Children's tactics of mate choice manipulation: Exploring sex differences and personality effects

Parents do not always agree with their children's mating decisions, and so they attempt to manipulate them in accepting mates of their choice and in terminating relationships with undesirable ones. Children engage in counter-manipulation in order to avoid undesirable mates to be imposed on them and to persuade their parents to accept the mates they have chosen. This paper aims to identify the main factors that predict the tactics that children use on their parents. In particular, three hypotheses are tested, namely the use of manipulation tactics is predicted by the personality of children, by the sex of children and by the sex of parents. Evidence from two independent studies finds support for the first two hypotheses, but no support for the third hypothesis. The implications of these findings are further discussed.