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Implicit attitudes and executive control interact to regulate interest in extra-pair relationships.

Ryuhei Ueda1,2, Kuniaki Yanagisawa3, Hiroshi Ashida4

  • 1Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Yoshida-honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan. ueda.ryuhei.24@gmail.com.

Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience
|October 18, 2017
PubMed
Summary

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Monogamous relationships involve both automatic desires and conscious control. Stronger negative attitudes toward infidelity and higher brain activity predict better regulation of temptation and longer relationships.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology
  • Social Science

Background:

  • Monogamy is a common mating strategy, but the cognitive mechanisms maintaining it are not fully understood.
  • The interplay between automatic impulses and executive control in relationship fidelity is a key area of research.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural and cognitive processes underlying the maintenance of monogamous relationships.
  • To determine whether automatic attitudes and executive functions predict the ability to resist infidelity.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
  • Participants completed the Implicit Association Test (IAT) for implicit attitudes toward adultery.
  • A go/no-go task assessed executive control, followed by a date-rating task.
Keywords:
Dual-process theoryImplicit social cognitionMonogamySelf-controlfMRI

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Higher prefrontal activity correlated with the ability to regulate interest in unattractive partners.
  • A combination of negative attitudes toward adultery and high prefrontal activity predicted regulation of interest in attractive partners.
  • Individuals exhibiting these traits tended to maintain longer-term relationships.

Conclusions:

  • Maintaining monogamy involves a complex interaction between automatic processes (attitudes) and reflective processes (executive control).
  • Executive functions, particularly prefrontal activity, play a crucial role in regulating attraction to potential alternative partners.
  • These findings shed light on the neurocognitive underpinnings of relationship fidelity and long-term pair bonding.