Big Five Traits Related to Short-Term Mating: From Personality to Promiscuity across 46 Nations

• Main Authors: David P. Schmitt, Todd K. Shackelford
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2008-04-01
• Series: Evolutionary Psychology
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/147470490800600204

As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, 13,243 participants from 46 nations responded to self-report measures of personality and mating behavior. Several traits showed consistent links with short-term mating. Extraversion positively correlated with interest in short-term mating, unrestricted sociosexuality, having engaged in short-term mate poaching attempts, having succumbed to short-term poaching attempts of others, and lacking relationship exclusivity. Low levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness also related to short-term mating, especially with extra-pair mating. Neuroticism and openness were associated with short-term mating as well, but these links were less consistent across sex and nation. Nation-level links between personality and sexuality replicated within-region findings, such as the strong association between national extraversion and national sociosexuality. Discussion focuses on the origins of personality-sexuality links and their implications across nations.