Mate Selection, Psychopathology, and Environment

Ethical approvals were sought and granted by the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Psychology, Health, and Society Research Ethics Committee [ref:- IPHS-1415-017]. Four hundred and fifty-eight participants (384 females; M_Age = 24.74, SD_Age = 10.83) took part in an online study entitled: “Environment, Psychopathology, and Mate Selection”. The online survey was rolled out through a university sample and community sample simultaneously, meaning participants were drawn from a global English-speaking population, with a majority subset based at the host university. The survey took on average 20 min to complete. Thirty-eight participants who identified as homosexual or bisexual were removed from the final dataset, due to being underpowered for any meaningful sub-group analysis. Therefore, all participants included in this analysis identified as heterosexual and therefore rated opposite-sex vignettes. The survey was advertised to students at a university in the North-West of England (in exchange for course credit) and via snowballing to participants through social media and online study participation websites. The first page of the study stated a brief outline and ethical considerations of the study, which was followed by ratings of twelve character profile vignettes on a range of items (not all reported here), with the final section of the study asking each participant to complete a self-report scale of psychopathy.