MATING AND MALE AGGRESSION 821 The Role of Short-Term Mating Evolutionary theorie ggest that mating-induc male aggre rnExperimew manipulated the gender of the target person.W not the divi Gangestad,191).If the ulimate function aggression Experiment 1 is to sion would be oberved men displan Experiment 1 provided an initial test of the hypothesized link onships becaus such men seek multiple par behavioral measure athe mitting to on for shor-ter Metho ially likely to display social do Participants. Fify-one men completed the experiment for ourse credit. pursuing a short-term strategy tend to engage in more dir eey (Simn on Ganeestad.Christensen Leck 1999)Such ent with them feel sexual desire an d wrote in detail about an exp Snyder.Kirkpa nvolving inte d to the d that mat made them feel happy and wrote at a time of int term mating strategy.reltive to a long term mating strategy The Current Research in mood o ts,we manipulated n ting motives s and measured ag of mood and arousal ng a n e told they ould increase aggressive beha nating primes an ong women ach of 25 trials.pa cipants reacte se set by further evidence of the mating-related functions o nd the duration of the noise blast tha would be deli d to thei nderlies mating-related aggres ive behavior in men.Theref aggression).As in pro be fm n Experiment 3 we exa mined two additional moderating vari Particinants set the volume and duration for the first trial before ces in men's ion:Gangestad sin n Gangestad ner.Thu ng i ting prim t the egy.Second.ourf work implies that er.This task therefore provide sures o heing-in uld not exne mating motives to increase men's aggression toward women. dardized duration of the noise blast set by the participant on theThe Role of Short-Term Mating Evolutionary theories suggest that mating-induced male aggres￾sion may depend on individual differences in men’s orientation toward short-term mating versus long-term mating (see Simpson & Gangestad, 1991). If the ultimate function of aggression is to increase access to mates, we hypothesized that the use of aggres￾sion would be observed primarily among men displaying a short￾term mating strategy. Access to mates may be a more chronic reproductive constraint for men pursuing short-term sexual rela￾tionships because such men seek multiple partners rather than committing to one mate for an extended period. To increase access to mates, men with a preference for short-term mating may be especially likely to use aggression to display social dominance. Indeed, displays of dominance have been shown to serve short￾term mating goals, in particular (Sundie et al., 2011), and men pursuing a short-term strategy tend to engage in more direct intrasexual competition tactics than men pursuing a long-term strategy (Simpson, Gangestad, Christensen, & Leck, 1999). Such findings are consistent with evidence that women prefer dominant men primarily in the context of short-term mating (Gangestad, Simp￾son, Cousins, Garver-Apgar, & Christenson, 2004; Snyder, Kirkpat￾rick, & Barrett, 2008). We therefore predicted that mating primes would increase aggression more strongly in men pursuing a short￾term mating strategy, relative to a long-term mating strategy. The Current Research The current research tested the overarching hypothesis that mating motives elicit aggressive behavior in men. Across three experiments, we manipulated mating motives and measured ag￾gression toward a same-sex partner using a noise-blast paradigm. Based on evolutionary theories of intrasexual competition, we predicted that the mating primes would increase aggressive behav￾ior in men. Because aggression does not serve the same mating￾related functions for women, we anticipated no effects of the mating primes among women. In addition to the moderating effect of participant gender, we examined three additional moderating variables in these studies. These moderating variables were intended not only to identify theoretically meaningful boundary conditions but also to provide further evidence of the mating-related functions of aggressive behavior. First, we examined the moderating role of social domi￾nance. Our theoretical framework implies that dominance-striving underlies mating-related aggressive behavior in men. Therefore, if men are able to achieve social dominance in some other (less provocative) way, one would expect the effects of mating motives on aggression to be weakened or eliminated. We tested this hy￾pothesis in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, we examined two additional moderating vari￾ables. First, we examined individual differences in men’s orienta￾tion toward short-term versus long-term mating (i.e., sociosexual orientation; Gangestad & Simpson, 1990; Simpson & Gangestad, 1991). We expected that mating primes would increase aggressive behavior more strongly in men pursuing a short-term than a long-term mating strategy. Second, our framework implies that mating-induced aggression is designed to achieve dominance over other men (i.e., intrasexual competition). One would not expect mating motives to increase men’s aggression toward women. Therefore, in Experiment 3, we also manipulated the gender of the target person. We predicted that the mating prime would increase men’s aggression toward another man, but not a woman. Experiment 1 Experiment 1 provided an initial test of the hypothesized link between mating motives and male aggression. After undergoing a mating prime, male participants performed a noise blast aggression task, a well-validated behavioral measure of aggression. Method Participants. Fifty-one men completed the experiment for course credit. Procedure. Participants first completed the priming proce￾dure, which consisted of an essay writing task from previous research (Fitzsimons & Bargh, 2003; Maner et al., 2007). Partic￾ipants assigned to the mating condition listed five things that made them feel sexual desire and wrote in detail about an experience involving intense sexual desire for approximately 10 min. Partic￾ipants assigned to the control condition instead listed five things that made them feel happy and wrote about a time of intense happiness. The control condition was taken from previous research (Maner et al., 2007) and was designed to match the positive valence and emotional intensity of the sexual desire essay. The control condition helped rule out the possibility that any effects of priming condition would be due merely to changes in mood or arousal. Following the priming-procedure, participants completed the Brief Mood Introspection Scale (Mayer & Gaschke, 1988), providing measures of mood and arousal. Next, participants were told they would complete an auditory reaction-time task with an ostensible partner and were shown a picture of a male confederate. The task consisted of the noise-blast task, a well-validated behavioral aggression measure used in many previous experiments (e.g., Bushman & Baumeister, 1998; Gian￾cola & Zeichner, 1995). On each of 25 trials, participants reacted as quickly as possible to a tone played through headphones by clicking within a box on the computer screen. The loser of each trial was forced to listen to a painful blast of white noise set by their partner. Before each trial, participants chose both the volume and the duration of the noise blast that would be delivered to their partner if the participant won the trial. Selection options for both the volume and duration of the noise blast ranged from 0 (no aggression) to 10 (maximum aggression). As in previous research, participants were automatically assigned to lose half the trials. The volume and duration of the noise blast that participants heard after losing were identical across participants and increased incremen￾tally throughout the task. Participants set the volume and duration for the first trial before receiving any noise blasts from their partner. Participants (osten￾sibly) lost the first trial and received the noise blast set by their partner. Thus, on all but the first trial, participants were reacting in part to noise blasts (ostensibly) delivered by their partner, and they thought their behavior could elicit aggressive responses from their partner. This task therefore provides two distinct measures of aggression (unprovoked and provoked). Unprovoked aggression was computed by summing the standardized intensity and stan￾dardized duration of the noise blast set by the participant on the MATING AND MALE AGGRESSION 821 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. 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