Men tend to assess and evaluate a woman's sexual history prior to long-term commitment, with the number of past sexual partners being a statistical predictor of infidelity after marriage. This behavior was likely adaptive, where men historically favored faithful, less promiscuous women for long-term mating and were more attracted to women with limited sexual experience to minimize the risk of paternity fraud. Furthermore, the research indicates that both men and women show a preference against promiscuity when female economic dependence on a male mate is higher, emphasizing the importance of paternity certainty in such circumstances. Men may not actively punish sexually-accessible women but may be less generous toward them, reflecting a pragmatic approach to investment based on paternity certainty.

Peer-reviewed Publications

Men apparently assess and evaluate levels of sexual activity by a woman prior to long-term commitment—behavior that would have been observable or known through social reputation in the small-group lifestyles of our ancestors. Past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior, and having a large number of sex partners prior to marriage is a statistical predictor of infidelity after marriage (pg.92)

https://i.imgur.com/rM3iFCE.jpg

Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (2019). Mate preferences and their behavioral manifestations. Annual Review of Psychology, 70, 77–110. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-103408

.

[E]volutionary psychologists (e.g., Buss and Schmitt 1993; Symons 1979; Wright 2010) view the MWD as reflecting adaptations to men’s reproductive role. MWD attitudes allegedly evolved to address paternity uncertainty (doubt about whether children by female partners are their own by focusing on cues to women’s sexual promiscuity versus faithfulness; Buss and Schmitt 1993). To avoid investing in others’ offspring, men view only faithful women as potential long-term mates, with promiscuous women representing short-term mating opportunities (with no investment in any offspring). Men therefore objectify promiscuous women to avoid emotional attachment, treating them with contempt. By contrast, emotional attachment to faithful, long-term mates creates a pair bond for cooperative child-rearing. Supporting this reasoning, promiscuity cues (e.g., past sexual experience) increased heterosexual men’s attraction to women as short-term mates, but decreased attraction to women as long-term mates (Buss and Schmitt 1993). (pg.349)

https://imgur.com/4WCeYZC.jpg

Kahalon, R., Bareket, O., Vial, A. C., Sassenhagen, N., Becker, J. C., & Shnabel, N. (2019). The Madonna-whore dichotomy is associated with patriarchy endorsement: Evidence from Israel, the United States, and Germany. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 43(3), 348–367. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684319843298

.

When evaluating prospective mates with zero, one, or two past partners, women were less willing to get involved than men. There are several possible explanations for this result. One is that it stems from sex differences in the importance of mate-choice copying: Women may be more averse than men to a prospective long-term mate who garners little sexual interest from the other sex. A second possibility is that it stems from sex differences in parental certainty: Men may be more attracted than women to a prospective long-term mate with only limited sexual experience, because historically this was correlated with lower cuckoldry risk. (pg.1103)

https://i.imgur.com/U3SIicW.jpg

Stewart-Williams, S., Butler, C. A., & Thomas, A. G. (2017). Sexual History and Present Attractiveness: People Want a Mate With a Bit of a Past, But Not Too Much. Journal of sex research, 54(9), 1097–1105. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2016.1232690

.

Throughout recent human history, males have often placed a premium on female virginity for a marital partner (e.g., Ford & Beach, 1951). This is commonly thought to be an expression of a paternal assurance strategy, i.e., sexually inexperienced females are assumed to represent a lower risk of cuckoldry. (pg.177)

https://i.imgur.com/IeKR99W.jpg

Hughes, S. M., & Gallup, G. G., Jr. (2003). Sex differences in morphological predictors of sexual behavior: Shoulder to hip and waist to hip ratios. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24(3), 173–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1090-5138(02)00149-6

.

To insure that the female partner has previously avoided men and is not predisposed to seek them out, men often insist on virginity or little sexual experience (Espin 2018; Bekker et al. 1996). This idea, that low promiscuity becomes low infidelity after marriage, was supported by Essock-Vitale and McGuire (1985) who found that among adult women, promiscuity prior to marriage was also a predictor of infidelity once women were married. (pg.7809)

https://i.imgur.com/0L0pQz1.jpg

Burch, R. L. (2021). Solution to paternity uncertainty. In Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science (pp. 7808–7814). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2029-1

.

Both studies provided support for the female economic dependence theory of anti-promiscuity morality. According to this theory, in environments in which female economic dependence on a male mate is higher, both a woman and her mate have a greater interest in maximizing paternity certainty. Because promiscuity undermines paternity certainty, both men and women should be more opposed to promiscuity by both sexes in environments where there is greater female economic dependence on a male mate. (pg.1298)

Results of both studies were consistent with the theory that opposition to promiscuity arises in circumstances where paternity certainty is particularly important (pg.1299)

https://i.imgur.com/pWW7dTe.jpg

Price, M. E., Pound, N., & Scott, I. M. (2014). Female economic dependence and the morality of promiscuity. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 43(7), 1289–1301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0320-4

.

The first and most obvious paternal assurance tactics are those that involve insemination-prevention strategies. These include putting a premium on virginity in a bride (for evidence, see Hughes & Gallup, 2003) (pg.137)

Sexual promiscuity, in turn, is a good predictor of infidelity (Hughes & Gallup, 2003). (pg.175)

Previous studies (Buss, 1989; Buss & Schmitt, 1993) had shown that males valued chastity much more significantly than females because of its significance in cuckoldry prevention (pg.210)

https://i.imgur.com/hxwSuay.jpg

Platek, S. M., & Shackelford, T. K. (Eds.). (2006). Female infidelity and paternal uncertainty: Evolutionary perspectives on male anti-cuckoldry tactics. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617812

.

These findings suggest that, although men are less generous towards sexually-accessible women (study 1), they do not seek to actively punish them (study 3). Although more research is needed to understand the exact process, this bias can be viewed as pragmatic: when women offer low paternity certainty, men should invest low sums to gain sexual access; when paternity certainty is high, men should be more willing to invest. (pg.265)

https://i.imgur.com/0GBo7aJ.jpg

Muggleton, N. K., Tarran, S. R., & Fincher, C. L. (2019). Who punishes promiscuous women? Both women and men are prejudiced towards sexually-accessible women, but only women inflict costly punishment. Evolution and Human Behavior, 40(3), 259–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.12.003

.

From an evolutionary perspective, adopting a long-term mating strategy should be beneficial for some and perhaps most men (Gangestad & Simpson, 2000). Adopting a long-term strategy can allow men to gain greater control over a mate’s lifetime reproductive potential, to attract women of higher mate value, to increase the survival of a man’s children, and to increase the probability of paternity (see Buss, 2004). One major problem that ancestral men had to solve to be reproductively successful, however, was to increase the probability of paternity. Because women give birth, maternity is never in question; paternity, in contrast, is less certain. Thus, increasing the likelihood of paternity should have been important, particularly considering that the costs of cuckoldry are severe when paternal investment is high and exclusive (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). One way that cuckoldry can be reduced is to prefer long-term mates who are chaste, sexually faithful, and likely to remain faithful in the future. Most men value sexual loyalty highly in potential mates (Buss & Schmitt, 1993), and most become extremely distressed if their partners are unfaithful (Daly & Wilson, 1988). Moreover, men report being less attracted to women who have had more sexual partners (Kenrick, Sundie, Nicastle, & Stone, 2001). This effect could be partly attributable to the perceived increased risk of future infidelity. Consequently, most men should be sensitive to cues that signal a heightened risk of future infidelity in potential long-term mates. One of the best predictors of extramarital sex and infidelity is premarital sexual permissiveness (Thompson, 1983).

https://i.imgur.com/JPHXaAk.jpg

Campbell, L., Cronk, L., Simpson, J. A., Milroy, A., Wilson, C. L., & Dunham, B. (2009). The association between men’s ratings of women as desirable long-term mates and individual differences in women’s sexual attitudes and behaviors. Personality and Individual Differences, 46(4), 509–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.12.001

.

Internet Articles

Finally, the risk of the formerly promiscuous woman going back to her old ways may be more evolutionarily costly for the man than a similar breach of trust would be for a woman, if it leads him to invest his time and resources in someone else’s genetic offspring.

Vrangalova, Z. (2016, April 11). Can renouncing promiscuity help you find monogamous love? Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/strictly-casual/201604/can-renouncing-promiscuity-help-you-find-monogamous-love

.

Multiple, casual, sexual encounters on the other hand, symbolically represent a higher risk of a woman being promiscuous and therefore possibly unfaithful. In evolutionary terms, this raises the fear that he could end up raising a child which is not his own; and herein lies one of the major root causes of retroactive jealousy ocd in men.

Billings, J. (2014, March 15). What causes retroactive jealousy in A relationship? Here’s the answer. Retroactive Jealousy Crusher. https://www.retroactivejealousycrusher.com/what-causes-retroactive-jealousy/