Social exclusion and women's short-term sexual motivation: the role of perceived vulnerability

Abstract

For our ancestors, social exclusion was a severe threat to their evolutionary goals, and, consequently, we have evolved a wide range of coping strategies. Elevated motives to pursue short-term sexual relationships presents one potential, yet relatively unexamined, strategy for women following experiences of exclusion. The present research aimed to address this gap by examining the influence of exclusion on women’s short-term mating (STM) motives, and the role of perceived vulnerability to physical threats on this relationship. I predicted that exclusion would lead unpartnered women, but not unpartnered men, to exhibit elevated STM motives, and that heightened perceived vulnerability would mediate this relationship. Results did not support these hypothesized relationships, but do suggest that exclusion may instead lead to decreased STM motives among unpartnered women (Study 3). Additionally, while not influenced by social exclusion, greater perceptions of vulnerability to physical threats were related to greater STM motives.