حل مشکل خیانت شریک عاطفی: حفظ رابطه زناشویی به صورت فردی، حفظ رابطه زناشویی به صورت ائتلافی و بسامد رابطه جنسی دو نفره

• We investigated relationships between three mate retention strategies.• Mate retention positively correlates with in-pair copulation frequency for women.• CMR positively correlates with in-pair copulation frequency for men.• Findings suggest that men and women deploy diverse strategies to retain their mate.Humans deploy various strategies to solve adaptive problems associated with a long-term partner’s infidelity. We investigated the relationships among three such strategies: individual mate retention, coalitional mate retention (i.e., mate retention with assistance from allies), and in-pair copulation frequency. Participants (n = 387; 176 women) in a committed, heterosexual relationship reported how often they (1) perform individual mate retention, (2) request coalitional mate retention, and (3) had sexual intercourse with their partner. The results indicate that women’s individual mate retention and men’s coalitional mate retention are positively associated with in-pair copulation frequency. The discussion notes limitations of this research and highlights the diversity of strategies humans deploy to address the adaptive problems of partner infidelity.

A long-term romantic partner’s infidelity inflicts costs on both men and women. Infidelity can increase the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, often produces psychological distress (e.g., depression, anxiety; Cano & O’Leary, 2000), and is a leading cause of relationship dissolution (Allen & Atkins, 2012). Given these costs, individuals deploy various strategies to reduce the risk of partner infidelity, including individual mate retention (Buss, 1988 and Buss and Shackelford, 1997), coalitional mate retention (i.e., mate retention with assistance from allies; Pham, Barbaro, & Shackelford, 2015), and in-pair copulation (Shackelford, Goetz, Guta, & Schmitt, 2006). Men and women also incur sex-specific costs from their partner’s infidelity. A man whose partner is sexually unfaithful risks cuckoldry—unwitting investment in another man’s offspring (Buss & Shackelford, 1997). A woman whose partner is emotionally unfaithful risks losing partner-provisioned resources should these be diverted to another woman (Schutzwohl & Koch, 2004). Over evolutionary time, sex-specific costs of partner infidelity have produced sex-differentiated mate retention behaviors that appeal to the mate preferences of the opposite sex (Buss, 1988 and Buss and Shackelford, 1997). For example, men will display resources and protection, whereas women will focus on increasing their perceived reproductive value (Buss, 1988 and Salkicevic et al., 2014). One strategy both sexes use to retain a mate is individual mate retention. Buss (1988) developed the Mate Retention Inventory to assess individual mate retention behaviors along 19 tactics, from vigilance about a partner’s whereabouts to violence against rivals. Nearly all (102 of 104) items in the Mate Retention Inventory are individual-level behaviors, or behaviors performed alone. There are sex differences in the performance of mate retention tactics. For example, women more than men perform Appearance Enhancement (e.g., making oneself more attractive for one’s partner) because men more than women value a partner’s attractiveness ( Pfluger, Oberzaucher, Katina, Holzleiner, & Grammer, 2012). Men more than women perform direct violence against rivals, because women more than men value a partner’s ability to provide physical protection ( Buss, 1989 and Buss and Barnes, 1986). Individuals also perform mate retention with assistance from allies, or coalitional mate retention, as a strategy to reduce the risk of partner infidelity ( Pham et al., 2015). Two items in the Mate Retention Inventory (e.g., “had my friends check up on my partner”) suggest that individuals request assistance from others to perform mate retention ( Pham et al., 2015 and Stafford and Canary, 1991), and that friends play important roles in relationship maintenance ( Canary & Stafford, 1992). The Coalitional Mate Retention Inventory ( Pham et al., 2015) assesses the occurrence of coalitional mate retention behaviors across seven tactics: Manipulation (i.e., an ally deceives the partner into admitting or demonstrating an interest in infidelity), Praise (i.e., an ally says positive things to the partner and to others, thereby increasing the romantic partnership’s desirability), Vigilance (i.e., an ally watches the partner’s behaviors), Therapy (i.e., an ally strengthens the romantic partnership by repairing relationship problems and listening to relationship concerns), Gifts (i.e., an ally secures information about desired gifts for the partner), Monopolizing Time (i.e., an ally spends time with the partner), and Violence (i.e., an ally performs violence against potential rivals). Pham et al. found that performance of coalitional mate retention is correlated positively with performance of individual mate retention and, additionally, individuals request different coalitional mate retention tactics from their male friends than from their female friends. In-pair copulation is a third mate retention strategy. Both men and women use frequent in-pair copulation to increase their partner’s sexual satisfaction (Greeley, 1991 and Laumann et al., 1994), thereby increasing their partner’s relationship commitment (Sprecher, 2002). In-pair copulation also may function as Direct Guarding—a set of individual-level mate retention tactics that comprise the Direct Guarding category of the Mate Retention Inventory (Buss, 1988, Buss and Shackelford, 1997 and Leivers et al., 2014). During in-pair copulation, individuals monopolize their partner’s time, conceal their partner, and are vigilant of their partner’s whereabouts. For men, frequent in-pair copulation also functions as a sperm competition tactic. Sperm competition occurs when a female copulates with two or more males within a sufficiently brief time period, resulting in sperm of different males concurrently occupying her reproductive tract and competing to fertilize ova (Shackelford and LeBlanc, 2001 and Shackelford et al., 2005). Men engage in frequent in-pair copulation to increase the population of viable sperm in their partner’s reproductive tract, to thereby increase the likelihood that their sperm, and not a rival’s sperm, fertilizes ova (Baker and Bellis, 1993, Pham et al., 2014, Shackelford and Goetz, 2006 and Simmons et al., 2004). There is limited research addressing the relationships between individual mate retention, coalitional mate retention, and frequent in-pair copulation. For men, frequent in-pair copulation and individual mate retention behaviors are positively correlated (Shackelford et al., 2006), and men’s and women’s coalitional mate retention behaviors and individual mate retention behaviors are positively correlated (Pham et al., 2015). Both studies suggest that individuals might use several mate retention strategies concurrently to solve the adaptive problems associated with a partner’s infidelity. However, research has not yet investigated (1) the relationship between frequent in-pair copulation and individual mate retention behaviors in women, and (2) the relationship between coalitional mate retention behaviors and frequent in-pair copulation for either sex.