Sexual strategies pursued and mate attraction tactics deployed

Two studies tested evolutionary hypotheses about the use and perceived effectiveness of specific mate attraction tactics as a function of sexual strategy pursued. Participants and a close same-sex friend of each participant reported on the participant’s sexual strategy and deployment of attraction tactics. In Study 1, participants’ mate attraction tactics differed predictably depending on whether they were pursuing a long-term (sexually restricted) versus short-term (sexually unrestricted) sexual strategy. In Study 2, participants’ sexual strategy predicted their judgments of tactic effectiveness. In both studies, friends’ perceptions of participants’ sexual strategy and mate attraction tactics corroborated participants’ own self-reports. Discussion highlights the unique adaptive problems of mating, such as detecting rivals and inhibiting rivalry, that arise in the context of managing same-sex friendships.