Attraction to opposite-sex friends. 26 Jul 2016

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Something more than friends. We look at three new studies on attraction to opposite-sex friends. How do men and women differ in their attraction to friends? And can you make a friend fall in love with you by falling in love with them first?

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Why are we Attracted to Friends?

What a sickeningly cheerful bunch of friends. No doubt they are having lots of sex with each other, and we can only hope that the group will soon implode in a spiral of jealousy.Miguel Angel/Flickr

The articles covered in the show:

Bleske-Rechek, A., Joseph, W. E., Williquette, H., & Donovan, B. (in press). Sex differences in young adults' attraction to opposite-sex friends: Natural sampling versus mental concepts. Evolutionary Psychological Science. Read paper

Lemay Jr., E. P., & Wolf, N. R. (2016). Projection of romantic and sexual desire in opposite-sex friendships: How wishful thinking creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(7), 864-878. Read summary

Mogilski, J. K. & L. L. M. Welling (in press). Staying friends with an ex: Sex and dark personality traits predict motivations for post-relationship friendship. Personality and Individual Differences. Read summary

Is beauty contagious? 5 May 2015

Is beauty contagious? How the average attractiveness of a group of people is influenced by its members. Also, how the ratio of men to women in our social group meddles with our mating psychology.

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Why a Skewed Chinese Sex Ratio Doesn't Spell Disaster

Attractive Friends Make You Look More Attractive

One man and four women: new research shows how our 'mating strategies' (how we seek partners and what we find attractive) are influenced by the relative numbers of men and women we encounter.

The articles covered in the show:

Schacht, R., & Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (2015). Sex ratio effects on reproductive strategies in humans. Royal Society Open Science, 2, 140402. Read summary

van Osch, Y., Blanken, I., Meijs, M. H. J., & van Wolferen, J. (in press). A group’s physical attractiveness is greater than the average attractiveness of its members: The group attractiveness effect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Read summary

How 'coalitional mate retention' tactics prevent your partner cheating. 7 April 2015

With a little help from my friends: How we use 'coalitional mate retention' tactics to prevent our partner cheating. We take a look at two new experiments that uncover how our friends work to keep our partners faithful.

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Friends Help Friends Keep Partners Faithful

New research shows how friends work to keep our partners faithful, and reveals how they decide to expose any infidelities they detect.

The articles covered in the show:

Barbaro, N., Pham, M. N., & Shackelford, T. K. (in press). Solving the problem of partner infidelity: Individual mate retention, coalitional mate retention, and in-pair copulation frequency. Personality and Individual Differences. Read summary

Pham, M. N., Barbaro, N., Mogilski, J. K., & Shackelford, T. K. (2015). Coalitional mate retention is correlated positively with friendship quality involving women, but negatively with male-male friendship quality. Personality and Individual Differences, 79, 87-90. Read summary

Video games get men horny. Nov 2012

This month, “it’s not you, it’s not me, it’s where we live”: how environment can influence break up decisions. Also, gender differences in sexual regret, and how video games can get a man in the mood for love.

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Cheat activated! Welling had men play a video game, but didn't tell them that the person they were playing against was cheating. Sneaky!

The articles covered in the show:

Hogerbrugge, M. J. A., Komter, A. E., & Scheepers, P. (in press). Dissolving long-term romantic relationships: Assessing the role of the social context. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Read summary

Galperin, A., Haselton, M. G., Frederick, D. A., Poore, J., von Hippel, W., Buss, D. M., et al. (in press). Sexual regret: Evidence for evolved sex differences. Archives of Sexual Behavior. Read summary

Welling, L. L. M., Persola, L., Wheatley, J. R., Cárdenas, R. A., & Puts, D. A. (2013). Competition and men's face preferences. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(3), 414-419. Read summary