Sex Differences in the Effects of Parenting Primes on Marriage Decisions

Low, Chelsea

Publication

Sex Differences in the Effects of Parenting Primes on Marriage Decisions

Low, Chelsea

Date

2014

Additional date(s)

2014-12-01

Abstract

The current study shows that priming parenting motives has an effect on attitudes toward marriage. Parenting motives were primed by having male and female students view a series of images under the guise of completing a perceptual weight task, which included images of babies for those in the experimental condition. After viewing images of babies, women reported a younger age at which they would like to marry and more positive thoughts toward getting married in the next five years compared to women who did not view baby images. Men who viewed images of babies, on the other hand, reported a desire to marry at a later age and more negative thoughts toward getting married in the next five years compared to men in the control condition. Men with a high perceived mate value were the most affected by the parenting prime. The results of this study suggest that evolutionary motives may prime individuals to adopt an attitude toward pursuing current life history goals.