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Original Article
Drinking High Amounts of Alcohol as a
Short-Term Mating Strategy: The Impact
of Short-Term Mating Motivations on
Young Adults’ Drinking Behavior
Eveline Vincke
1
Abstract
Previous research indicates that drinking large quantities of alcohol could function as a short-term mating strategy for young adults
in mating situations. However, no study investigated whether this is actually the case. Therefore, in this article, the link between
short-term mating motivations and drinking high amounts of alcohol is tested. First, a survey study (N¼345) confirmed that
young adults who engage in binge drinking are more short-term oriented in their mating strategy than young adults who never
engage in binge drinking. Also, the more short-term-oriented young adults were in their mating strategy, the more often binge
drinking behavior was conducted. In addition, an experimental study (N¼229) empirically verified that short-term mating
motivations increase young adults’ drinking behavior, more so than long-term mating motivations. Results of the experiment
clearly showed that young men and young women are triggered to drink more alcoholic beverages in a short-term mating sit-
uation compared to a long-term mating situation. Furthermore, the mating situation also affected young adults’ perception of
drinking behavior. Young adults in a short-term mating context perceived a higher amount of alcoholic beverages as heavy
drinking compared to peers in a long-term mating context. These findings confirm that a high alcohol consumption functions as a
short-term mating strategy for both young men and young women. Insights gained from this article might be of interest to
institutions aimed at targeting youth alcohol (ab)use.
Keywords
short-term mating strategy, sexual signaling, drinking alcohol, young adults, risk-taking behavior, binge drinking
Date received: March 03, 2016; Accepted: March 27, 2017.
Drinking alcohol is harmful to one’s health. As drinking high
amounts of alcohol causes intoxication, it impairs people’s
physical coordination, consciousness, cognition, affect, and
behavior. Consequently, drinking high volumes of alcohol
often leads to (severe) injuries but also leads to sickness, alco-
hol poisoning, or even coma (National Institute on Alcohol
Abuse and Alcoholism [NIAAA], 2010; World Health Organi-
zation [WHO], 2014). Additionally, because of the toxic effects
on organs and body tissue, repeated heavy alcohol use is linked
to more than 200 diseases, depending on both the volume of
alcohol consumed and the drinking pattern (Rehm, Taylor, &
Room, 2006; WHO, 2014). Recent studies even show that the
alleged health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption are
nonexistent (Chikritzhs et al., 2015; Stockwell et al., 2016).
Despite these negative consequences, drinking alcohol
(measured as lifetime alcohol use and past month alcohol use)
is largely present among young adults (Center for Behavioral
Health Statistics and Quality, 2015; Poelen, Scholte, Engels,
Boomsma, & Willemsen, 2005; Rosiers et al., 2014). In addi-
tion, binge drinking (i.e., drinking high amounts of alcohol in a
limited period of time) peaks during young adulthood (Center
for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, 2015; Johnston,
Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2012; Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration, 2014). Corresponding with
other risk-taking behavior (Nell, 2002), this might indicate that
1
Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Corresponding Author:
Eveline Vincke, Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University,
Korte Meer 11, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Email: eveline.vincke@ugent.be
Evolutionary Psychology
April-June 2017: 1–14
ªThe Author(s) 2017
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there are underlying motivations and benefits that surpass the
risk for injuries and alcohol-related harm.
Research shows that there is a strong relationship between
drinking alcohol and engaging in short-term sexual relations
(e.g., Grello, Welsh, & Harper, 2006; Lindgren, Pantalone,
Lewis, & George, 2009). In addition, recent studies suggest
that the high prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption among
young adults might be (partially) explained because risky
drinking could function as a short-term mating strategy
(Vincke, 2016a, 2016b). Accordingly, a high alcohol consump-
tion might be engaged in by sexually unrestricted young adults
as a signal in mating situations. However, to date, no research
investigated whether drinking high amounts of alcohol is actu-
ally used by young adults as a short-term mating strategy.
Therefore, in this article, two studies are conducted. The first
study verifies that binge drinking is related to young adults’
level of sexual unrestrictedness. The second study empirically
investigates if short-term mating motivations trigger young
adults’ drinking behavior. The goal of this study is to contribute
to the large area of research focusing on youngsters’ drinking
motivations (e.g., Cooper, Frone, Russel, & Mudar, 1995;
Cooper, 1994; Cooper et al., 2008; Diep, Tan, Knibbe, & De
Vries, 2016; Kuntsche et al., 2014; Kuntsche, Knibbe, Gmel, &
Engels, 2006; Read, Wood, Kahler, Maddock, & Palfai, 2003;
Wahesh, Lewis, Wyrick, & Ackerman, 2015; Wardell, Ram-
chandani, & Hendershot, 2016; White, Anderson, Ray, & Mun,
2016) by investigating if indeed drinking high amounts of alco-
hol functions as a short-term mating strategy for young adults.
Human Sexuality and Risky
Courtship Behavior
Human sexuality ranges from an unrestricted short-term
oriented mating strategy to a more restricted, long-term-
oriented sexuality (Geary, 2006; Simpson & Gangestad,
1991). Due to differences in minimum parental investment and
fertility, women are generally more long-term oriented,
whereas men often follow a more sexually unrestricted mating
orientation (Buss & Schmitt, 1993; Trivers, 1972). However,
depending on personal characteristics (e.g., attractiveness) and
environmental characteristics (e.g., level of uncertainty), other
mating strategies can be beneficial for both men and women
(Buss & Schmitt, 1993; Gangestad & Simpson, 2000).
Men and women also search for different traits in short-term
and long-term mating partners. Accordingly, both sexes engage
in conspicuous signaling behavior to demonstrate qualities,
depending on the other sex’ mating preferences and the sexual
strategy that is being followed (Geary, 2006; Saad, 2013).
Research shows that this includes risk-taking behavior. For
instance, when searching for a short-term mating partner,
high-quality genes are a priority for women (Buss & Schmitt,
1993; Li, Bailey, Kenrick, & Linsenmeier, 2002; Li & Kenrick,
2006). Corresponding with this mating preference, physical
risk-taking (e.g., in traffic, skateboarding, etc.) increases in the
presence of women and even mere female cues (e.g., pictures
of women; Frankenhuis, Dotsch, Karremans, & Wigboldus,
2010; Greitemeyer, Kastenmu
¨ller, & Fischer, 2013; Paw-
lowski, Atwal, & Dunbar, 2008; Ronay & Hippel, 2010). In
addition, physical risk-taking also enhances male desirability,
especially when it concerns short-term mating (Bassett &
Moss, 2004; Kelly & Dunbar, 2001; Sylwester & Pawłowski,
2011). For long-term mating, risk avoiders are found more
attractive (Bassett & Moss, 2004; Sylwester & Pawłowski,
2011; Wilke, Hutchinson, Todd, & Kruger, 2006), except when
the risky behavior is more moderate. Indeed, moderate risk-
taking allows the displaying of qualities without potential neg-
ative outcomes for the partner and family (Farthing, 2007).
As women are generally more long-term oriented in their
sexuality, they are often demanding of a long courtship before
consenting to sex. However, sexually unrestricted men benefit
from small mating efforts (Buss, 2007). Therefore, men fol-
lowing a short-term mating strategy search for cues indicating
sexual willingness and rapid sexual consent (Buss & Schmitt,
1993; Regan, Levin, Sprecher, Christopher, & Cate, 2000).
Research suggests that women with a short-term oriented mat-
ing strategy use signaling strategies analogous to men—such as
engaging in risky behavior—to indicate that they are also more
masculine and (therefore) more unrestricted in their sexuality
(Sylwester & Pawłowski, 2011). Corresponding with this line
of reasoning, studies show that sexually unrestricted women
are indeed perceived to be more masculine (Campbell et al.,
2009; Clark, 2004; Mikach & Bailey, 1999; Scarbrough &
Johnston, 2005). Moreover, also in women, high risk-taking
is considered more attractive in short-term mating contexts
than being a risk avoider (Bassett & Moss, 2004; Sylwester
& Pawłowski, 2011), especially when it concerns physical and
social risk-takers (Sylwester & Pawłowski, 2011). For long-
term mating, risk avoiders are preferred, except when the phys-
ical risk contains altruistic motives (Farthing, 2005).
Alcohol Use as Courtship Behavior
Given the physical risks inherent to drinking large amounts of
alcohol, drinking behavior could be used by young adults to
signal desirable traits to the opposite sex, especially in short-
term mating situations. Several studies indicate that this is the
case for both young men and young women.
According to a large amount of studies, there is a strong link
between consuming alcohol and engaging in casual sexual
behavior (Cooper, 2002, 2006; Grello et al., 2006; Lindgren
et al., 2009; Paul, McManus, & Hayes, 2000; Turchik, Garske,
Probst, & Irvin, 2010). In addition, research shows a positive
correlation between drinking alcohol and having a short-term-
oriented mating strategy, both when looking at drinking fre-
quency and average drinking behavior (Vincke, 2016a, 2016b).
Also studies on drinking games confirm that a higher alcohol
consumption is linked to being more sexually unrestricted, in
both young men and young women (Hone & McCullough,
2015; Hone, Carter, & Mccullough, 2013).
Similarly, research indicates that young men and women
who are actively dating drink more alcohol, both weekly as
on social occasions, compared to young adults who are in a
2Evolutionary Psychology
steady relationship or not dating at all (Devos-Comby, Daniel,
& Lange, 2013; Pedersen, Lee, Larimer, & Neighbors, 2009).
Also, when wanting to make an attractive impression in social
situations, both sexes drink more alcoholic beverages
(O’Grady, Harman, Gleason, & Wilson, 2012). According to
some studies, young adults even report having sexual motiva-
tions to drink alcohol in the company of others (Lindgren et al.,
2009) and to play drinking games (Johnson & Sheets, 2004).
In addition, research on the attractiveness of alcohol drin-
kers shows that pictures of youngsters who have consumed a
moderate amount of alcohol are considered more attractive
than when the person in the picture is completely sober (Van
Den Abbeele, Penton-Voak, Attwood, Stephen, & Munafo,
2015). As this study of Van Den Abbeele, Penton-Voak, Att-
wood, Stephen, & Munafo (2015) only assesses the general
attractiveness, without making a distinction between short-
term and long-term desirability, the attractiveness benefit is
no longer present when having consumed a high dose of alco-
hol. Similarly, a person reporting using alcohol in a risky man-
ner is not considered attractive as a potential long-term partner
(Farthing, 2005). However, research differentiating between
young adults’ short-term and long-term attractiveness shows
that heavy drinking behavior does bring attractiveness bene-
fits to young men and women in short-term mating contexts,
while clearly harming a young adult’s long-term desirability
(Vincke, 2016a, 2016b). This confirms the literature on risk-
taking, showing that high risk-taking is attractive only in
short-term mating contexts, whereas moderate risk-taking is
also considered desirable in a long-term mating partner
(Bassett & Moss, 2004; Farthing, 2005, 2007; Sylwester &
Pawłowski, 2011).
Finally, studies show that alcohol consumption serves as a
cue for a short-term oriented mating orientation. Both men
and women who drink alcohol are perceived as being more
sexually available and interested in sexual encounters com-
pared to peers who do not drink (Abbey, 2002; Koukounas,
Djokic, & Miller, 2015). Moreover, young adults who engage
in frequent drinking behavior are perceived as having a more
unrestricted sexuality compared to occasional drinkers and
abstainers, due to a higher perceived riskiness (Vincke,
2016a, 2016b).
Based on the above research, recent studies suggest that
risky drinking behavior could function as a short-term mating
strategy for young adults (Vincke, 2016a, 2016b). Accordingly,
in actual mating situations, young adults following a short-term
mating strategy might drink high amounts of alcohol as a signal
to the opposite sex. However, to date, no research investigated
if a high alcohol consumption is actually used by young adult
as a mating strategy in short-term mating contexts.
Current Research
Previous research showed a clear link between drinking alcohol
and having an unrestricted sexuality (Vincke, 2016a, 2016b).
However, studies focusing on heavy episodic drinking behavior
and mating strategies are limited to drinking games contexts
(Hone & McCullough, 2015; Hone et al., 2013). Therefore, as
an additional verification of the link between drinking
high amounts of alcohol on an occasion and a short-term
mating orientation, an online survey was conducted on binge
drinking behavior. In this survey, we expect binge drinkers to
be more short-term oriented in their mating strategy compared
to peers who do not engage in binge drinking behavior
(Hypothesis 1). In addition, we predict that the more short-
term oriented binge drinkers are in their mating orientation, the
more they engage in binge drinking behavior. Accordingly, a
positive correlation is expected between binge drinkers’ level
of sexual unrestrictedness and the amount of binge drinking
behavior (Hypothesis 2).
A second study empirically investigated if short-term mat-
ing motivations trigger young adults’ alcohol consumption.
More specifically, based on both risk-taking and alcohol con-
sumption literature, we hypothesize that young men and
women will be willing to consume more alcoholic beverages
in a short-term mating context than in a long-term mating
context (Hypothesis 3). Also, facilitating the consumption of
high amounts of alcohol, we expect that a short-term mating
motivation will affect young men and women’s perception of
heavy drinking behavior. A higher amount of alcoholic bev-
erages will be perceived as heavy in a short-term mating situ-
ation, compared to a long-term mating situation (Hypothesis 4).
Finally, we hypothesize that both the self-reported consump-
tion of alcoholic beverages and the perception of heavy drink-
ing will be positively mediated by the extent to which young
adults are motivated to pursue a short-term mating relationship
(Hypothesis 5). The more young men and women are interested
in casual sexual encounters, the more a short-term mating sit-
uation will increase young adults’ willingness to drink and their
heavy drinking perception. To verify these hypotheses, two
studies were conducted.
Study 1: The Sexual Unrestrictedness
of Binge Drinkers
Design
Previous survey studies (Vincke, 2016a, 2016b) already mea-
sured the link between young adults’ mating orientation and
their general drinking behavior. To confirm that consuming
large quantities of alcohol on a specific occasion is also related
to having a short-term mating orientation in both young men
and women, a survey study on binge drinking behavior was
conducted.
Respondents
A total of 345 young adults between the age of 18 and 26
completed the questionnaire, with a mean age of 21.26 years
(SD ¼1.85). Of this sample, 45.5%were male and 54.5%
female. Twenty-two percent of the respondents (n¼77)
reported to occasionally engage in binge drinking behavior.
More specifically, both men (n¼41) and women (n¼36)
Vincke 3
indicated engaging in binge drinking 3–5 times in the past 30
days. However, on average, men reported binge drinking 1 or 2
times a week, whereas women’s binge drinking behavior was
limited to 2 or 3 times a month. All 77 binge drinkers in the
sample indicated having a heterosexual orientation. In Bel-
gium, alcohol can be legally sold to youngsters from 16 years
on. Only when selling liquor, the age limit rises to 18 years
(www.health.belgium.be), making all participants legal alcohol
consumers.
Measures
The questionnaire started with a short introduction, explaining
that the following definition applied to the questions regarding
binge drinking. (“By binge drinking, we mean drinking high
amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. Drinking five or
more alcoholic drinks in 2 hours’ time is considered binge
drinking behavior.”) Subsequently, respondents were asked
whether they occasionally engaged in binge drinking behavior.
Those who indicated engaging in the excessive drinking
behavior were asked about the frequency of their binge drink-
ing (“Think back to the last 30 days. On how many days have
you engaged in binge drinking behavior?”). Answers were
given on a 7-point scale with fixed categories, ranging from
“not a single day” to “all days.” A following question assessed
the average binge drinking behavior (“How often do you
engage in binge drinking behavior”). A scale with nine cate-
gories was presented (Less than 1 day per year, 1–5 days per
year, 6–11 days per year, 1 day per month, 2–3 days per month,
1 or 2 days per week, 3 or 4 days per week, almost every day,
and daily).
To assess respondents’ mating orientation, respondents
filled in the Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory SOI-
R scale (Penke & Asendorpf, 2008) containing nine questions:
Three questions focused on a person’s attitude toward unrest-
ricted sex (e.g., I can imagine myself being comfortable and
enjoying “casual” sex with different partners.), the three fol-
lowing questions addressed a person’s sexual desire (e.g., How
often do you experience sexual arousal when you are in contact
with someone with whom you do not have a committed roman-
tic relationship?), whereas the three final questions focused on
past behavioral experiences (e.g., With how many different
partners have you had sexual intercourse on one and only one
occasion?). A higher score on the SOI-R indicated a higher
level of sexual unrestrictedness. Young adults’ level of sexual
unrestrictedness was also measured by means of the short-term
mating orientation scale (STMO) scale and long-term mating
orientation (LTMO) scale (Jackson & Kirkpatrick, 2007). The
STMO consists of 10 statements (e.g., I can imagine myself
enjoying a brief sexual encounter with someone I find very
attractive.), whereas the LTMO contains seven statements
(e.g., I would like to have a romantic relationship that lasts
forever.). All statements were measured on a 7-point scale
ranging from 1 (I completely disagree)to7(I completely
agree). All scales had a high internal consistency (a
SOI-R
¼
.85; a
STMO
¼.90; a
LTMO
¼.78).
Results
The Mating Orientation of Binge Drinkers (Hypothesis 1)
To verify if young men and young women who drink high
amounts of alcohol are more unrestricted in their sexuality
compared to those peers who do not engage in binge drinking,
3 two-way, full factorial, univariate analyses of variance
(ANOVAs) were conducted (i.e., for all three scales). SOI-R,
STMO, and LTMO served as dependent variables, whereas
being a binge drinker or not and the participants’ sex func-
tioned as the independent variables.
Results showed a significant main effect of sex of the parti-
cipants for the SOI-R, F(1, 341) ¼42.31, p< .001, Z
p
2
¼.110,
STMO, F(1, 341) ¼38.83, p< .001, Z
p
2
¼.102, and LTMO,
F(1, 341) ¼11.79, p¼.001, Z
p
2
¼.033. On all three scales,
men indicated being more sexually unrestricted than women.
More specifically, men (M¼4.04, SD ¼1.25) scored higher on
the SOI-R than women (M¼2.99, SD ¼1.15), and men (M¼
4.20, SD ¼1.16) scored higher on the STMO than women (M
¼3.22, SD ¼1.21). Women (M¼4.45, SD ¼0.59), on the
other hand, had a higher score on the LTMO compared to men
(M¼4.24, SD ¼0.61).
In addition, results showed significant main effects of being
a binge drinker on both the SOI-R, F(1, 341) ¼17.27, p< .001,
Z
p
2
¼.048, and the STMO, F(1, 341) ¼10.89, p¼.001, Z
p
2
¼
.031, with a slightly nonsignificant main effect for LTMO, F(1,
341) ¼3.67, p¼.056, Z
p
2
¼.011. As expected, results showed
that binge drinkers (M¼4.03, SD ¼1.35) scored significantly
higher on the SOI-R compared to peers who do not engage in
heavy episodic drinking (M¼3.31, SD ¼1.24). Similarly,
binge drinkers (M¼4.13, SD ¼1.16) had higher short-term
oriented mating tendencies on the STMO scale than peers who
do not drink heavily (M¼3.53, SD ¼1.28). Finally, binge
drinkers (M¼4.22, SD ¼0.56) indicated being slightly less
long-term oriented in their sexuality than nonbinge drinkers (M
¼4.39, SD ¼0.61) on the LTMO. No significant interaction
effects between binge drinking and the sex of the participants
were present for all three mating orientation scales, F
SOI-R
(1,
341) ¼0.02, p¼.885, Z
p
2
< .001; F
STMO
(1, 341) ¼0.00, p¼
.961, Z
p
2
< .001; F
LTMO
(1, 341) ¼2.67, p¼.103, Z
p
2
¼.008.
The Correlation Between Binge Drinking Behavior and
the Level of Sexual Unrestrictedness (Hypothesis 2)
In addition, one-tailed correlations between binge drinking
behavior (both the frequency and the average binge drinking
behavior) and the respondents’ level of sexual unrestrictedness
were conducted. Given the ordinal nature of the binge drinking
scales, Spearman’s correlations were used. Results are inter-
preted based on both significance level (pvalue), and whether
the 95%confidence intervals [CIs] exclude 0 (Field, 2013).
Results (see Table 1) showed clear positive correlations
between average binge drinking and binge drinking frequency
and SOI-R. Similar positive correlations were found for the
binge drinking measures and the STMO. No significant
4Evolutionary Psychology
correlations were present for the LTMO. Subsequently, a split
file was conducted on sex of the participants (see Table 1). For
men, Spearman’s correlations showed a clear positive corre-
lation between the binge drinking measures (both average
binge drinking and binge drinking frequency) and SOI-R, yet
no significant correlations with STMO or LTMO. For young
women, on the other hand, a significant positive correlation
was present between the two binge drinking measures and
STMO, but not for SOI-R. Also a significant positive correla-
tion was present between LTMO and binge drinking fre-
quency, but the 95%CI included zero. Accordingly, a
higher level of sexual unrestrictedness is linked to more binge
drinking behavior among young adults. This positive correla-
tion is present via the SOI-R in men, and via the STMO in
women, both when looking at binge drinking frequency and
average binge drinking.
As the average binge drinking scale (cf. measures) consists
of nine categories with different time frames, additional anal-
yses were conducted to verify that the different time frames
caused no bias in the correlation analyses. First, the average
drinking scale was rescaled to represent days drinking per
month as time frame. Accordingly, 1 (less than 1 day per year)
became 0.083333 (1/12 months), 2 (1–5 days per year) became
0.25 (3/12 months), 3 (6–11 days per year) became 0.708333
(8.5/12 months), 4 (1 day per month) remained 1, 5 (2–3 days
per month) became 2.5, 6 (1 or 2 days per week) stayed 6 (1.5
4 weeks), 7 (3 or 4 days per week) became 14 (3.5 4 weeks),
8 (almost every day) became 22.5 (0.75 30 days), and 9
(daily) became 30.
Next, Pearson’s correlation analyses were conducted on the
complete sample. Results confirmed the Spearman’s correla-
tions, showing positive correlations between average binge
drinking and SOI-R, r(77) ¼.33, p¼.002, 95%CI [.133,
.506], and STMO, r(77) ¼.29, p¼.005, 95%CI [.108,
.457]. The correlation with LTMO was nonsignificant, r(77)
¼.11, p¼.180, 95%CI [.000, .110]. A split file on sex of the
participants showed no differences between the two sexes: For
young men, there were no significant correlations between
average binge drinking and SOI-R, r(41) ¼.26, p¼.051,
95%CI [.018, .537], STMO, r(41) ¼.17, p¼.140, 95%
CI [.066, .398], or LTMO, r(41) ¼.043, p¼.396, 95%
CI [.340, .248]. Also for young women, there were no corre-
lations between average binge drinking and SOI-R, r(36) ¼.22,
p¼.10, 95%CI [.109, .532], STMO, r(36) ¼.23, p¼.087,
95%CI [.080, .538], and LTMO, r(36) ¼.17, p¼.161, 95%
CI [.246, .537].
Discussion
In this survey, we confirmed the relation between drinking high
amounts of alcohol and having a short-term mating orientation.
As expected, binge drinkers were sexually more unrestricted
compared to peers who did not engage in drinking large quan-
tities of alcohol in a single session. Additionally, in both young
men and women, the level of sexual unrestrictedness rose as the
amount of binge drinking increased and vice versa. This was
especially the case when looking at binge drinking frequency.
However, verifying the link between drinking high amounts of
alcohol and young adults’ sexual strategy does not suffice to
state that this behavior functions as a short-term mating strat-
egy. Therefore, a second study empirically investigated if
short-term mating motivations increase young adults’ drinking
behavior.
Study 2: The Impact of Short-term Mating on
Young Adults’ Drinking Behavior
Design and Participants
A2(sex)2 (short-term mating prime, long-term mating
prime) between-subjects design was used to verify the impact
of mating motivations on young adults’ alcohol consumption.
To activate a specific motivation, a guided visualization task
was used, combining priming scenarios with empathy ques-
tions. Using priming to activate short-term and long-term mat-
ing motivations is based on both risk-taking and conspicuous
consumption literature (Greitemeyer et al., 2013; Sundie et al.,
2011). A visualization task was chosen as priming technique
because it has proven useful in manipulating emotions and
motivations in previous similar research (Maner, Gailliot,
Rouby, & Miller, 2007; Wang & Griskevicius, 2014). Young
adults who drink alcohol were contacted to take part in the
online experiment. Given the heterosexual perspective in the
mating scenarios, participants with a homosexual orientation
were not taken into account, as well as respondents with
largely incomplete questionnaires. Also participants who did
not complete the visualization task were removed from the
dataset, as well as nondrinkers. No subjects were excluded
based on the manipulation check. As a consequence, our final
sample consisted of 229 young adults between the age of 18
and27yearsold(M¼21.18, SD ¼1.49), of which 32.3%
were male (n¼74) and 67.7%(n¼155) female. In Belgium,
Table 1. The Correlation Between Binge Drinking and the Level of
Sexual Unrestrictedness.
Average Binge Drinking Binge Drinking Frequency
rsdf p 95% CI rsdf p 95% CI
All participants
SOI-R .38 77 <.001 [.179, .549] .35 77 .001 [.131, .538]
STMO .33 77 .002 [.109, .532] .30 77 .005 [.073, .505]
LTMO .14 77 .119 [.347, .089] .12 77 .151 [.329, .106]
Male participants
SOI-R .32 41 .021 [.005, .569] .31 41 .023 [.011, .585]
STMO .16 41 .160 [.143, .450] .16 41 .152 [.153, .466]
LTMO .17 41 .147 [.484, .149] .22 41 .083 [.468, .069]
Female participants
SOI-R .24 36 .084 [.111, .560] .17 36 .168 [.214, .526]
STMO .36 36 .015 [.029, .652] .33 36 .026 [.014, .597]
LTMO .19 36 .131 [.166, .502] .33 36 .025 [.030, .628]
Note. SOI-R ¼Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory; LTMO ¼long-term
mating orientation; STMO ¼short-term mating orientation.
Vincke 5
the legal drinking age is 18 for spirits and 16 for all other
alcohol (www.health.belgium.be).
Materials
Priming methodology. Participants were randomly assigned to
one of the two between-subject conditions: (1) short-term mat-
ing and (2) long-term mating. In each condition, participants
were asked to read a short priming story of circa 300 words.
Each story consisted of four parts, in which the respondent read
a brief description about a situation, followed by a question
asking to write down (briefly) how they would envision the
situation. More specifically, a first question asked the partici-
pants to describe the attractive opposite-sex person in the story.
Participants were instructed to keep that person in mind when
reading the rest of the story. The following questions assessed
how the participants would feel in that specific situation.
Participants in the short-term mating condition read a story
in which they were single, yet only interested in casual relation-
ships. Then, on a Friday evening, the main character makes eye
contact with a beautiful man or woman in a bar. He or she tells
you that he or she is traveling through Europe. The main char-
acter hopes that something more will happen that night. The
long-term mating condition tells a similar story, but here the
participants were instructed to envision that they were single
and searching for a committed relationship. On a Friday eve-
ning, they recognize an attractive man or woman at the bar they
know from the past, and for whom they used to have romantic
feelings. The main character addresses him or her and they start
talking. The main character feels that they really understand
each other and wants to spend more time together. To ensure
that the priming scenarios elicited the right motivations and
feelings, two pretest studies were conducted.
Manipulation pretest 1. Pretest 1 explored whether a sexual
strategy prime can alter young adults’ sociosexual orientation,
using a 2 (sex; between subject) 2 (test session; control vs.
experimental; within subject) 2 (short-term mating prime vs.
long-term mating prime; between subject) mixed-subjects
experimental design. Forty-five young adults between the age
of 20 and 27 (M¼22.11, SD ¼1.17, 38%male, 62%female)
took part in the experiment. Each participant completed two
testing sessions. In the first testing session, participants were
asked to fill in the STMO and LTMO scale (Jackson & Kirk-
patrick, 2007). In the second, experimental session, the same
participants were asked to read one of the two priming scenar-
ios (short-term mating or long-term mating), followed by the
STMO and LTMO. The second session took place one day after
the first session. STMO and LTMO were measured on a 9-point
Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (I completely disagree)to9(I
completely agree). The STMO and LTMO had sufficient inter-
nal consistency in both testing sessions (a
STMO1
¼.87, a
LTMO1
¼.80, a
STMO2
¼.90, a
LTMO2
¼.94). Both testing sessions were
filled in on a paper questionnaire.
To verify if young adults’ level of sexual unrestrictedness
rose in the short-term mating prime condition, a two-way
mixed ANOVA was conducted. STMO1 (first session) and
STMO2 (second session) were used as the variables of the
within-subjects factor “STMO,” with priming version as
between-subjects factor. Results showed a significant interac-
tion between STMO and priming version, F(1, 43) ¼5.81, p¼
.020, Z
p
2
¼.119. When reading the short-term mating prime,
participants scored higher on the STMO2 (M¼5.03, SD ¼
1.64) than the STMO1 (M¼4.61, SD ¼1.23; p¼.050). In the
long-term mating prime condition, there were no significant
differences between STMO1 (M¼4.36, SD ¼1.50) and
STMO2 (M¼4.10, SD ¼1.64; p¼.178).
Additionally, a second two-way mixed ANOVA was con-
ducted to verify whether mating primes affected young adults’
LTMO. LTMO1 and LTMO2 were used as the within-subjects
factor “LTMO,” with priming version as between-subjects fac-
tor. Results found no significant interaction between LTMO
and priming version, F(1, 43) ¼1.16, p¼.288, Z
p
2
¼.026.
Yet, pairwise comparisons did show that participants who read
a long-term mating prime scored higher on LTMO2 (M¼7.83,
SD ¼1.00) than LTMO1 (M¼7.40, SD ¼1.51; p¼.010). No
such differences were found between LTMO1 (M¼7.56, SD ¼
1.29) and LTMO2 (M¼7.73, SD ¼0.87; p¼.306) in the
short-term mating prime condition.
Manipulations pretest 2. A second online manipulation pretest
was conducted, using a different sample. Here also, a 2 (sex;
between subject) 2 (test session; control vs. experimental;
within subject) 2 (short-term mating prime vs. long-term
mating prime; between subject) mixed-subjects experimental
design was used. In total, 123 young adults between 18 and 27
years old (M¼21.35, SD ¼1.33) took part, of which 21%male
and 79%female.
When starting the online experiment, each participant was
asked to fill in their sex, age, and relationship status (in a
relationship or single). Next, a short scale measured partici-
pants’ sociosexual orientation, using the attitudinal items of
the SOI-R (Penke & Asendorpf, 2008). Young adults were
asked to indicate their level of sexual unrestrictedness on three
questions (e.g., Sex without love is OK.), followed by a 7-point
Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (I completely disagree)to7(I
completely agree). A higher score indicated a higher level of
sexual unrestrictedness. Subsequently, participants read one of
the two primes, either the short-term mating prime or long-term
mating prime, with visualization questions.
To ensure thatthe visualization task elicited the right feelings,
participants were asked to indicate which emotions they felt after
reading the scenario. A list of seven emotions was presented: (1)
sexual arousal, (2) sexual desire, (3) romantic feelings, (4) amor-
ousness, (5) enthusiasm, (6) guilt, and (7) confusion. Guilt and
confusion were added to the list of emotions to verify whether a
mating prime does not lead to negative emotions when conflict-
ing with the own mating strategy. Additionally, a second ques-
tion assessed to what extent the scenario elicited the following
motivations: (8) making an attractive impression, (9) pursuing
a short-term relationship, affaire or one-night stand with some-
one you are interested in, (10) pursuing a romantic, long-term
6Evolutionary Psychology
relationship with someone you are interested in, (11) enjoying
yourself, having fun. The order of the emotions and motivations
was randomized. Answers were given on a 5-point Likert-type
scale ranging from 1 (not at all)to5(very much). Subsequently,
participants were asked to fill in the SOI-R for the second time.
Both the scales had sufficient internal consistency (a
SOI-R1
¼.70
and a
SOI-R2
¼.76).
To verify if the mating prime affected the participants’ level
of sexual unrestrictedness, a two-way mixed ANOVA was
conducted. SOI-R1 (testing session) and SOI-R2 (experimental
session) formed the within-subjects factor “SOI-R,” priming
version was the between-subjects factor. Results showed a sig-
nificant interaction between SOI-R and priming version, F(1,
121) ¼5.96, p¼.016, Z
p
2
¼.047. Pairwise comparisons
indicated that young adults’ level of sexual unrestrictedness
rose significantly between the testing session (M¼3.99,
SD ¼1.37) and experimental session (M¼4.33, SD ¼1.36)
when reading a short-term mating prime (p< .001). There was
no significant difference in young adults’ sexual orientation
when reading a long-term mating prime (M
SOI-R1
¼4.28,
SD
SOI-R1
¼1.50; M
SOI-R2
¼4.32, SD
SOI-R1
¼1.48; p¼.62).
Additional three-way mixed ANOVAs also confirmed that nor
the sex of the participants, F(1, 119) ¼0.02, p¼.902, Z
p
2
<.001,
nor their relationship status, F(1, 119) ¼2.04, p¼.156, Z
p
2
¼
.017, affected the impact of the priming scenarios on their socio-
sexual orientation.
In addition, a two-way mixed ANOVA with all seven emo-
tions as within-subjects variables was conducted. Priming ver-
sion functioned as between-subjects factor. Results showed a
significant interaction effect between the emotions and the
priming version, F(3.51, 425) ¼6.02, p< .001, Z
p
2
¼.047.
As the assumption of sphericity was violated (p< .001), the
Greenhouse-Geisser correction was used (e
Greenhouse-Geisser
¼
.59). Pairwise comparisons (see Table 2) further clarified that
sexual arousal was significantly higher in the short-term mating
condition (p¼.004), whereas amorousness was higher in the
long-term mating condition (p¼.020). Romantic feelings
were also slightly higher when reading a long-term mating
prime (p¼.093). As intended, the level of desire (p¼.631)
and enthusiasm (p¼.856) did not differ significantly between
the two priming conditions. Also, the priming conditions did
not significantly differ in the extent to which participants felt
confused (p¼.435). Young adults did feel significantly more
guilty in a short-term mating condition than a long-term mating
condition (p¼.020). However, both scores remained relatively
low. Even more, guilt was the emotion the least present in both
conditions. There were also no significant three-way interac-
tions with sex, F(3.48, 414.47) ¼0.76, p¼.535, Z
p
2
¼.006;
Greenhouse-Geisser correction, or relationship status, F(3.48,
414) ¼0.42, p¼.767, Z
p
2
¼.004; Greenhouse-Geisser cor-
rection. Accordingly, the elicited emotions in the two mating
contexts did not differ between young men and young women.
Moreover, also relationship status did not affect the extent to
which emotions were aroused in the two mating conditions,
even in the case of guilt and confusion.
Similarly, a two-way mixed ANOVA with all four motiva-
tions as within-subjects factor and priming version as between-
subjects factor was conducted. Results indicated a significant
interaction effect between the motivations and priming version,
using the Huynh-Feldt correction (e
Greenhouse-Geisser
¼.79),
F(2.42, 293.25) ¼6.96, p< .001, Z
p
2
¼.054. Pairwise com-
parisons of the interaction effect (see Table 2) showed that
there were no significant differences between the two mating
conditions in the extent to which participants wanted to make
an attractive impression (p¼.846), felt like having fun (p¼
.766), or wanted to pursue a long-term relationship (p¼.118).
Participants in the short-term mating condition were signifi-
cantly more motivated to pursue a short-term relationship (p
¼.001). Here also, there was no significant interaction with
sex, F(2.46, 292.14) ¼0.72, p¼.513, Z
p
2
¼.006; Huynh-Feldt
correction, or relationship status, F(2.37, 281.57) ¼0.04, p¼
.973, Z
p
2
< .001; Huynh-Feldt correction. Based on the two
manipulation pretests, we decided to use the two mating sce-
narios in the visualization task, to elicit short-term and long-
term mating motivations.
Alcohol measures. To assess the drinking behavior of young
adults in short-term and long-term mating situations, partici-
pants were instructed to imagine spending the evening in the
bar, as described in the priming scenario. Subsequently, they
were asked to indicate the maximum amount of alcoholic
drinks that they would drink in a period of 2 hr time. A second
series of questions assessed respondents’ perceptions concern-
ing drinking behavior. More specifically, it was asked which
amount of alcoholic drinks they considered as heavy drinking,
in a period of 2 hr. For both men and women separately, parti-
cipants were instructed to fill in a number between 0 and 20 for
3 categories (beer, wine, and spirits). For both men (a¼.87)
and women (a¼.89), an index variable computed a mean score
of perceived heavy drinking of the three variables.
Sexual strategy. To measure participants’ mating orientation, the
three attitudinal items of the SOI-R were used (cf. manipula-
tions pretest 2, a¼.73).
Table 2. Elicited Emotions and Motivations Depending on the Mating
Condition.
M(SD)
Short-Term
Mating
Long-Term
Mating
Sexual arousal 3.56 (0.97) 3.06 (0.89)
Desire 3.75 (0.92) 3.67 (0.78)
Romantic feelings 3.07 (0.83) 3.33 (0.87)
Amorousness 2.68 (0.88) 3.19 (0.91)
Enthousiasm 3.95 (0.80) 3.92 (0.86)
Guilt 2.03 (0.99) 1.64 (0.84)
Confusion 2.78 (1.16) 2.63 (1.03)
Making an attractive impression 4.00 (0.81) 3.97 (0.96)
Pursuit of a short-term relationship 2.71 (1.15) 2.08 (0.93)
Pursuit of a long-term relationship 3.25 (1.15) 3.58 (1.12)
Enjoying yourself, having fun 4.08 (0.68) 4.13 (0.81)
Note. SD ¼standard deviation.
Vincke 7
Manipulation check. To ensure thatthe priming scenario’s elicited
the right motivations in the actual experiment, the second ques-
tion from pretest 2 was reused as manipulation check. This
question assessed to what extent the scenario elicited the follow-
ing motivations: (a) making an attractive impression, (b) pursu-
ing a short-term relationship, affaire or one-night stand with
someone you are interested in, (c) pursuing a romantic, long-
term relationship with someone you are interested in, and (d)
enjoying yourself, having fun. Answers were given on a 5-point
Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not at all)to5(very much).
Procedure
Participants agreeing to take part in the experiment were ran-
domly assigned to one of the two priming conditions. First,
participants were asked about their sex, age, sexual orientation,
and whether they drank alcohol. This was followed by the SOI-
R. Subsequently, participants read the priming scenario with
visualization questions, and filled in the manipulation check,
followed by the measures of alcohol consumption.
Results
Manipulation Check
To verify the functioning of the priming scenarios in the experi-
ment, a three-way mixed ANOVA was conducted. Sex and
priming version functioned as the between-subjects factor, the
four motivations as within-subjects factor. Results showed a
significant interaction effect between priming version and the
motivations, F(2.61, 588.16) ¼21.06, p< .001, Z
p
2
¼.086.
The three-way interaction with priming version and sex was
slightly nonsignificant, F(2.61, 588.16) ¼2.33, p¼.082, Z
p
2
¼.010. As the assumption of sphericity was violated (p< .001;
e
Greenhouse-Geisser
¼.85), a Huynh-Feldt correction was used.
Pairwise comparisons (see Figure 1) indicated that the par-
ticipants in the two mating conditions did not differ in their
motivation to make an attractive impression (p¼.178) or their
motivation to have fun (p¼.351). However, young adults were
more motivated to pursue a short-term relationship in the short-
term mating condition (p< .001), and more motivated to pursue
a romantic relationship in the long-term mating condition
(p¼.003).
The Impact of Short-Term Mating on the Amount
of Alcoholic Drinks (Hypothesis 3)
To verify if short-term mating intentions increase the amount
of alcoholic beverages that male and female young adults want
to consume, a three-way interaction moderation analysis was
conducted, using Model 3 of the PROCESS procedure of Hayes
(2013; http://www.afhayes.com). A three-way interaction was
chosen to include the sociosexual orientation (measured by
SOI-R) of the participants as a moderating variable in the anal-
yses, next to sex. Maximum amount of alcoholic beverages
consumed functioned as the outcome variable Y, priming ver-
sion as the independent variable X. Both sex of the participants
(M) and their sociosexual orientation (W) served as moderating
variables. Results found no significant three-way interaction
between priming version, sex and SOI-R, B¼.31, SE ¼
.69, t(220) ¼.45, p¼.66, on the maximum amount of alco-
holic beverages consumed.
As the two-way interactions of moderation analyses are
conditional, a two-way univariate ANOVA was used for
follow-up, with priming version and sex of the participant as
between-subjects factor. Results showed a significant main
effect of priming version on the amount of alcoholic drinks,
F(1, 225) ¼7.54, p¼.007, Z
p
2
¼.032, but no significant
Priming Sex interaction, F(1, 225) ¼0.05, p¼.830, Z
p
2
< .001. Accordingly, both young men and women intended to
drink a higher amount of alcoholic beverages in the short-term
mating condition (M¼4.14, SD ¼2.38) than in the long-term
mating condition (M¼3.29, SD ¼1.79).
The Impact of Short-Term Mating on the Perception
of Heavy Drinking (Hypothesis 4)
Statistical analyses were similar to Hypothesis 3, with per-
ceived heavy drinking as independent variable in both the
three-way interaction (Model 3, PROCESS) and the two-way
univariate ANOVA. Separate analyses were performed for
perceived heavy drinking in women and perceived heavy
drinking in men.
Results showed no significant three-way interaction
between priming version, sex, and SOI-R for both perceived
heavy drinking in women, B¼.25, SE ¼.45, t(220) ¼.55,
p¼.580, and in men, B¼.13, SE ¼.68, t(220) ¼.19, p¼
.853. Follow-up two-way univariate ANOVAs also showed no
significant interaction between priming version and sex of the
participants, F
Female drinking
(1, 225) ¼1.61, p¼.206, Z
p
2
¼
.007 and F
Male drinking
(1, 225) ¼0.03, p¼.854, Z
p
2
< .001. A
significant main effect, on the other hand, was present for male
drinking, F(1, 225) ¼3.95, p¼.048, Z
p
2
¼.017. For the
perception of female heavy drinking, there was only a signif-
icant main effect on the .1 significance level, F(1, 225) ¼2.78,
p¼.097, Z
p
2
¼.012. When performing a follow-up indepen-
dent ttest, significant differences were present for both the
Figure 1. Elicited motivations depending on the mating condition.
8Evolutionary Psychology
perception of male drinking behavior, t(227) ¼2.26, p¼.025,
r¼.15, and female drinking behavior, t(227) ¼2.15, p¼.032,
r¼.14. For both male and female drinking, participants
perceived a higher amount of alcoholic beverages as heavy
drinking in the short-term mating condition compared to the
long-term mating condition (cf. Figure 2).
The Mediating Impact of Short-term Mating Motivations
on Alcohol Measures (Hypothesis 5)
To investigate whether the desire to engage in a short-term
relationship positively mediates the relation between priming
version and the alcohol measures, mediation analyses were
conducted, using Model 4 of the PROCESS procedure of
Hayes. Bias-corrected bootstrapping (with 5,000 bootstrap
samples) was used to generate 95%CIs around the indirect
effects of participants’ desire to have a short-term relationship
on the amount of alcoholic beverages and on the perceived
heavy drinking. Mediation is present when the CIs exclude 0.
Number of drinks, perceived heavy drinking for women and
perceived heavy drinking for men were used as separate out-
come variables, with priming version as independent variable.
Results (see Table 3) revealed a significant positive indirect
effect of the short-term mating priming on the amount of alco-
holic beverages, via their motivation to pursue a short-term
relationship. These findings indicate that in a short-term mating
condition, the motivation to have a short-term sexual relation-
ship rises, leading to a willingness to drink a higher amount of
alcoholic beverages in a mating situation. Remarkably, no such
mediation was found for perception of heavy drinking in
women or men.
Given the absence of mediation for the heavy drinking per-
ception, additional mediation analyses were conducted using
young adults’ desire to pursue a long-term relationship as a
mediator. Results indicated a negatively mediated relation
between being in a long-term mating condition and the percep-
tion of heavy drinking in women (see Table 3). These findings
reveal that in a long-term mating condition, the perception of
heavy drinking in women lowers as the desire to go on a
romantic date for a long-term relationship rises. No other
indirect effects of the desire to pursue a long-term relationship
were present.
In addition to these simple mediations, six moderated med-
iations were conducted, using Model 14, to verify if the med-
iating effect of short-term mating motivations and long-term
mating motivations on the alcohol measures was moderated by
sex of the participants. The analysis (5,000 bootstraps; 95%
bias-corrected CIs) showed no significant moderated
mediations.
Discussion
The results of this experimental study showed that a short-term
mating condition affects young adults’ drinking behavior and
perception. Both young men and young women wanted to con-
sume more alcoholic beverages when being in a short-term
mating situation, compared to being in the company of a poten-
tially long-term partner. Also a higher amount of alcoholic
Figure 2. The perception of heavy drinking depending on the mating
condition.
Table 3. The Mediating Impact of the Desire to Pursue a Short-Term
or Long-term Relationship on the Alcohol Measures.
Mediator
(Moderator) Alcohol Measures abSE LLCI ULCI
Desire to pursue a
short-term
relationship
(Model 4)
Amount of
alcoholic
beverages
a
.349 .114 .157 .611
Perceived heavy
drinking for
women
.065 .094 .111 .263
Perceived heavy
drinking for men
.138 .123 .091 .403
Desire to pursue a
long-term
relationship
(Model 4)
Amount of
alcoholic
beverages
.117 .086 .322 .020
Perceived heavy
drinking for
women
a
.108 .065 .264 .003
Perceived heavy
drinking for men
.134 .084 .343 .002
Desire to pursue a
short-term
relationship
Sex (Model 14)
Amount of
alcoholic
beverages
.180 .224 .255 .627
Perceived heavy
drinking for
women
.274 .186 .067 .664
Perceived heavy
drinking for men
.127 .249 .626 .356
Desire to pursue a
long-term
relationship
Sex (Model 14)
Amount of
alcoholic
beverages
.168 .198 .179 .633
Perceived heavy
drinking for
women
.019 .127 .224 .293
Perceived heavy
drinking for men
.216 .189 .098 .645
Note. LLCI ¼lower level confidence interval; ULCI ¼upper level confidence
interval; SE ¼standard error; ab¼indirect effect of Xon Ythrough M.
a
Significant indirect effect.
Vincke 9
drinks was perceived as heavy in a short-term mating context,
compared to a long-term mating context. Additionally, analy-
ses revealed that the increase in drinking behavior in short-term
mating contexts can be assigned to the desire to engage in
short-term relationships. This mediating impact was not pres-
ent in young adults’ perception of heavy drinking.
General Discussion
Both risk-taking and alcohol literature indicate that drinking
high amounts of alcohol could function as a short-term mating
strategy for young adults in mating situations. Therefore, a
confirmatory survey study verified that binge drinking beha-
vior is indeed related to having an unrestricted sexuality
(Hypotheses 1 and 2). A second experimental study empirically
tested whether short-term mating motivations increase young
adults’ drinking behavior (Hypotheses 3–5).
Confirming Hypotheses 1 and 2, the first study clearly
showed that binge drinkers are more short-term oriented in
their sexuality compared to peers who do not engage in binge
drinking behavior. Moreover, the more sexually unrestricted
young men and young women are in their mating orientation,
the more frequently binge drinking is engaged in. These find-
ings correspond with the literature on drinking games, in which
high mating efforts are linked with participation and higher
drinking behavior in drinking games (Hone & McCullough,
2015; Hone et al., 2013). It also supplements previous research
on mating orientation and general drinking behavior (Vincke,
2016a, 2016b), showing a clear link between drinking behavior
and having a short-term oriented mating strategy.
Furthermore, the experiment indicated that in a short-term
mating context, young adults are triggered to consume a higher
number of alcoholic beverages compared to a long-term mating
context. Mediation analyses also confirmed that being moti-
vated to engage in a short-term mating relationship (like a
one-night stand or an affair) increases young men’s and
women’s drinking behavior. These findings indicate that young
adults actually use a high alcohol consumption as a short-
mating strategy.
Moreover, also the perception of young men and women
changed, as a higher number of alcoholic beverages was
perceived as heavy drinking in a short-term mating condi-
tion. Possibly, this shift in perceived heavy drinking enables
and even stimulates young adults into drinking higher
amounts of alcohol when being in a short-term mating sit-
uation. Remarkably, follow-up mediation analyses could not
confirm that a higher motivation to pursue a short-term
sexual relationship was linked to a perception of higher
amounts of alcohol consumption as heavy. The mediation
analyses did find that the more young adults were motivated
to pursue a long-term relationship, the sooner women’s
drinking was perceived as heavy. The level of romantic
motivation did not affect the perception of men’s drinking
behavior. Accordingly, more research is necessary to clarify
why a short-term mating context affects young adults’ per-
ception of heavy drinking.
Additionally, it would also be interesting to investigate why
short-term mating motivations trigger young adults’ willing-
ness to drink more alcoholic beverages. As a short-term mating
context, in which you interact with an attractive person of the
opposite sex (who also shows interest in you), increases (het-
erosexual) young adults’ drinking behavior, results suggest that
both young men and young women use alcohol consumption to
enhance their attractiveness. This corresponds with studies
showing that frequent drinking behavior increases young
adults’ short-term attractiveness while harming their desirabil-
ity as a long-term romantic partner (Vincke, 2016a, 2016b).
Also the literature on risk-taking suggests that high risk-
taking behavior is engaged in to signal qualities to potential
short-term mating partners (Bassett & Moss, 2004; Sylwester
& Pawłowski, 2011).
However, it remains unclear which mate qualities are being
signaled by drinking high amounts of alcohol. For instance, as
heavy drinking behavior can be considered physically risky,
research could verify if drinking behavior could be used to
signal certain physical qualities. However, as drinking alcohol
is still considered typical masculine behavior (de Visser &
McDonnell, 2012; de Visser & Smith, 2007; Holmila & Raita-
salo, 2005; Rolfe, Orford, & Dalton, 2009), alcohol use could
also be considered social risk-taking for women, engaging in
nonconformist behavior that can damage one’s reputation (Syl-
wester & Pawłowski, 2011). As drinking alcohol also has
financial consequences (price of beverage, amount of money
spent on one occasion), it would also be interesting to investi-
gate if these other aspects also function as elements of a spe-
cific mating strategy. For instance, spending a lot of money on
drinks could function as conspicuous consumption to indicate
resources.
As all individuals already have a particular sociosexual
orientation, using a priming methodology to activate short-
term mating and long-term mating motivations could be con-
sidered a limitation of this article. However, two manipulation
pretests confirmed that a mating prime can alter young adults’
mindsets in a predictable manner, independent of their sex or
current relationship status. In addition, a manipulation check in
the actual experiment also confirmed that the participants in the
two conditions did not differ in their desire to make an attrac-
tive impression or have a pleasant time, yet they did differ in
their motivation to pursue a short-term or long-term relation-
ship. We also took into account the sociosexual orientation of
the participants (filled in prior to the manipulation) in both
conditions as a moderator in all statistical analyses. The fact
that there was no moderating impact indicates that the partici-
pants were capable of empathizing with another mating orien-
tation than their actual mating strategy. However, studying the
impact of short-term mating motivations on young adults’
drinking behavior in more natural circumstances could be
beneficial.
Also, in the first study, binge drinking behavior was defined
to the participants as drinking five alcoholic beverages in 2 hr
time. For reasons of simplicity, no distinction was made
between male and female drinking behavior. However, many
10 Evolutionary Psychology
binge drinking definitions make this distinction. For instance,
according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alco-
holism (NIAAA), binge drinking is engaged in when drinking
five or more alcoholic drinks (men) or four or more alcoholic
drinks (women) in a period of 2-hr time (2015). The lower
number of drinks for women is based on physiological differ-
ences, leading to higher blood alcohol levels compared to men
when drinking similar quantities (Courtney & Polich, 2009;
Mancinelli, Vitali, & Ceccanti, 2009). Future research should
take this distinction into account. In addition, as these binge
drinking definitions are based on standard alcoholic drinks,
containing a fix amount of pure alcohol, future survey studies
would also benefit from including a definition of a standard
alcoholic drink.
Finally, the findings of this article could be used in social
marketing campaigns targeting youth alcohol (ab)use. As
young adults appear to use a high alcohol consumption as
ashort-termmatingstrategyinmatingsituations,itcouldbe
advantageous to address the expected benefits of heavy
drinking. Accordingly, it might be beneficial to convince
young adults that drinking high amounts of alcohol is not
attractive, even for a short-term sexual encounter. Studies
already showed that a positive drinker image is linked to an
increased (future) alcohol consumption (Blanton, Gibbons,
Gerrard, Conger, & Smith, 1997; Gerrard et al., 2002;
Spijkerman, van den Eijnden, Vitale, & Engels, 2004).
Therefore, future studies could verify whether lowering the
short-term attractiveness of heavy episodic drinking
decreases sexually unrestricted young adults’ intention to
drink high amounts of alcohol when pursuing a short-term
relationship. Moreover, if high alcohol quantities are used as
a short-term mating strategy by young adults’ because of its
risk-taking nature, emphasizing the risks of drinking high
amounts of alcohol in social marketing campaigns might be
the wrong approach. Instead of functioning as a warning,
this might encourage young adults to use drinking in short-
term mating situations.
Conclusion
This article is part of a series of studies verifying if alcohol
use can be considered a short-term mating strategy of young
adults. The first study confirmed that there is a strong rela-
tionship between drinking high amounts of alcohol and pur-
suing a short-term mating strategy. The second study
showed that short-term mating motivations trigger both
young men and young women to increase their drinking
behavior. Also young adults’ perception of what can be
considered heavy drinking is affected in a short-term mating
context, making them more acceptant toward drinking high
amounts of alcoholic beverages. Given the prevalence and
harmfulness of drinking high amounts of alcohol, these
findings are of interest to social marketing professionals
and institutions. By giving insight in less obvious drinking
motivations, youth drinking behavior can be addressed more
effectively.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Dr. Patrick Vyncke and the two anon-
ymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.
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