challenges Article Tie-Up Cycles in Long-Term Mating. Part I: Theory Lorenza Lucchi Basili 1,† and Pier Luigi Sacco 2,3,*,† 1 Independent Researcher, 20 Chestnut Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA;
[email protected] 2 Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, Boylston Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA 3 Department of Comparative Literature and Language Sciences, IULM University, via Carlo Bo, 1, Milan 20143, Italy * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-617-496-0486 † These authors contributed equally to this work. Academic Editor: Palmiro Poltronieri Received: 26 February 2016; Accepted: 26 April 2016; Published: 3 May 2016 Abstract: In this paper, we propose a new approach to couple formation and dynamics that abridges findings from sexual strategies theory and attachment theory to develop a framework where the sexual and emotional aspects of mating are considered in their strategic interaction. Our approach presents several testable implications, some of which find interesting correspondences in the existing literature. Our main result is that, according to our approach, there are six typical dynamic interaction patterns that are more or less conducive to the formation of a stable couple, and that set out an interesting typology for the analysis of real (as well as fictional, as we will see in the second part of the paper) mating behaviors and dynamics. Keywords: sexual strategies; emotional attachment; mating; couple formation and dynamics; Tie-Up; Active vs. Receptive Areas; frustration and reward; Tie-Up Cycle; flow inversion 1. Introduction The process of reproductive mating is a clear example of a complex socio-biological phenomenon, of paramount evolutionary importance.