The Mate Screening Motive: How Women Use Luxury Consumption to Signal to Men.

The article focuses on the concept of the mate screening motive, a specific romantic motive that drives single women to increase their luxury consumption as a way to signal high mating standards and deter undesirable suitors during the relationship formation stage. Across six studies and two follow-ups involving diverse populations and settings, the research demonstrates that this motive boosts women's preference for luxury goods, but the effect diminishes when external screening tools are available, the quality of potential mates is high, or a selection (versus rejection) mindset is induced. The findings distinguish the mate screening motive from the mate guarding motive observed in non-single women and highlight luxury consumption's novel role as a screening rather than purely an attraction tool in women's romantic pursuits. These insights have implications for marketing strategies targeting women, the design of dating platforms, and consumer understanding of how consumption functions as a communication device in romantic contexts.