The wedding ring effector mate-choice copying in humansis the notion that individuals, particularly women, have a greater preference for those who are currently involved in romantic relationships as their partners over uninvolved individuals. This book provides a thorough, critical review of previous research on the wedding ring effect and presents a study that examined two manipulated independent variables of romantic targets (i.e., relationship availability and openness to commitment), as well as one independent individual difference variable of participants (i.e., sociosexuality), in order to better understand the underlying mechanism of the wedding ring effect. The results revealed that a targets high level of commitment, regardless of his availability, increased both his likability and romantic attractiveness for restricted maters. For unrestricted maters, neither target availability nor commitment had a significant effect on their liking or attraction. These findings appear to discredit the notion of the wedding ring effect and highlight the importance of target commitment and the moderating role of individual difference in womens mate preference.

Shanhong Luo grew up in a small town in Southern China. She received her B.S and M.A at Beijing University and her Ph.Dat University of Iowa. Her research focuses on romantic relationships. She has published work in top psychological journals. She is currently an assistant professor at University of North Carolina at Wilmington.