McKibbin, William F.

Men sometimes insult their intimate partners and these insults predict intimate
partner violence. No research has investigated the function of men's partner-directed
insults. I hypothesize that men's partner-directed insults are designed to retain their longterm
mate and, therefore, that men's use of partner-directed insults will covary with other
mate retention behaviors. Using the Mate Retention Inventory and the Partner-Directed
Insults Scale, I conducted two studies to test this hypothesis. Study 1 included 245 men
who reported their mate retention behaviors and partner-directed insults. Correlations and
multiple regression analyses documented the predicted relationships between men's
partner-directed insults and mate retention behaviors. Study 2 included 372 women who
reported their partner's mate retention behaviors and insults that their partner directed at
them. The results replicated the results of Study 1. Discussion highlights future directions
for investigating the relationships between men's partner-directed insults and mate
retention behaviors.

Women have recurrently faced the adaptive problem of rape over evolutionary history. Little research has investigated the potential evolved psychological mechanisms for rape avoidance that women may possess. Here I review evolutionary perspectives on rape avoidance. I follow this review with the results of two studies conducted to design a measure of women's rape avoidance, known as the Rape Avoidance Inventory (RAI). Study 1A included 99 women who self-reported acts they do or might do specifically to avoid being raped. Study 1B included 144 women who filled out a preliminary inventory of rape avoidance behaviors. I used their responses to construct the RAI. In Study 3, I develop and test a number of hypotheses derived from evolutionary psychological theory, using data derived from the sample of women in Study 1B. I conclude by discussing limitations and possible future directions for rape avoidance research.