Psychological Development and Education ›› 2021, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (1): 54-59.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.01.07

Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Influence of Different Operational Sex Ratios and Childhood Economic Status on Unmarried Males' Unrestricted Sociosexual Attitudes

WANG Yan1, WANG Sufang2, ZHANG Yina3, WANG Kai1   

  1. 1. Department of Psychology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433;
    2. Department of mathematics and Physics, Luoyang Institute of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023;
    3. Department of Social management and public policy, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433
  • Published:2021-01-22

RichHTML

PDF (PC)

Abstract: On the basis of life history theory, this research aims to explore how sex ratios influence unmarried male's unrestricted sociosexual attitudes. Two experiments are carried out to testify the hypothesis that young male's childhood economic background plays a moderating role between the perceived sex ratio in the environment and their unrestricted sociosexual attitudes. Experiment 1 adopted series of facial photo pictures, which was consist of 6 male and 2 female facial photo pictures or 2 male and 6 female ones, as the priming material of different sex ratio.Results indicated that perceived sex ratio and childhood economic status showed a significant interactive effect on male's unrestricted sociosexual attitudes:men with lower level of childhood economic status displayed a higher level of acceptance to casual sexual behaviors when primed with low sex ratio than that primed with high sex ratio; male with higher level of childhood economic background exhibited a stable level of sexual attitudes under different priming conditions. In addition, childhood economic background produced a significant main effect on male's attitude to casual sexual behaviors. The perceived sex ratio did not have a significant main effect on men's unrestricted sociosexual attitudes. Experiment 2 adopted pseudo news reports, which depicted the situation of unbalanced sex ratio (more female or more male) in current China, as the priming materials. The result was similar with that in Experiment 1:Sex ratio and childhood economic status influenced male's unrestricted sociosexual attitudes interactively:Men with poorer childhood economic status showed higher level of acceptance to casual sexual behaviors when primed with low sex ratio in comparison with that of high sex ratio; men with a relatively richer childhood status showed a stable level of acceptance to casual sexual behaviors under both of the perceived unbalanced sex ratio in the background. In addition, childhood economic condition as well as the perceived sex ratio did not have a significant main effect on male's attitude to casual sexual behaviors. Conclusion:Overall,both of the two experiments support that sex ratio and childhood economic status produce an interactive influence on male's unrestricted sociosexual attitudes:the unmarried male participants with poor childhood economic status increase the level of their acceptance to casual sexual behaviors under the condition of more females in comparison of that under the condition of more males, while the unmarried men with rich childhood economic status show a relatively stable level of acceptance to casual sexual behaviors under different priming conditions of sex ratio.

Key words: unrestricted sociosexual attitude, perceived sex ratio, childhood economic background, life history theory

CLC Number: 

  • B844
Belsky, J. (2010). Childhood experience and the development of reproductive strategies.Psicothema, 22, 28-34.
Belsky, J., Houts, R. M., & Fearon, R. M. (2010). Infant attachment security and the timing of puberty.Psychological Science, 21, 1195-1201.
Belsky, J., Steinberg, L., & Draper, P. (1991). Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy:An evolutionaray theory of socialization.Child Development, 62, 647-670.
Browning, C. R., Leventhal, T., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2005). Sexual initiation in early adolescence:The nexus of parental and community control.American Sociological Review, 70, 758-778.
Buss D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory:An evolutionary perspective on human mating.Psychological Review, 100, 204-232.
Chang, L., Lu, H. J., Lansford, J. E., Skinner, A. T., Bornstein, M. H., Steinberg, L.…Tapanya, S. (2019). Environmental harshness and unpredictability, life history, and social and academic behavior of adolescents in nine countries.Developmental Psychology, 55(4), 890-903.
Charnov, E. L. (1993). Life History Invariants.Oxford, UK:Oxford University Press.
Chen, B. B., & Chang, L. (2016). Procrastination as a fast life history strategy.Evolutionary Psychology, 14, 1-5.
Daan, S., & Tinbergen, J. (1997).Adaptation of life histories. In J. R. Krebs & N. B. Davies (Eds.), Behavioural Ecology:An evolutionary approach. (4th ed., pp. 311-333). Oxford, UK:Blackwell.
Daan, S., & Tinbergen, J. (1997). Adaptation of life histories. In J. R. Krebs & N. B. Davies (Eds.), Behavioural Ecology:An evolutionary approach. (4th ed., pp. 311-333). Oxford, UK:Blackwell.
Draper, P., & Harpending, H. (1982). Father absence and reproductive strategy:an evolutionary perspective.Journal of Anthropological Research, 38, 255-273.
Ellis, B., Boyce, W. T., Belsky, J., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2011).Differential susceptibility to the environment:An evolutionary-neurodevelopmental theory. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 7-28.
Griskevicius, V., Ackerman, J. M., Cantú, S. M., Delton, A. W., Robertson, T. E., Simpson, J. A.,…Tybur, J. M. (2013). When the economy falters, do people spend or save? Responses to resource scarcity depend on childhood environments.Psychological Science, 24, 197-205.
Griskevicius, V., Delton, A. W., Robertson, T. E., & Tybur, J. M. (2011). Environmental contingency in life history strategies:The influence of mortality and socioeconomic status on reproductive timing.Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 100, 241-54.
Griskevicius, V., Simpson, J. A., Durante, K. M., Kim, J. S., & Cantu, S. M. (2012).Evolution, Social Influence, and Sex Ratio. In D. T. Kenrick (Ed), Six Degrees of Social Influence (pp.78-88). Oxford, UK:Oxford University Press.
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis:A regression-based approach. New York, NY, US:Guilford Press.
Hendrick, C.,Hendrick, S. S., & Reich, D. A. (2006). The brief sexual attitudes scale. Journal of Sex Research, 43(1), 76-86.
Johnson, J. J., & Kirkpatric, L. A. (2007).Adolescent sexual onset:An intergenerational analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36, 939-949.
Kaplan, H. S., & Gangestad, S. W. (2005). Life history theory and evolutionary psychology. In D. M. Buss (Ed),The handbook of evolutionary psychology (pp. 68-95). Hoboken, NJ:Wiley.
Low, B. S., Hazel, A., Parker, N., & Welch, K. B. (2008). Influences on women's reproductive lives:Unexpected ecological underpinnings.Cross-Cultural Research:The Journal of Comparative Social Science, 42, 201-219.
Lu, H.J., & Chang, L. (2019). Aggression and risk taking as adaptive implementations of fast life history strategy.Developmental Science. DOI:10.1111/desc.12827.
Lu, H.J., Wong, K., & Chang, L. (2017). The association between life history strategy and mate preference in men.Personality and Individual Differences, 116, 157-163.
Moss, J. H., & Maner, J. K. (2016). Biased sex ratios influence fundamental aspects of human mating. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(1), 72-80.
Pedersen, F. A. (1991). Secular trends in human sex ratios:Their influence on individual and family behavior. Human Nature, 2, 271-291.
Roff, D. A. (2002). Life history evolution. Sunderland, MA:Sinauer.
Schacht, R., & Mulder, M. B. (2015). Sex ratio effects on reproductive strategies in humans. Royal Society Open Science, 2:140402. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.140402
Schmitt, D. P. (2005). Sociosexuality from argentina to zimbabwe:A 48-nation study of sex, culture, and strategies of human mating.Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 28, 247-311.
Tinbergen, J. M., & Both, C. (1999). Is clutch size individually optimized? Behavioral Ecology, 10, 504-509.
Wilson, M., & Daly, M. (1997). Life expectancy, economic inequality, homicide, and reproductive timing in chicago neighbourhoods.Bmj Clinical Research, 314, 1271-1274.
Worthman, C. M., & Kuzara, J. (2005). Life history and the early origins of health differentials.American Journal of Human Biology, 17(17), 95-112.
石雅茗, 刘爽. (2015). 中国出生性别比的新变化及其思考. 人口研究, 39(4), 35-48.
王燕, 侯博文, 李歆瑶, 李晓煦, 焦璐. (2017). 不同性别比和资源获取能力对未婚男性择偶标准的影响. 心理学报,49(9), 1195-1205.
王雨晴, 姚鹏飞, 周国梅. (2015). 面孔吸引力、人格标签对于男女择偶偏好的影响. 心理学报, 47, 108-118.
魏彤儒, 张刚. (2010). 中国现代社会"城市剩女"问题的思考. 中国青年研究, 2010(5), 22-24.
中国家庭发展报告. (2015). 国家卫生计生委.2015-05-13取自http://www.rmzxb.com.cn/c/2015-05-13/499347.shtml
[1] GUAN Wenjun, HU Mengjuan, LIU Chen. Perceived Discrimination and Intergroup Relations among Parents of ASD: A Moderated Mediation Model [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2021, 37(6): 854-863.
[2] LI Weijia, HU Qingfen. The Variety of Position Representation in Reorientation: Evidence from Virtual Reality Experiment [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 385-394.
[3] XIANG Ling, FAN Shuxian, CHEN Jiali, WANG Baoxi. A Study on the Characteristics of Cognitive Control of Adolescent with Learning Disabilities [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 410-416.
[4] HOU Fen, WU Xinchun, ZOU Shengqi, LIU Chang, HUANG Binbin. The Association between Parental Involvement and Adolescent's Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of Parent-child Attachment [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 417-425.
[5] KAN Jiaqi, LIU Siman, SHI Jiahui, YAN Qi, GUO Junbin, WANG Zhengyan. The Associations among Maternal and Grandparents' Mind-mindedness, Mother-Infant Attachment and Infants' Cognition under the Background of Grandmother Co-parenting: A Moderated Mediation Model [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 395-402.
[6] TIAN Yunlong, YU Chengfu, LIN Shuang, YE Shimin, ZHANG Xiaolin, LIU Yi, LU Hong, ZHANG Wei. Parental Corporal Punishment, School Engagement and Internet Gaming Addiction among Adolescents: Parent-Adolescent Relationship as a Moderator [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 461-471.
[7] LI Ruoxuan, ZHU Wenlong, LIU Hongrui, YAO Meilin. How Parental Educational Expectations Influence Student Academic Burnout: The Mediating Role of Educational Involvement and Moderating Role of Family Functioning [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 489-496.
[8] PENG yuan, ZHU lei, WANG zhenhong. Association between Parental Emotion Expressiveness and Adolescents' Behavior Problem: the Mediating Role of the Parent-Child Attachment and Loneliness [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 504-512.
[9] JIANG Yongqiang, SHAO Yuntian, LIN Xiuyun, HE Xianyou. The Associations among Class Group Attachment, Self-compassion, and Learning Burnout among Junior Middle School Students [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 472-480.
[10] FAN Hang, ZHU Zhuan, MIAO Lingtong, LIU Shen, ZHANG Lin. Impact of Parents' Marital Conflict on Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: A Moderated Mediation Model [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 481-488.
[11] YE Baojuan, ZHU Lijun, FANG Xiaoting, LIU Mingfan, WANG Kaikai, YANG Qiang. The Effect of Perceived Stress on College Students' Depression: Moderated Mediating Effect [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 497-503.
[12] CHEN Qingqiu, XU Hua, WU Nan. The Occurrence and Development of Children's Gratitude Awareness in Helping Situations [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 403-409.
[13] XU Lulu, WU Peipei, HE Wen. Meta-Stereotype Threat Effects on Intergroup Relations among Impoverished Undergraduates: A Moderated Mediation Model of Intergroup Anxiety and Self-esteem [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(4): 426-433.
[14] DING Zien, WANG Xiaohan, LIU Qinxue. The Relationship between College Students' Self-esteem and Cyber Aggressive Behavior: the Role of Social Anxiety and Dual Self-consciousness [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(2): 171-180.
[15] LIU Xueping, CHEN Zizhuo, HUANG Wen, PENG Huamao. The Definitions and Predictors of Successful Aging [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(2): 249-256.
Viewed
Full text


Abstract

Cited
  Shared   
  Discussed   
No Suggested Reading articles found!
Copyright 2018 © Editorial office of Psychological Development and Education
Supported by Beijing Magtech Co.Ltd