Synonyms
Definition
Mate poaching is engaging in premeditated behaviors to attract either short-term or long-term mates by luring them away from their already established relationship.
Introduction
Generally, mate poaching refers to behaviors whereby one attempts to romantically attract an individual away from an existing monogamous relationship. Mate poaching has been defined in two different ways in the literature, with the second definition serving as a clarification of the first definition. Schmitt and Buss (2001) originally defined mate poaching as the process of romantically attracting someone who is already in a relationship. However, Davies et al. (2007) pointed out that Schmitt and Buss’ (2001) definition allowed for an overestimation of the frequency of mate poaching, because it did not specify two important criteria that are necessary for mate poaching to have occurred. Davies et al. (2007) stipulated that the relationship must be...
References
Arnocky, S., Sunderani, S., & Vaillancourt, T. (2013). Mate-poaching and mating success in humans. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 11, 65–83.
Belu, C. F., & O’Sullivan, L. F. (2018). Why find my own when I can take yours?: The quality of relationships that arise from successful mate poaching. Journal of Relationships Research, 9(e6), 1–10.
Belu, C. F., & O’Sullivan, L. F. (2019). Once a poacher always a poacher? Mate poaching history and its association with relationship quality. The Journal of Sex Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2019.1610150. pre-print.
Davies, A. P., Shackelford, T. K., & Hass, R. G. (2007). When a ‘poach’ is not a poach: Re-defining human mate poaching and re-estimating its frequency. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, 702–716.
Davies, A. P. C., Tranter, A. E., & Shackelford, T. K. (2019). Not clearly defined, not reliably measured, and not replicable: Revisiting the definition and measurement of human mate poaching. Personality and Individual Differences, 145, 103–105.
Foster, J. D., Jonason, P. K., Shrira, I., Campbell, W. K., Shiverdecker, L. K., & Varner, S. C. (2014). What do you get when you make someone else’s partner your own? An analysis of relationships formed via mate poaching. Journal of Research in Personality, 52, 78–90.
Kardum, I., Hudek-Knezevic, J., Schmitt, D. P., & Grundler, P. (2015). Personality and mate poaching experiences. Personality and Individual Differences, 75, 7–12.
Kardum, I., Hudek-Knezevic, J., & Mehic, N. (2018). Entry: Personality and mate poaching. In T. K. Shackelford & V. A. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of evolutionary psychological science. Cham: Springer.
Mitchell, V. E., Mogilski, J. K., Zeigler-Hill, V., & Welling, L. L. M. (2019). Mate poaching strategies are differentially associated with pathological personality traits and risk-taking in men and women. Personality and Individual Differences, 142, 110–115.
Mogilski, J. K., & Wade, T. J. (2013). Friendship as a relationship infiltration tactic during human mate poaching. Evolutionary Psychology, 11(4), 147470491301100415.
Moran, J., & Wade, T. J. (2017). Sex and the perceived effectiveness of short-term mate poaching acts in college students. Human Ethology Bulletin, 32(3), 109–128.
Moran, J. B., & Wade, T. J. (2019). Perceptions of a mismatched couple: The role of attractiveness on mate poaching and copying. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, online.
Moran, J. B., Kuhle, B. X., Wade, T. J., & Seid, M. A. (2017). To poach or not to poach? Men are more willing to short-term poach mated women who are more attractive than their mates. EvoS Journal: The Journal of Evolutionary Studies Consortium, 8, 58–69.
Parker, J., & Burkley, M. (2009). Who’s chasing whom: The impact of gender and relationship status on mate poaching. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 1016–1019.
Schmitt, D. P., & Buss, D. M. (2001). Human mate poaching: Tactics and temptations for infiltrating existing mateships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(6), 894–917.
Schmitt, D. P., & International Sexuality Description Project. (2004). Patterns and universals of mate poaching across 53 nations: The effects of sex, culture, and personality on romantically attracting another person’s partner. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(4), 560–584.
Schmitt, D. P., & Shackelford, T. K. (2003). Nifty ways to leave your lover: The tactics people use to entice and disguise the process of human mate poaching. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(8), 1018–1035.
Sunderani, S., Arnocky, S., & Vaillancourt, T. (2013). Individual differences in mate poaching: An examination of hormonal, dispositional, and behavioral mate-value traits. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42, 533–545.
Tooke, W., & Camire, L. (1991). Patterns of deception in intersexual and intrasexual mating strategies. Ethology and Sociobiology, 12(5), 345–364.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Fisher, M.L., Wade, T.J. (2020). Mate Poaching. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1744-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1744-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences