Autistic-Like Traits in Members of the General Population and Mate Retention Tactics: The Mediation of Attachment Styles and Reproductive Strategies

Autistic-like traits (ALTs) have been widely examined, including in romantic relationships, yet few studies have approached them from an evolutionary perspective. Mate retention tactics are associated with different types of life history strategies. Because we hypothesize that individuals with ALTs prefer a fast life history strategy, we also assume that they use specific types of mate retention tactics. This study investigated the associations between ALTs and mate retention tactics, considering reproductive strategies and attachment styles as mediators. Structural equation modeling on a sample of 796 individuals (52% female) showed that individuals with ALTs are less likely to engage in cost-inflicting tactics. No significant link between ALTs and benefit-provisioning mate retention tactics was found in this study. ALTs were more strongly linked to attachment styles—both fearful and avoidant—than to reproductive strategies. Contrary to expectations, ALTs did not negatively predict a slow reproductive strategy (parental effort) or positively predict a fast strategy (mating effort), though additional regression analyses suggested a potential link with mating effort. Participants’ sex did not moderate these relationships, while age was associated with decreased attachment anxiety, mating effort, and mate retention behaviors, alongside increased parental effort. A key limitation is the weak predictive power of ALTs for reproductive strategies, highlighting the need for alternative measurement approaches in future research.