Original Article
Women's fear of crime and preference for formidable mates: how specific are the underlying psychological mechanisms?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.01.005Get rights and content

Abstract

Previous research shows that feelings of vulnerability, as measured by fear of crime, are associated with preferences for physically formidable and dominant mates (PPFDM), ostensibly because of the physical protection such mates can afford. In the lab and in the field, we tested whether the relationship between PPFDM and fear of crime is pronounced when the risk of crime is relatively high, and for crimes that are evolutionarily more costly. In Study 1, women were presented with daytime and night time images that featured a lone shadowy male figure, crime hotspots and safespots, and they reported their risk of victimisation in the situation depicted in the image. In Study 2, we had female participants walk through crime hotspots and safespots in a city centre during the daytime, and had them report their perceived victimisation risk for different types of crime, perpetrated by a male- versus female. Participants in Study 1 and 2 also completed a scale that measures PPFDM. In both studies, we found that PPFDM was positively associated with fear of crime in hotspots and in safespots. Additionally, fear of crime was significantly affected by risk situation (i.e., safespot versus hotspot, night time versus daytime). The relationship between PPFDM and fear, however, did not vary in relation to risk situation, perpetrator gender, or crime type, suggesting that the psychological mechanisms underlying the relationship between perceived risk of victimisation and PPFDM are general in nature. Women who prefer physically formidable and dominant mates tend to feel more at risk of crime, regardless of the situational risk factors present.

Section snippets

Participants

One hundred fifty eight women, ranging in age from 19 to 62 (M = 32.19, SD = 10.04) participated via an online study in return for monetary compensation. The majority of women reported being White (70.3%), while other ethnicities were reported as South Asian (15.8%), East Asian (6.3%), Black (3.2%), Hispanic (1.3%), Latino (.6%) or other (2.5%). The online survey was designed to screen out men.

Materials and procedure

The study was conducted online with Mechanical Turk participants. At the recruitment stage, participants

Participants

An eligible sample of forty naturally and regularly cycling women, ranging in age from 18 to 35 (M = 19.80 years, SD = 3.37) participated in the study in return for course credit or payment. Informed consent was obtained from all women before participating, and the project received full ethical approval, as reviewed by the University of x's research ethics committee. Participants were recruited from a larger sample of women which responded to a prescreening questionnaire which checked eligibility

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    This research was funded by PsyPAG (Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group) and the University of Leicester School of Psychology's Research Committee. We would also like to thank Samantha Palmer, Beth Shelton, Ellen Green, Shaquille Stephen, Olga Pacholec and Emma Shillcock for their help with data collection. We also thank the Editor, Jeffrey Snyder and the three anonymous reviewers their insightful comments and suggestions on this manuscript.

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