Tara DeLecce

Oakland University · Department of Psychology

Psychological research has produced a rich body of empirical data documenting humanity’s propensity to commit infidelity in the context of long-term relationships, but comparatively little work has been dedicated to synthesizing these data into an integrated framework that encompasses the full range of its processes, from why it occurs in the first...

This handbook has presented the current state of the research on the predictors, nature, and consequences of infidelity from a variety of perspectives, including social, clinical, and evolutionary. Although significant advances have been made to understand infidelity, there remain many unanswered questions, leaving plentiful avenues for future dire...

There has been much debate around the ultimate explanation of cultural displays such as music and art. There are two main competing hypotheses for the function of music: sexual selection or byproduct of the complexity of the human brain. Although there is evidence that playing music increases male attractiveness, the sexual selection explanation ma...

Males of some species use mate retention behavior and investment in ejaculate quality as anti-cuckoldry tactics concurrently while others do so in a compensatory fashion. Leivers, Rhodes, and Simmons (2014) reported that men who performed mate retention less frequently produced higher-quality ejaculates, suggesting that humans use these tactics com...

Genetic quality may be expressed through many traits simultaneously, and this would suggest a phenotype-wide fitness factor. In humans, intelligence has been positively associated with several potential indicators of genetic quality, including ejaculate quality. We conducted a conceptual replication of one such study by investigating the relationsh...

Research in nonhuman animals (including insects, birds, and primates) suggests a trade-off in males between investment in competitive traits and investment in ejaculate quality. Previous research reported a negative association between perceived strength and ejaculate quality, suggesting that this trade-off also applies to human males. We conducted...

Some research has reported relationships between personality dimensions and ejaculate quality, but this research has methodological limitations. In the current study, we investigated the relationships between six major personality dimensions and ejaculate quality in a design that offered several methodological improvements over previous research. F...

Previous research indicates that men can accurately assess women’s mating orientation from facial photographs (DeLecce et al. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 43, 319–327, 2014). The current study investigated whether this ability is moderated by men’s own mating orientation. To that end, 89 men completed the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI)—an...

We investigated the relationships among men's sexual coercion, men's performance of mate retention behaviors, and their partner's relationship satisfaction in Brazil (Study 1) and the United States (Study 2). In addition, we adapted the Sexual Coercion in Intimate Relationships Scale (SCIRS) to the Brazilian context (Escala de Coerção Sexual em Rel...

Males among many species, including humans, evaluate cues of sperm competition risk. The number of potential sexual rivals can serve as an index of sperm competition risk. Men may, therefore, adjust their in-pair copulatory interest in accordance with the presence of sexual rivals. Using self-report data from 45 married men, the current study tests...

Non-human males attend to the presence of potential sexual rivals in the local environment to assess sperm competition risk, and adjust accordingly the deployment of sperm competition tactics (e.g., performing semen-displacing copulatory behaviors). We extend this research to humans using data from 45 married couples who completed questionnaires in...

Previous research has extensively studied sex differences in mating strategies such as mate preferences and degree of choosiness and how these affect relationship initiation. Very little research, however, has examined these sex differences and how they may play a role in nonmarital relationship dissolution. The existing literature that does examin...

Several lines of evidence suggest that facial-width-to-height ratio (fWHR) provides an accurate cue to men's formidability, thus providing observers with a reliable estimate of their potential success in an interpersonal physical conflict. The degree to which fWHR provides the same information in women's faces, however, remains unclear. In fact, mo...

The current study examined whether men's ratings of women's desirability as a long-term pairbond, based on static photographs, were related to the women's second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio and their sexual attitudes and behavior. The 2D:4D ratio was measured in 164 women and facial photographs were taken of 55 of these women. All women completed...