Polish Women's Sexual Strategies in Mate Retention: Initiating Sex, Faking Orgasms, and Performing Oral Sex in Response to Mate Value Discrepancy-Evidence from a Preregistered Study.

Mate retention strategies are behaviors to maintain a partner's commitment and prevent infidelity or relationship dissolution. Individuals generally seek partners with comparable mate value (MV) to reduce the risk of rejection. When a mate value discrepancy (MVD) emerges, the partner with lower MV may adopt strategies to retain the relationship. This study examined whether Polish women with lower MV relative to their male partners more frequently initiated sex, performed fellatio, and faked orgasms, and whether these behaviors were driven by their desire to enhance partner satisfaction. It also investigated whether women's perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD), their enjoyment of performing fellatio, or their perception of their partner's enjoyment of receiving fellatio moderated the link between MVD and fellatio frequency, expecting that women less concerned about pathogens or more enjoying the act would show a stronger association. Data from 562 women in committed, sexually active heterosexual relationships showed that higher MVD-where the woman's MV was lower than her partner's-indirectly predicted the frequency of initiating sex, performing fellatio, and faking orgasms, through a stronger desire to satisfy the partner sexually. However, PVD, women's enjoyment of performing fellatio, or their perception of their partner's enjoyment of receiving fellatio did not significantly moderate the relationship between MVD and fellatio frequency. These results suggest that women use sexual behaviors as benefit-provisioning strategies to strengthen partner commitment, addressing perceived mate value gaps, independent of disease-avoidance concerns or personal and perceived partner enjoyment.