Finanzielle Abhängigkeit der Frau und ihre Einstellung zu unverbindlicherem Sex

Ein interessanter Artikel untersucht die mögliche Verbindung zwischen der finanziellen Unabhängigkeit von Frauen und ihrer Einstellung zu unverbindlicherem Sex (via):

In environments in which female economic dependence on a male mate is higher, male parental investment is more essential. In such environments, therefore, both sexes should value paternity certainty more and thus object more to promiscuity (because promiscuity undermines paternity certainty). We tested this theory of anti-promiscuity morality in two studies (N = 656 and N = 4,626) using U.S. samples. In both, we examined whether opposition to promiscuity was higher among people who perceived greater female economic dependence in their social network. In Study 2, we also tested whether economic indicators of female economic dependence (e.g., female income, welfare availability) predicted anti-promiscuity morality at the state level. Results from both studies supported the proposed theory. At the individual level, perceived female economic dependence explained significant variance in anti-promiscuity morality, even after controlling for variance explained by age, sex, religiosity, political conservatism, and the anti-promiscuity views of geographical neighbors. At the state level, median female income was strongly negatively related to anti-promiscuity morality and this relationship was fully mediated by perceived female economic dependence. These results were consistent with the view that anti-promiscuity beliefs may function to promote paternity certainty in circumstances where male parental investment is particularly important.

Quelle:  Female Economic Dependence and the Morality of Promiscuity

Also: Wenn Frauen sich nicht selbst versorgen können und abhängig von Männern sind, dann werten sie weibliche und männliche Kurzzeitstrategien ab, wenn sie sich selbst versorgen können oder jedenfalls nicht von einem Mann abhängig sind, dann erfolgt diese Abwertung weniger.

Das wäre unter evolutionären Betrachtungen in der Tat gut verständlich. Denn wenn die Verhältnisse knapp sind, dann ist ein promiskutives Verhalten von Männern und Frauen auch gefährlich für eine Versorgung, denn das Gegenstück zu einer gesicherten Versorgung ist die Vatersicherheit. Um so unsicherer die Vaterstellung eines Mannes um so geringer wird seine Bereitschaft sein, ein potentiell nicht von ihm stammendes Kind zu versorgen. Zudem bietet eine promiskutivere Gesellschaft auch anderen Frauen mehr Gelegenheiten im Wege der intrasexuellen Konkurrenz den Mann wegzuschnappen.

In dem Artikel finden sich interessante Ausführungen zu den jeweiligen Strategien:

Cross-culturally and on average, men exhibit greater motivation than women to engage in short-term mating (Schmitt, 2005a), which is consistent with the fact that they, as the sex with lower obligatory parental investment, can generally derive more reproductive benefits from having many mates (Trivers, 1972). However, although men can benefit from short-term mating under a wider range of circumstances than can women, in ancestral environments, a willingness to mate with multiple males under certain circumstances (i.e., facultative polyandry) could potentially have benefited females in several ways (Greiling & Buss, 2000; Smith, 1984). For example, multiple matings could have facilitated resource acquisition, either in direct exchange for sex (Symons, 1979) or by eliciting paternal investment from multiple men via paternity confusion (Hrdy, 1981). Additionally, indirect benefits may have been derived by ancestral women who accepted resources and parental effort from a primary mate while engaging in extra-pair copulations with men of superior genetic quality (Gangestad & Thornhill, 2008; Greiling & Buss, 2000; Smith, 1984). Extra-pair sex may also have served as a useful “insurance” against the possibility of infertility in a primary mate or as a means to promote genetic diversity in offspring as a “hedge” against environmental unpredictability (Smith, 1984). Potential genetic benefits of multiple mating for females are reviewed comprehensively by Jennions and Petrie (2000).

Women vary substantially in their willingness to engage in short-term mating (Simpson & Gangestad, 1991) and evidence suggests that some of this variation reflects females making trade-offs between producing offspring of “high genetic quality” and securing male parental investment (Gangestad & Simpson, 2000). Across species, in those where male parental investment is very low, relationships tend to be short-term and female mate choice tends to reflect “good genes” sexual selection; that is, females choose males based more on signals of heritable qualities than on “good provider” criteria (i.e., value as a source of investment). In species where male parental investment is more vital, however, female choice tends to be based more on good provider criteria (Gangestad & Simpson, 2000; Schmitt, 2005a). Some species exhibit a mix of both strategies (Gangestad, 2000) and human mating behavior appears to be an example of such strategic pluralism: females base mate choices flexibly on both good genes and good provider criteria, with the importance of each kind of criteria varying facultatively according to female characteristics and context (Gangestad & Simpson, 2000). As such, women are expected to pursue some kinds of short-term mating opportunities; for example, in some contexts to mate with a man whose genetic quality is high enough to sufficiently offset the risk that he would be a poor provider. However, when dependence on male parental investment is greater, females should be less inclined to choose males based solely on short-term, good genes criteria.
If short-term mating is less common when females depend more on male parental investment and if females depend more on male parental investment in harsher environments, then short-term mating should be less common in those environments (Gangestad & Simpson, 2000). Schmitt (2005a), drawing on data collected from a cross-national sample (Ns ranging from 20 to 48), provided evidence to support this hypothesis: national indicators of ecological/economic hardship (e.g., child malnutrition, life expectancy, gross domestic product) correlated moderately-to-strongly negatively with male and, especially, female interest in short-term mating, i.e., national mean sociosexuality scores (Simpson & Gangestad, 1991). Schmitt (2005a) also found national sociosexuality scores to be strongly negatively related to national operational sex ratio (ratio of males to females of reproductive age), a result consistent with sex ratio theory (Pedersen, 1991). According to this theory, short-term strategies should be more common in countries with lower operational sex ratio, because, as noted above, men are relatively interested in short-term mating. When men are relatively scarce, their bargaining power on the mating market increases, which should help them pursue short-term relationships.

Das macht deutlich, dass beide Geschlechter bis zu einem gewissen Maße von einer Kurzzeit-Partnerwahlstrategie bzw von einer Langzeitpartnerwahlstrategie profitieren können und es daher auch vorteilhaft sein kann, die Tendenz zu einer der Strategien unter diesen Umständen nicht generell festzulegen, sonder in Abhängigkeit von bestimmten auch kulturellen Einflüssen. Welche Faktoren dabei wichtig sein können kann ebenfalls innerhalb eines biologischen Selektionsprozesses abgespeichtert worden sein.