Williams, Hailea

Talk presented at the Human Behavior and Evolution Society Meeting (2017), Boise, Idaho.<p>Across cultures, pathogen prevalence is associated with sexual restrictiveness, and, experimentally, individuals (particularly women) primed with disease cues show decreased interest in short-term mating (STM). In high pathogen environments costs associated with STM are higher and we expect to see increased sexual restrictiveness; however, individuals pursuing an opportunistic/exploitative mating strategy (high Dark Triad - DT) may discount these costs and continue with a more permissive mating style. We present three multi-method, experimental studies (N = 805) investigating whether the effect of disease salience on preferences for STM is moderated by DT traits. When disease is primed, individuals low in DT traits report decreased interest in STM, while those high in DT traits do not. In addition, women (and some men) higher in DT traits worry less about obtaining sexually transmitted infections (STI’s), feel it is less important to communicate about STI’s and report using condoms less with ST partners.