Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

1-2025

Abstract

Studies have shown that men discount the future and prefer immediate-but-smaller over delayed-but-larger rewards when exposed to mating opportunities (e.g., attractive opposite-sex targets) or threats (e.g., same-sex competition) whereas women's discounting in response to similar cues appears mixed, suggesting that mating-motivated discounting is primarily a male phenomenon. Importantly, this line of research has not yet examined the role of individual difference variables as well as how the attractiveness of potential mates and perceptions of competition jointly influence discounting rates. We conducted a novel test of the effect of trait intrasexual competitiveness (ISC) using dating profiles varying on target attractiveness and same-sex competition to observe their interactive effects on participants' discounting. Results showed that when targets were attractive, higher ISC was associated with steeper discounting for both men and women, and this association was stronger when competition was high rather than low. ISC still predicted discounting when targets were low in attractiveness but competition was high; high ISC did not predict discounting only in the low attractiveness and low competition condition. These findings reveal ISC as a factor that leads women to discount as much as men, and that high-ISC individuals may be more responsive to competition than to target attractiveness.

Keywords

Competition, Intrasexual competitiveness, Mating, Physical attractiveness, Temporal discounting

Discipline

Gender and Sexuality | Social Psychology

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

Personality and Individual Differences

Volume

232

First Page

1

Last Page

7

ISSN

0191-8869

Identifier

10.1016/j.paid.2024.112843

Publisher

Elsevier

Copyright Owner and License

Authors-CC-BY

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.112843

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