The DOI matches its Crossref record; 88 of the 88 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Sexual strategies theory: an evolutionary perspective on human mating
Abstract
This article proposes a contextual-evolutionary theory of human mating strategies. Both men and women are hypothesized to have evolved distinct psychological mechanisms that underlie short-term and long-term strategies. Men and women confront different adaptive problems in short-term as opposed to long-term mating contexts. Consequently, different mate preferences become activated from their strategic repertoires. Nine key hypotheses and 22 predictions from Sexual Strategies Theory are outlined and tested empirically. Adaptive problems sensitive to context include sexual accessibility, fertility assessment, commitment seeking and avoidance, immediate and enduring resource procurement, paternity certainty, assessment of mate value, and parental investment. Discussion summarizes 6 additional sources of behavioral data, outlines adaptive problems common to both sexes, and suggests additional contexts likely to cause shifts in mating strategy.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Women have evolved to be the “choosier sex” when selecting a mating partner, as there is a greater investment of resources in offspring [37,38].”
From Does Relationship-Contingent Self-Esteem Play a Role in the Stress to Impaired Control Pathway to Alcohol-Related Problems in a College Student Sample? (2023) · cites this paper as [37]
In the citing paper
“Evolutionary theory suggests a biological basis for sex differences in partnering preferences, indicating women may be more likely to prefer long-term relationships because they will have a greater personal investment in children resulting from sexual encounters due to the long-term commitment of pregnancy and nursing, while men also prefer long-term relationships but may be more interested than”
From The role of culture in explaining college students’ selection into hookups, dates, and long-term romantic relationships (2016) · cites this paper as Buss & Schmitt, 1993
In the citing paper
“Social norms can shape desired partnership types, desired types of partners, and interact with market forces to shape structural opportunities to meet potential partners with complementary preferences in contexts that facilitate romantic and/or sexual partnering (Buss & Schmitt, 1993).”
From The role of culture in explaining college students’ selection into hookups, dates, and long-term romantic relationships (2016) · cites this paper as Buss & Schmitt, 1993
In the citing paper
“However, unlike prairie voles, which display a consistently strong partner preference, marmosets display a flexible pattern of sociosexual preferences (Smith et al., 2010; Cavanaugh et al., 2014), similar to those displayed by humans (Buss and Schmitt, 1993).”
From Marmosets treated with oxytocin are more socially attractive to their long-term mate (2015) · cites this paper as Buss and Schmitt, 1993
In the citing paper
“However, unlike prairie voles, which display consistently strong sociosexual preferences for a long-term partner over an opposite-sex stranger (Wang and Aragona, 2004), marmosets display a flexible pattern of sociosexual preferences, similar to those displayed by humans (Buss and Schmitt, 1993), including a willingness to interact with a potential mate in the absence of a pair-mate (Evans, 1983;”
From Oxytocin facilitates fidelity in well-established marmoset pairs by reducing sociosexual behavior toward opposite-sex strangers (2014) · cites this paper as Buss and Schmitt, 1993
Citations
Cites
Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences
Cohen, J. (1990) · Computers Environment and Urban Systems · doi:10.1016/0198-9715(90)90050-4 · Cited by 65,417
Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.).
Lachenbruch, P. A., & Cohen, J. (1989) · Journal of the American Statistical Association · doi:10.2307/2290095 · Cited by 37,421
The genetical theory of natural selection
Fisher, R. A. (1930) · doi:10.5962/bhl.title.27468 · Cited by 17,617
The descent of man and selection in relation to sex
チャールス, ダ., & 茂穂, 田. (1907) · Tokyo Jinrui Gakkai zasshi · doi:10.1537/ase1887.22.495 · Cited by 10,909
Parental Investment and Sexual Selection
Trivers, R. L. (2017) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315129266-7 · Cited by 10,902
Statistical Methods for Psychology.
Gudgeon, A. C., & Howell, D. C. (1994) · Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series D (The Statistician) · doi:10.2307/2348956 · Cited by 8,277
Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man
(2017) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315129266 · Cited by 7,287
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male
Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. R., & Martin, C. E. (1948) · Physical Therapy · doi:10.1093/ptj/28.2.93 · Cited by 5,577
The Adapted mind : evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture
Barkow, J. H., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992) · Cited by 5,222
Sexual Behavior in the Human Female
Oyler, M. D., Kinsey, A., Pomeroy, W. B., Martin, C. E., & Gebhard, P. (1954) · Harvard Law Review · doi:10.2307/1336986 · Cited by 4,609
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective
Bandura, A. (2001) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.1 · Cited by 15,510
Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review
Langlois, J. H., Kalakanis, L., Rubenstein, A. J., Larson, A., Hallam, M., & Smoot, M. (2000) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.126.3.390 · Cited by 2,429
Social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation.
Bussey, K., & Bandura, A. (1999) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.106.4.676 · Cited by 2,476
Depue, R. A., & Collins, P. F. (1999) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x99002046 · Cited by 2,046
Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective
Bandura, A. (1999) · Asian Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/1467-839x.00024 · Cited by 2,050
Metadata
- Authors
- Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Review
- Published
- 1993
- Volume
- 100
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 204-232
- ISSN
- 0033-295X (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1471
- OpenAlex
- W1971871412
- Cited by
- 4,253
- References
- 87
- Citations by year
- 2026: 98 · 2025: 97 · 2024: 127 · 2023: 210 · 2022: 178 · 2021: 240 · 2020: 323 · 2019: 221 · 2018: 216 · 2017: 172 · 2016: 195 · 2015: 234 · 2014: 197 · 2013: 179 · 2012: 182
- FWCI
- 63.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r01mh044206-03)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH44206)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Keywords
- sexual strategies theory, human mating strategies, short-term mating, long-term mating, mate preferences, fertility assessment, commitment, resource procurement, paternity certainty, mate value, parental investment, sex differences, evolutionary psychology
- MeSH terms
- Biological Evolution, Female, Gender Identity, Humans, Male, Problem Solving, Sexual Behavior, Social Environment, Social Values, Parenting
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
