A Cross-cultural Examination of Intrasexual Competition: The Links Between Mating Competition, Aggression, Appearance Enhancement, and Sexuality

Meskó, Norbert and Davis, Adam C. and Arnocky, Steven and Őry, Fanni and Burghardt, Katalin O. and Kiss, Dóra E. and Tololiu, Kevin E. and Bereczkei, Tamás and Abraham, Juneman and Han, Hyemin (2024) A Cross-cultural Examination of Intrasexual Competition: The Links Between Mating Competition, Aggression, Appearance Enhancement, and Sexuality. BMC PSYCHOLOGY. ISSN 2050-7283. (Submitted)

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Abstract

In the context of mating, individuals of the same sex often act as rivals in the pursuit, attraction, and retention of desirable partners. This study explored the relationships between intrasexual competition with various aspects of human mating psychology across three cultures: Canada, Hungary, and Indonesia. A total of 661 participants (497 women, 132 men) completed an online questionnaire including self-report measures for sensation seeking, aggression, beauty-enhancing behavior, openness to cosmetic surgery, sexual motivation, and sociosexuality. Hypotheses were tested via Bayesian multilevel modeling. A measurement invariance test and measurement alignment were performed to address potential issues with non-invariance in measures across different groups. Results indicated positive correlations between each psychological variable examined and intrasexual mating competition. The results for openness to cosmetic surgery, sociosexuality and aggression confirm findings from previous research, whereas the associations between sensation seeking, aesthetic enhancement behavior, and sexual motivation are novel. The analysis of intrasexual mating competition by country shows that Canadian scores were significantly lower than Indonesian and Hungarian scores, whereas the latter two were not significantly different from each other.

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