Sunday, July 14, 2019

People touch their sexual partner’s saliva with little discomfort; partially from such observations, proposal is that pathogen avoidance also depends on target relationship value

More valued relationship partners engender less pathogen avoidance. Joshua Tybur. Human Behavior and Evolution Society 31st annual meeting. Boston 2019.

Abstract: People touch their own infant’s snot and their sexual partner’s saliva with little discomfort. Based partially on such observations, recent models have proposed that interpersonal pathogen avoidance varies not only as a function of perceived infection risk, but also target relationship value. The current work tested this hypothesis. In both of two studies (N’s = 504 and 430), participants were randomly assigned to think of a target who was: (1) their romantic partner; (2) their closest friend; (3) an acquaintance; or (4) a disliked other. They then indicated their comfort with 10 examples of infectious indirect contact with the target (e.g., touching a handkerchief used by the target). Finally, they completed a welfare-tradeoff task, which assessed the value they place on their relationship with the target. Study 1 revealed that comfort with infectious contact was strongly related to target relationship value, r = .68, p < .001; this effect remained after controlling for target category (e.g., romantic partner versus acquaintance), β = .21, p < .001. Study 2 replicated this finding, r = .62, p < .001, and further found that relationship value related to contact comfort independent of target category, attractiveness, and hygiene, β = .28, p < .001.

27 societies around the world: Long-term familial bonds are positively associated with psychological well-being, but mate-seeking motives are associated with anxiety and depression

Ko, Ahra, Cari M. Pick, Jung Y. Kwon, Michael Barlev, Jaimie Krems, Michael E. W. Varnum, PhD, Rebecca Neel, et al. 2019. “Family Matters: Rethinking the Psychology of Human Social Motivation.” PsyArXiv. July 14. doi:10.31234/

Abstract: What motives do people prioritize in their social lives? Historically, social psychologists, especially those adopting an evolutionary perspective, have devoted a great deal of research attention to sexual attraction and romantic partner choice (mate-seeking). Research on long-term familial bonds (mate retention and kin care) has been less thoroughly connected to relevant comparative and evolutionary work on other species, and in the case of kin care, less well researched. Examining varied sources of data from 27 societies around the world, we found that people generally view familial motives as primary in importance, and mate-seeking motives as relatively low in importance. College students, single people, and males place relatively higher emphasis on mate-seeking, but even those samples rated kin care motives as more important. Further, motives linked to long-term familial bonds are positively associated with psychological well-being, but mate-seeking motives are associated with anxiety and depression. We address theoretical and empirical reasons why there has been extensive research on mate-seeking, and why people prioritize goals related to long-term familial bonds over mating goals. Reallocating relatively greater research effort toward long-term familial relationships would likely yield many interesting new findings relevant to everyday people’s highest social priorities.