What Predicts Involuntary Singlehood: Investigating the Effects of Self-Esteem and Having Desirable Traits in a Greek-Speaking Sample

Many people are involuntarily single; that is, they are not in an intimate relationship, although they want to be so. The current research attempted to examine whether having traits that people prefer in a partner, and one’s level of self-esteem, predicted singlehood status. Using an online sample of 986 Greek-speaking participants, we found that self-esteem had a significant and large effect on predicting marital status for men, with higher scores being associated with higher probability to be in a relationship or single by choice than involuntarily single. However, self-esteem had no effect on marital status for women. Furthermore, in most cases, participants’ selfratings in desirable traits had no significant direct effects on predicting marital status neither for men nor for women. Still, for men, a number of these traits had significant indirect effects. Overall, having desirable traits was not associated directly with lower probability to be involuntarily single, but for men, some of these traits enhanced their self-esteem, with higher self-esteem being associated with a considerable decrease in the probability to be involuntarily single. The implications of these findings on evolutionary theorizing on mate choice are further discussed.