TY - JOUR
T1 - Why Men Stay Single? Evidence from Reddit
AU - Apostolou, Menelaos
N1 - Funding Information:
The author would like to thank Georgia Kapitsaki and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback which enabled the improvement of this work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
PY - 2019/3/15
Y1 - 2019/3/15
N2 - In Western societies, a substantial proportion of the adult population does not have an intimate partner. The current paper puts forward an evolutionary theoretical framework, where people stay single for three main reasons, namely the mismatch between ancestral and modern conditions has resulted in several individuals lacking the adaptations necessary for attracting and retaining mates, individuals can increase their fitness by opting out of relationships, and individuals have constraints that prevent them from attracting a mate. The paper attempted to identify the reasons that drive men to be single and to investigate whether they were consistent with the proposed theoretical framework. More specifically, 13,429 responses from a recent Reddit thread were analyzed, and 6794 responses were coded and classified in 43 categories. Among the most frequent reasons that men indicated for being single included poor flirting skills, low self-confidence, poor looks, shyness, low effort, and bad experience from previous relationships.
AB - In Western societies, a substantial proportion of the adult population does not have an intimate partner. The current paper puts forward an evolutionary theoretical framework, where people stay single for three main reasons, namely the mismatch between ancestral and modern conditions has resulted in several individuals lacking the adaptations necessary for attracting and retaining mates, individuals can increase their fitness by opting out of relationships, and individuals have constraints that prevent them from attracting a mate. The paper attempted to identify the reasons that drive men to be single and to investigate whether they were consistent with the proposed theoretical framework. More specifically, 13,429 responses from a recent Reddit thread were analyzed, and 6794 responses were coded and classified in 43 categories. Among the most frequent reasons that men indicated for being single included poor flirting skills, low self-confidence, poor looks, shyness, low effort, and bad experience from previous relationships.
KW - Mate choice
KW - Mating
KW - Mating performance
KW - Mismatch problem
KW - Singlehood
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103430953&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s40806-018-0163-7
DO - 10.1007/s40806-018-0163-7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85103430953
SN - 2198-9885
VL - 5
SP - 87
EP - 97
JO - Evolutionary Psychological Science
JF - Evolutionary Psychological Science
IS - 1
ER -