Citation

Vincke E. Evol. Psychol. 2017; 15(2): 1474704917707073.

Affiliation

1 Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, The Author(s), Publisher Ian Pitchford and Robert M. Young)

DOI

10.1177/1474704917707073

PMID

28508723

Abstract

Previous research indicates that drinking large quantities of alcohol could function as a short-term mating strategy for young adults in mating situations. However, no study investigated whether this is actually the case. Therefore, in this article, the link between short-term mating motivations and drinking high amounts of alcohol is tested. First, a survey study ( N = 345) confirmed that young adults who engage in binge drinking are more short-term oriented in their mating strategy than young adults who never engage in binge drinking. Also, the more short-term-oriented young adults were in their mating strategy, the more often binge drinking behavior was conducted. In addition, an experimental study ( N = 229) empirically verified that short-term mating motivations increase young adults' drinking behavior, more so than long-term mating motivations.

RESULTS of the experiment clearly showed that young men and young women are triggered to drink more alcoholic beverages in a short-term mating situation compared to a long-term mating situation. Furthermore, the mating situation also affected young adults' perception of drinking behavior. Young adults in a short-term mating context perceived a higher amount of alcoholic beverages as heavy drinking compared to peers in a long-term mating context. These findings confirm that a high alcohol consumption functions as a short-term mating strategy for both young men and young women. Insights gained from this article might be of interest to institutions aimed at targeting youth alcohol (ab)use.

Language: en

Keywords

binge drinking; drinking alcohol; risk-taking behavior; sexual signaling; short-term mating strategy; young adults