The wedding ring effect

Finding the right person to marry is not a simple matter. Individuals are often restricted and often depend on indirect cues when accessing the mate value of potential partner. Women seem to imitate each other’s choice; in other words, the probability of a woman choosing a particular man increases if he has already been chosen by other females. It’s a psychological phenomenon known as the ‘wedding ring effect’ and explains why women are more attracted to married men.

There are numerous competing theories as to why this happens. Some suggest that the wedding ring is a cue that a man is ‘safe’, a passing opportunity for empty flirting; while others theorise that the female psyche sees the ring as an indication that another woman has deemed him worthy. Perhaps practice is the key to being a good mate, and females tend pick the male they know has put in some hours.

Maybe it’s because people generally want what they can’t have — you know, forbidden fruit is sweeter.

This kind of behaviour is also observed in several species of fish and birds — and especially in guppies, which is one of the most popular fresh water aquarium fish species in the world. In the animal world, this is known as a guppy syndrome or ‘mate-choice copying’.

It was first documented in 1996 that female guppies, which normally prefer to mate with large and colourful male guppies, are easily persuaded to pick a smaller and less colourful male if they observe another female mating with him.

Since it’s hard to get into the psychology of a guppy, we have to project a human interpretation on what we see: The females assume there’s something special about males who have already been chosen.

So the question is, is the wedding ring effect a human level analogue to the ‘mate-choice copying’ that can be observed in the animal kingdom?