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The effect of mood on opposite-sex judgments of males' commitment and females sexual intent

journal contribution
posted on 2007-01-01, 00:00 authored by Shikkiah De Quadros Wander, Mark StokesMark Stokes
Gender differences in perceptions of sexual intent and commitment have been the subject of formal and informal inquiry for considerable time. One evolutionary theory, Error Management Theory (EMT), predicts that opposite-sex perceptions of female sexual intent and male commitment intent reflect intrinsic biases that minimize gender-specific evolutionary costs. The results supporting these hypotheses were obtained from subjects regardless of mood. We hypothesized that mood would influence ratings of sexual and commitment intent. Sixty participants (30 males, 30 females) were recruited and exposed to a positive and negative mood condition in counterbalanced groups using video stimuli. Preliminary analyses found an unexpected effect of order of mood induction, necessitating separate analyses of the Positive-Negative (PN) and Negative-Positive (NP) groups. Contrary to the original study, there were no gender effects. Positive moods led to increased ratings of both sexual and commitment intent across genders. Further, negative to positive mood-change was associated with significantly increased ratings. Both males and females attributed significantly higher sexual intent to same-sex rivals than themselves, but only males assessed themselves as having significantly higher commitment intent than same-sex rivals. The EMT model may require adaptation to acknowledge effects of variables such as mood on its predictions of gender-specific biases.

History

Journal

Evolutionary psychology: an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior

Volume

5

Issue

3

Pagination

453 - 475

Publisher

Ian Pitchford, Ed. & Pub

Location

Davie, Fla.

ISSN

1474-7049

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2007, The Authors

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