Definition
Mate poaching is a behavior intended to lure someone away from their current romantic relationship to form either temporary or permanent relationships with them.
Introduction
Mate poaching appears to be a ubiquitous behavior found in various regions of the world. Schmitt et al. (2004) conducted a survey with 53 nations on 5 continents and found that more than half of men (56.9% for short-term relationships; 57.1% for long-term relationships) tried to poach a mate. The frequency of occurrences was somewhat lower for women (34.9% for short-term relationships; 43.6% for long-term relationships).
For both long- and short-term relationships, around 70% of men and women reported that someone attempted to poach them. The highest rates of mate poaching attempts in a long-term context were reported in the Americas and Europe (56.2–65.6% in men and 43.3–51.5% in women), and a similar...
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Acknowledgments
Ayten Yesim Semchenko and Jan Havlíček are supported by Charles University Grant Agency grant GAUK No. 1742218.
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Semchenko, A.Y., Havlíček, J. (2020). Costs and Benefits of 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_1748-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1748-1
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