Abstrakt
Mate retention has been defined by Buss (1988) as behavior aimed at preventing a partner's infidelity or desertion. In humans, who form long-term pairs in which both partners invest in the relationship and any offspring, it is important to acquire a "good" partner, but reproductive success also depended ancestrally on the ability to retain the partner. The concept of mate retention (Buss, 1988) in humans is based on a comparative analysis of analogous behaviors in other species, and the existence of behaviors that fit the concept in humans has been confirmed by numerous empirical studies (e.g., Buss & Shackelford, 1997, Shackelford, Goetz, & Buss, 2005). Nevertheless, with its strong emphasis on infidelity prevention, the concept as originally proposed was somewhat better suited to explaining male, rather than female, mate retention behavior. To understand what women do to keep their partners, we need a broader perspective that considers, for instance, partner-specific investment (Ellis, 1998) and close cooperation in a pair that produces a shared pool of resources (Conroy-Beam, Goetz, & Buss, 2015).
In the following, I first focus on female adaptive goals connected to monogamous romantic relationships, discuss the variability of behaviors aimed at retaining a romantic partner, and outline how these behaviors are deployed depending on particular situations and personal factors. Then I point out important emotional and cognitive mechanisms underlying these behaviors and summarize the types of mate retention women employ in romantic relationships more than men. Finally, I focus on evidence in support of the claims that appearance enhancement and sexual behavior, in particular, are used by women to retain their partner.