Mating games: the evolution of human mating transactions

We propose a new, evolutionary, game-theoretic model of conditionalhuman mating strategies that integrates currently disconnectedbodies of data into a single mathematically-explicit theoryof human mating transactions. The model focuses on the problemof how much resource a male must provide to a female to secureand retain her as a mate. By using bidding-game models, we showhow the male's minimally required resource incentive variesas a function of his own mate value, the value of the female,and the distribution of the mate values of their available alternativemates. The resulting theory parsimoniously accounts for strategicpluralism within the sexes, mate choice differences betweenthe sexes, and assortative mating, while generating a rich setof testable new predictions about human mating behavior.