Personality features and mate retention strategies: Honesty–humility and the willingness to manipulate, deceive, and exploit romantic partners

Personality features are associated with several relationship outcomes. We examined whether specific personality features differed in their associations with ‘‘mate retention’’ strategies. We examined the unique associations that personality features had with mate retention strategies reported by 179 community members in romantic relationships for at least 6 months. Personality features were associated with each of the mate retention strategies such that positive personality features (e.g., high levels of honesty–humility) were associated with less reliance on mate retention strategies that involved manipulating, deceiving, or exploiting romantic partners. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for understanding the connection between personality features and behaviors intended to preserve and maintain romantic relationships. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.