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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 15, 2025

Observation and Quantification of Mating Behavior in the Pinewood Nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus
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Mating Performance and Singlehood Across 14 Nations.

Menelaos Apostolou1, Mark Sullman1, Béla Birkás2

  • 1Department of Social Sciences, 121343University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus.

Evolutionary Psychology : an International Journal of Evolutionary Approaches to Psychology and Behavior
|January 3, 2023
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Many adults struggle with attracting and keeping partners, impacting relationship status. Poor mating performance, affecting over half of individuals, is linked to various forms of singlehood across cultures.

Keywords:
involuntary singlehoodmatingmating performancerelationshipromantic relationshipssinglehood

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Cross-cultural studies

Background:

  • Mate attraction and retention are crucial for intimate relationships.
  • Difficulties in these areas contribute significantly to adult singlehood.
  • Understanding mating performance across diverse cultures is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate mating performance and singlehood status in 14 countries.
  • To determine the prevalence of mating difficulties and different types of singlehood.
  • To explore the relationship between mating performance and singlehood.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-cultural survey of 7,181 adults across 14 nations.
  • Assessment of mating performance (attracting/retaining partners).
  • Categorization of singlehood status (involuntary, voluntary, between-relationships).

Main Results:

  • Over 57% reported difficulties in starting or maintaining relationships.
  • Poor mating performance was common, associated with all singlehood types.
  • Involuntary singlehood affected nearly 13%; voluntary singlehood over 15%.

Conclusions:

  • Mating performance challenges are widespread and linked to singlehood.
  • Younger individuals experienced higher rates of all singlehood types.
  • Results showed general consistency across cultures despite variations.