Thomas, Andrew G., Costello, William, Bendixen, Mons, Kennair, Leif Edward Ottesen, Apostolou, Menelaos, Bártová, Klára, Burýšek, Ondřej, Lowe, Rob, Jonason, Peter, Kowal, Marta, and others. (2025) Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents. Scientific Reports, 15 (1). Article Number 27947. ISSN 2045-2322. (doi:10.1038/s41598-025-12607-1) (KAR id:110903)
|
PDF
Publisher pdf
Language: English 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
|
|
|
Download this file (PDF/2MB) |
Preview |
| Request a format suitable for use with assistive technology e.g. a screenreader | |
| Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-12607-1 |
|
| Resource title: | Author Correction: Sexual partner number and distribution over time affect long-term partner evaluation: evidence from 11 countries across 5 continents |
|---|---|
| Resource type: | Other |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-025-17764-x |
| KDR/KAR URL: | |
| External URL: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-17764-x |
Abstract
A prospective partner’s sexual history provides important information that can be used to minimise mating-related risks. Such information includes the number of past sexual partners, which has an inverse relationship with positive suitor evaluation. However, sexual encounters with new partners vary in frequency over time, providing an additional dimension of context not previously considered. Across three studies (N = 5,331) with 15 samples, we demonstrate that the impact of past partner number on a suitor’s desirability as a long-term partner varies as a function of distribution over time. Using graphical representations of a suitor’s sexual history, we found that past partner number effects were smaller when the frequency of new sexual encounters decreased over time. This moderation effect was stronger, and often curvilinear, when past partner numbers were higher. We replicated these findings in 11 countries from five world regions. Sex differences were minimal and inconsistent pointing to a lack of a sexual double standards. Sociosexuality (openness to casual sex) was a consistent moderator and tended to mute the sexual history effects. These findings suggest that people not only attend to a potential long-term mate’s quantity of sexual partners, but also the context surrounding these encounters such as pattern and timing. Together, the findings raise the possibility of an evolved mechanism for managing mating risks present in both sexes and across populations and adds nuance to a contentious topic of public interest.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| DOI/Identification number: | 10.1038/s41598-025-12607-1 |
| Uncontrolled keywords: | Sex, Evolutionary Psychology, Sociosexuality, Mate Preferences, Cross-cultural Psychology |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology |
| Institutional Unit: | Schools > School of Psychology > Psychology |
| Former Institutional Unit: |
There are no former institutional units.
|
| Funders: | Wroclaw University of Applied Informatics "Horizon" (https://ror.org/03rzt1w70) |
| SWORD Depositor: | JISC Publications Router |
| Depositing User: | JISC Publications Router |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Sep 2025 11:08 UTC |
| Last Modified: | 15 Sep 2025 11:32 UTC |
| Resource URI: | https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/110903 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes) |
University of Kent Author Information
Wisman, Arnaud.
| Creator's ORCID: |
 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7197-9207
|
|---|---|
| CReDIT Contributor Roles: | Investigation |
- Link to SensusAccess
- Export to:
- RefWorks
- EPrints3 XML
- BibTeX
- CSV
- Depositors only (login required):
Altmetric
Altmetric
