| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 947990 | Journal of Experimental Social Psychology | 2011 | 6 Pages |
According to life history theory, environmental cues indicating that one's future survivability is low increase reproductive effort. This suggests that exposure to low survivability cues will increase people's preparedness to engage in sex. However, according to sexual selection theory and parental investment theory, evolutionary pressures favored a more conservative sexual strategy among women compared to men. We therefore hypothesized that men, but not women, would respond to low survivability cues with increased sexual preparedness. Accordingly, both subliminal and supraliminal death primes (as compared with control primes) led men, but not women, to exhibit increased physiological arousal in response to sexual images (Study 1), and stronger approach-oriented behavioral responses to sexual images (Study 2). Theoretical implications for life history theory are discussed.
► According to Life History Theory, low survivability cues increase reproductive effort. ► Our results provide, for the first time, experimental support for this claim. ► Death primes increased approach-oriented behavioral responses to sexual stimuli. ► Death primes also increased physiological arousal in response to sexual stimuli. ► Consistent with Sexual Selection Theory, these effects held for men but not women.
