The experiment that was published in the Evolution and Human Behaviour journal found attaining a wealthy status makes people fancy shorter-term relationships and casual hook-ups.
So, how did they reach this conclusion?
A research team from Swansea University in the UK, surveyed 151 straight males and females on their preferences for hypothetical long-term and short-term relationships with pictures of 50 models and were asked to rate whether they’d like to be affiliated with them short-term, long-term, or not at all.
After submitting their answers, the participants were shown pictures that showcase wealth – such as, luxury vehicles, affluent mansions, jewellery and money – which made them assume that the environment in which they were able to ‘choose’ from these partners was an of an upper-class.
The subjects were then told to re-order their choices for relationships with the models, and “after seeing the images of wealth, the subjects said that they preferred short-term relationships more than they did before seeing the pictures. In fact, the increase in preference for short-term coupling was of about 16 percent,” as printed by Medical News Today.
“We think this happened because humans have evolved the capacity to read the environment and adjust the types of relationships they prefer accordingly. For example, in environments which have lots of resources, it would have been easier for ancestral mothers to raise children without the father's help [which] made short-term mating a viable option for both sexes during times of resource abundance. We believe modern humans also make these decisions,” explained Dr Thomas.
Right, so rich folks are gold diggers who want to have their cake, eat it, too – and then eat another one a short time after.
