Openness to sugar relationships tied to short-term mating, not life history strategy

People’s openness to “sugar relationships” is more strongly predicted by their interest in short-term mating than by their broader life history strategy, according to new research published in Evolutionary Psychology.

In today’s world, “sugar relationships” have emerged as a modern iteration of relationships involving the exchange of sex for resources, facilitated by digital platforms that pair older, resource-rich individuals with younger companions. Evolutionary psychologists have questioned whether these relationships align more with short-term mating strategies or represent a calculated, long-term investment in resource acquisition.

Previous research has linked such arrangements with traits like sociosexuality (openness to casual sex), but it’s unclear whether these behaviors stem primarily from personality-based mating orientations or are shaped by early-life environmental conditions, as proposed by life history theory.

Norbert Meskó and colleagues explored this question by comparing the relative predictive power of short-term mating orientation and life history strategy in shaping openness to sugar relationships. Life history theory posits that early-life experiences, particularly those marked by instability or scarcity, can foster “fast” strategies focused on immediate reward and reproduction. The researchers therefore examined whether openness to sugar relationships arises from such adaptive, context-sensitive responses or if it more directly reflects individual sociosexual preferences.

The researchers recruited 312 participants between the ages of 18 and 50, predominantly university students in Hungary, with the majority being women. Participants completed a comprehensive online questionnaire that included both demographic information and a range of psychological measures.

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The central measure was the Acceptance of Sugar Relationships in Young Women and Men Scale (ASR-YWMS), which evaluates a person’s willingness to enter a relationship where companionship or sexual access is exchanged for financial or material compensation. Participants also reported their relationship status, sexual orientation, number of sexual partners, and place of residence, among other background variables.

To capture life history strategy—a concept referring to whether someone tends to favor long-term investment versus immediate reward—the High-K Strategy Scale was used. Childhood experiences were measured using two separate tools; the Family Resources Scale assessed the perceived adequacy of material and emotional support during childhood, while the Childhood Unpredictability Scale gauged how chaotic or unstable participants’ early environments were.

Short-term and long-term mating orientations were measured using the Multidimensional Measure of Sociosexual Orientation, which distinguishes between casual and committed relationship preferences. Lastly, the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Scale was used to examine whether concern about infection might relate to openness to transactional relationships. All scales were translated into Hungarian and validated for this population.

The study revealed that short-term mating orientation was the strongest and most consistent predictor of openness to sugar relationships. Individuals who expressed greater comfort with casual, uncommitted sex were far more likely to endorse sugar relationships as a viable or appealing option.

While there was a significant association between life history strategy and openness to sugar relationships, where individuals with slower, more future-oriented strategies were less inclined to endorse such relationships, this effect was comparatively small. In essence, a person’s current mating preferences mattered more than their developmental background when it came to attitudes toward sugar relationships.

A more nuanced picture emerged when the researchers explored how childhood experiences influenced these adult attitudes. For women, there was an indirect pathway connecting early-life scarcity to openness to sugar relationships: women who experienced lower family resources tended to adopt faster life history strategies, which in turn predicted more favorable attitudes toward sugar relationships.

However, for men, no such developmental pathway was observed. Men’s openness to sugar relationships was driven almost entirely by their short-term mating orientation, with no significant contribution from early-life conditions or life history strategy. Interestingly, participant sex did not directly predict openness to sugar relationships once other psychological traits were accounted for, suggesting that individual differences in mating orientation, rather than gender per se, are what shape these attitudes.

Of note is how environmental harshness and unpredictability were operationalized. Rather than using objective indicators like mortality rates, the authors relied on retrospective self-reports of childhood family support and stability, which may not fully capture the constructs as defined in life history theory.

The study, “Short-Term Mating Orientation Predicts Openness to ‘Sugar Relationships’ More Than Life History Strategy,” was authored by Norbert Meskó, Jessica S. Ehlers, and András N. Zsidó.