in the chatrooms, individuals would adopt sexual strategies and mating displays reflective of their different life history strategies, and that these behaviours would manifest in the virtual world much like they have been documented to manifest in the real world. I used the Mini-K Short Form questionnaire, a 20-item instrument designed to measure both cognitive and behavioural aspects of life history strategy, to designate undergraduate males (n = 44) and females (n = 47) as having either a fast or a slow life history. Ten separate groups of these participants, each featuring 3-5 men and 4-5 women, then interacted in separate 1-hour online chat sessions. Results showed that LHS accurately predicted the ways in which male and female participants engaged with one another. Furthermore, men that remained consistent in their LHS presentation (i.e., they behaved in ways consistent with what their LHS predicted they should) were more popular among women than men who were not consistent in this presentation. These results demonstrate the power of evolutionary-based theories of sexual interaction to predict sexual strategies and mating displays in online settings. Further, the 'pure' environment of the online platform, without extraneous real-world constraints, provided an opportunity to document and examine sexual strategies and mating displays in new and exciting ways.