Synonyms
Definition
Oral sex as a form of mate retention refers to sexual activity in which a person stimulates their long-term partner’s genitalia with their mouth in an attempt to retain them (Sela & Pham, 2021).
Mate Retention: Oral Sex
After successfully finding and attracting a mate, one of the most important adaptive problems people face is keeping their partner. Both infidelity and relationship dissolution impose substantial reproductive costs, implying that humans should be equipped with adaptive mechanisms for preventing such events. Using an act nomination procedure, Buss (1988) has developed a taxonomy of different behavioral strategies that people use for mate retention. He organized 104 specific acts into 19 tactics, ranging from vigilance, emotional manipulation, and appearance enhancement all the way to violence. The tactics were further grouped into five higher-order categories (direct guarding, negative intersexual...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Ashdown, B. K., Hackathorn, J., & Clark, E. M. (2011). In and out of the bedroom: Sexual satisfaction in the marital relationship. Journal of Integrated Social Sciences, 2(1), 40–57.
Brody, S., & Costa, R. M. (2009). Anatomy/physiology: Satisfaction (sexual, life, relationship, and mental health) is associated directly with penile–vaginal intercourse, but inversely with other sexual behavior frequencies. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 6(7), 1947–1954. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2009.01303.x
Buss, D. M. (1988). From vigilance to violence: Tactics of mate retention in American undergraduates. Ethology and Sociobiology, 9(5), 291–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/0162-3095(88)90010-6
Buss, D. M., & Shackelford, T. K. (1997). From vigilance to violence: Mate retention tactics in married couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(2), 346–361. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.2.346
Goetz, A. T., Shackelford, T. K., Weekes-Shackelford, V. A., Euler, H. A., Hoier, S., Schmitt, D. P., & LaMunyon, C. W. (2005). Mate retention, semen displacement, and human sperm competition: A preliminary investigation of tactics to prevent and correct female infidelity. Personality and Individual Differences, 38(4), 749–763. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.05.028
Koessler, R. B., Samani, N. M. V., Charlot, N., & Campbell, L. (2022). The relationship between infidelity risk and oral sex: An independent replication of Pham and Shackelford (2013) and Pham et al. (2013). Personality and Individual Differences, 189, 111496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111496
Liu, H., Shen, S., & Hsieh, N. (2019). A national dyadic study of oral sex, relationship quality, and well-being among older couples. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 74(2), 298–308. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gby089
Miner, E. J., Starratt, V. G., & Shackelford, T. K. (2009). It’s not all about her: Men’s mate value and mate retention. Personality and Individual Differences, 47(3), 214–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.03.002
Pham, M. N., & Shackelford, T. K. (2013a). Oral sex as mate retention behavior. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(2), 185–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.02.012
Pham, M. N., & Shackelford, T. K. (2013b). Oral sex as infidelity-detection. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(6), 792–795. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.11.034
Pham, M. N., & Shackelford, T. K. (2015). Sperm competition and the evolution of human sexuality. In T. K. Shackelford & R. D. Hansen (Eds.), The evolution of sexuality (pp. 257–275). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09384-0_12
Pham, M. N., Shackelford, T. K., Holden, C. J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Sela, Y., & Jeffery, A. J. (2015). Men’s benefit-provisioning mate retention behavior mediates the relationship between their agreeableness and their oral sex behaviors. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44(6), 1723–1728. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0371-6
Pham, M. N., Shackelford, T. K., & Sela, Y. (2013). Women’s oral sex behaviors and risk of partner infidelity. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(4), 446–449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.04.008
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. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.80.6.894
Sela, Y., & Pham, M. N. (2021). Oral sex as mate retention. In T. K. Shackelford & V. A. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of evolutionary psychological science (pp. 5629–5631). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_143
Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K., Pham, M. N., & Euler, H. A. (2015a). Do women perform fellatio as a mate retention behavior? Personality and Individual Differences, 73, 61–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.09.020
Sela, Y., Shackelford, T. K., Pham, M. N., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2015b). Women’s mate retention behaviors, personality traits, and fellatio. Personality and Individual Differences, 85, 187–191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.05.002
Shackelford, T. K., Goetz, A. T., & Buss, D. M. (2005). Mate retention in marriage: Further evidence of the reliability of the mate retention inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 39(2), 415–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.01.018
Thornhill, R. (2006). Foreward: Human sperm competition and women’s dual sexuality. In T. K. Shackelford & N. Pound (Eds.), Sperm competition in humans: Classic and contemporary readings (pp. V–XIX). Springer.
Vannier, S. A., & O’Sullivan, L. F. (2012). Who gives and who gets: Why, when, and with whom young people engage in oral sex. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41(5), 572–582. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9745-z
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Mehić, N. (2023). Mate Retention: Oral Sex. In: Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sexual Psychology and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08956-5_1477-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08956-5_1477-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-08956-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-08956-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences