Recent Publications

Baca, P.A., Costello, W., Hahnel-Peeters, R.K., Thomas, A.G., Schmitt, D.P., & Buss, D.M. (in press). Cross-sex and intrasexual theory of mind: Perceptions of sex-typical sexual desires. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Mogilski, J.,…Schmitt, D.P., et al. (2025). How do people maintain consensual non-monogamy? An international development and validation of the Multiple Relationships Maintenance Scale (MRMS). Archives of Sexual Behavior. https://osf.io/wxq4z
Agtarap, T., Adair, L. & Schmitt, D.P. (2025). Beyond personality, attachment, and sociosexuality: How mindset correlates with attitudes and intentions toward infidelity. Curr Psychol, 44, 8850–8864. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-07726-x
Kennair, L.E.O., Bendixen, M. & Schmitt, D.P. (2025). Male Sex, Masculinization, Sexual Orientation, and Gynephilia Synergistically Predict Increased Sexual Jealousy. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 54, 3189–3203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-025-03225-z
Costello, W., Rolon, V., Thomas, A. G., & Schmitt, D. P. (2024). The Mating Psychology of Incels (Involuntary Celibates): Misfortunes, Misperceptions, and Misrepresentations. The Journal of Sex Research, 61(7), 989–1000. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2023.2248096
Doering, N., & Schmitt, D.P. (2024). Sexual fantasies. In Shackelford, T.K. & Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of sexual psychology and behavior. New York, NY: Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-08956-5_2202-1
Gottlieb, L., & Schmitt, D.P. (2023). When staying home is not safe: An investigation of the role of attachment style on stress and intimate partner violence in the time of COVID-19. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 52(2), 639-654.
Schmitt, D.P. (2023). Extensions of Sexual Strategies Theory across peoples, cultures, and ecologies. In D.M. Buss (Ed), The oxford handbook of human mating (pp. 67-118).
Costello, W., Rolon, V., Thomas, A. G., & Schmitt, D.P. (2022). Levels of well-being among men who are incels (Involuntarily Celibate). Evolutionary Psychological Science, 8(4), 375-390.
Randall, A.K.,…Schmitt, D.P., et al. (2022). Coping with global uncertainty: Perceptions of COVID-19 psychological distress, relationship quality, and dyadic coping for romantic partners across 27 countries. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 39, 3-33. DOI: 10.1177/02654075211034236
Schmitt, D.P. (2021). Sex ratio. In Shackelford, T.K. & Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of evolutionary psychological science (pp. 7213-7217). New York, NY: Springer.
Schmitt, D.P., & Buss, D.M. (2021). Sex differences in long-term mate preferences. In Shackelford, T.K. & Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of evolutionary psychological science (pp. 7133-7140). New York, NY: Springer.
Buss, D.M., Durkee, P.K., Shackelford, T., Bowdle, B., Schmitt, D.P., Brase, G.L., Choe, J.C., & Trofimova, I. (2020). Human status criteria: Sex differences and similarities across 14 nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119, 979-998.
Buss, D.M., & Schmitt, D.P. (2019). Mate preferences and their behavioral manifestations. Annual Review of Psychology, 70, 77-110.
Schmitt, D.P. (2019). Why sometimes a man is more like a woman: Insights into the “gender paradox” of psychological sex differences around the world. In Realo, A (Ed.). Festschrift for Juri Allik.
Schmitt, D.P., & Jonason, P.K. (2019). Self-esteem as an adaptive sociometer of mating success: Evaluating evidence of sex-specific psychological design across 10 world regions. Personality and Individual Differences, 143, 13-20.
Treger, S., & Schmitt, D.P. (2019). Individualistic, autonomous, and permissive: Examining the links between self-construal and sexual permissiveness. Journal of Sex Research, 56, 705-717.
Schmitt, D.P. (2017). Sexual dials (not switches) theory: An evolutionary perspective on sex and gender complexity. Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture, 1, 93-102.
Schmitt, D.P., Alcalay, L., Allik, J., Alves, I.B., Anderson, C.A., Angelini, A.L., et al. (2017). Narcissism and the strategic pursuit of short-term mating: Universal links across 11 world regions of the International Sexuality Description Project-2. Psychological Topics, 26, 89-137.
Schmitt, D.P., Long, A., McPhearson. A., O’Brien, K., Remmert, B., & Shah, S. (2017). Personality and gender differences in global perspective. International Journal of Psychology, 52, 45-56. DOI: 10.1002/ijop.12265.
Schmitt, D.P. (2016). Fundamentals of human mating strategies. In D. M. Buss (Ed.), The handbook of evolutionary psychology: Foundations (p. 294–316). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Schmitt, D.P. (2015). The evolution of culturally-variable sex differences: Men and women are not always different, but when they are…it appears not to result from patriarchy or sex role socialization. In Weekes-Shackelford, V.A., & Shackelford, T.K. (Eds.), The evolution of sexuality (pp. 221-256). New York: Springer.
Schmitt, D.P., & Fuller, R.C. (2015). On the varieties of sexual experience: A cross-cultural exploration of the links between religiosity and human mating strategies. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 7, 314-326.
Pirlott, A., & Schmitt, D.P. (2014). Gendered sexual culture. In A. Cohen (Ed.), Culture reexamined: Broadening our understanding of social and evolutionary influences (pp. 191-216). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association Books.
Schmitt, D.P. (2014). Evaluating evidence of mate preference adaptations: How do we really know what Homo sapiens sapiens really want? In Weekes-Shackelford, V.A., & Shackelford, T.K. (Eds.), Evolutionary perspectives on human sexual psychology and behavior (pp. 3-39). New York: Springer.
Schmitt, D.P., & Rohde, P.A. (2013). The Human Polygyny Index and its cultural correlates: Testing sexual selection theory at the cross-national level. Social Science Quarterly, 94, 1159-1184. DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12030.
Neumann, C., Schmitt, D.P., Carter, R., Embley, I., & Hare, R.D. (2012). Psychopathic traits in males and females across the globe. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 30, 557-574.
Denissen, J., Penke, L., Schmitt, D.P., & van Aken, M. (2008). Self-esteem reactions to social interactions: Evidence for sociometer mechanisms across days, people, and nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 181-196.
Schmitt, D.P., Realo, A., Voracek, M., & Allik, J. (2008). Why can’t a man be more like a woman? Sex differences in Big Five personality traits across 55 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 168-182.
Schmitt, D.P.(2007). Sexual strategies across sexual orientations: How do personality traits and culture relate to sociosexuality among gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and heterosexuals? Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 18, 183-214.
Schmitt, D.P., Allik, J., McCrae, R.R., Benet-Martinez, V., Alcalay, L., Ault, L., et al. (2007). The geographic distribution of Big Five personality traits: Patterns and profiles of human self-description across 56 nations. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38, 173-212.
Schmitt, D.P. (2005). Sociosexuality from Argentina to Zimbabwe: A 48-nation study of sex, culture, and strategies of human mating. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 247-275.
Schmitt, D.P., & Allik, J. (2005). Simultaneous administration of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale across 53 nations: Exploring the universal and culture-specific features of global self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 623-642.
Schmitt, D.P., Alcalay, L., Allensworth, M., Allik, J., Ault, L., Austers, I., et al. (2004). Patterns and universals of adult romantic attachment across 62 cultural regions: Are models of self and of other pancultural constructs? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35, 367-402.
Schmitt, D.P., Alcalay, L., Allik, J., Angleiter, A., Ault, L., Austers, I., et al. (2004). Patterns and universals of mate poaching across 53 nations: The effects of sex, culture, and personality on romantically attracting another person’s partner. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 560-584.
Schmitt, D.P., & Pilcher, J.J. (2004). Evaluating evidence of psychological adaptation: How do we know one when we see one? Psychological Science, 15, 643-649.
Schmitt, D.P., Alcalay, L., Allensworth, M., Allik, J., Ault, L., Austers, I., et al. (2003). Are men universally more dismissing than women? Gender differences in romantic attachment across 62 cultural regions. Personal Relationships, 10, 307-331.
Schmitt, D.P., Alcalay, L., Allik, J., Ault, L., Austers, I., Bennett, K.L., et al. (2003). Universal sex differences in the desire for sexual variety: Tests from 52 nations, 6 continents, and 13 islands. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 85-104.
Schmitt, D.P., & Shackelford, T.K. (2003). Nifty ways to leave your lover: The tactics people use to entice and disguise the process of human mate poaching. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1018-1035.
Schmitt, D.P., & Buss, D.M. (2001). Human mate poaching: Tactics and temptations for infiltrating existing mateships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 894-917.
Schmitt, D.P., & Buss, D.M. (1996). Strategic self-enhancement and competitor derogation: Sex and context effects on the perceived effectiveness of mate attraction tactics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1185-1204.
Buss, D.M., & Schmitt, D.P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100, 204-232.

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