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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Evolutionary Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1437393

Strategies for becoming a more desirable mate: Evidence from Lithuania

Provisionally accepted
Menelaos Apostolou Menelaos Apostolou 1Mark Sullman Mark Sullman 1Rasa Markšaitytė Rasa Markšaitytė 2Laura Šeibokaitė Laura Šeibokaitė 2Timo Lajunen Timo Lajunen 3*
  • 1 University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
  • 2 Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania
  • 3 Faculty of Humanities, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Mate-seekers employ several strategies to become more attractive as mates. In the present study, we examined the use of 10 strategies for becoming more desirable as a mate in the Lithuanian cultural context. Using a sample of 295 Lithuanian-speaking participants, we found that the most frequently used strategy was "Enhance looks," followed by "Show off abilities and talents" and "Demonstrate similarity." The least used strategies were "Show off and exaggerate wealth" and "Drastic appearance changes." The 10 strategies could be classified into two domains or main strategies, with participants indicating a more frequent use of "Develop and demonstrate desirable traits" followed by "Deceive about undesirable traits." Sex differences and age differences were identified for several strategies.

    Keywords: mating strategies, attraction, Mating, mate choice, sex differences

    Received: 23 May 2024; Accepted: 18 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Apostolou, Sullman, Markšaitytė, Šeibokaitė and Lajunen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Timo Lajunen, Faculty of Humanities, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, NO-7491, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.