Why people stay single: An evolutionary perspective Menelaos Apostolou University of Nicosia, Drepartment of Social Sciences, 46 Makedonitissas Ave., 1700 Nicosia, Cyprus abstract article info Article history: Received 4 January 2017 Received in revised form 10 February 2017 Accepted 13 February 2017 Available online xxxx People do not always look for mates, and frequently choose to stay single, at least for some time. This study puts forward an evolutionary framework in which people prefer to stay single because doing so either increases their future mating success or because they have traits which prevent them from being able to attract a mate. The study aims further to identify the specific reasons that drive people to stay single, to classify them in broader rea- son categories and to investigate their contingencies. Accordingly, by using a combination of qualitative research methods, Study 1 finds 76 different reasons. By using a sample of 1096 participants, Study 2 applied first order principal components analysis and classified these reasons to 16 reason factors. By using second order principal components analysis, it classified these 16 reason factors to three reason domains. Finally, it was found that sex, age and personality significantly predict the reasons that drive individuals to stay single. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Mate choice Singlehood Mismatch Mating Big five 1. Introduction In sexually reproducing species, the genetic material of individuals who fail to procreate is not represented in future generations. A mate provides the potential for procreation, as well as resources and support in times of need. These contributions translate into strong selection pressures exercised on people to evolve mechanisms that enable them to attract and retain mates (Buss, 2017; Symons, 1979). Such mecha- nisms involve sexual desire, romantic love, loneliness, and jealousy (Buss, 2000, 2017; Frank, 1988). For instance, not having a partner leads to loneliness, which is a negative feeling that motivates individ- uals to find mates in order to get rid of it (Apostolou, 2016b). Accordingly, we expect that individuals who have reached sexual maturity and are not mated, will actively seek to establish an intimate relationship. Although it seems that this prediction generally holds, there are several unmated people who, by choice, opt to stay without a partner (Miller, 2011). Yet, to our knowledge, there is no research that has attempted to estimate neither the proportion of these individ- uals in the population nor the reasons why they choose to stay single. The current research aims to address the latter question. More specifically, the present paper aims to a) provide an evolution- ary framework that explains why people choose to stay single, b) iden- tify the reasons that lead people to do so, c) taxonomize these reasons in broader categories, and to identify the most and the least important ones, and d) examine whether these reasons depend upon sex, age, and personality. 2. Literature review We did not manage to locate in the literature any studies which ex- amine the reasons that drive individuals to stay single. There are how- ever, few studies which examine the reasons that drive people not to get married. In one early study, Gigy (1980) surveyed 66 American women aged 30, who were never married, about the reasons for not getting married using an open-ended questionnaire. Participants mentioned incompat- ibility between career and marriage, that they had not met yet any man whom they would wish to marry, and that they felt that marriage would seriously impair their personal independence and freedom and that they were not willing to make such a sacrifice. Respondents mentioned also their sexual orientation as a reason for not marrying. In a similar study, Loewenstein et al. (1981) interviewed 60 single American women aged 35–65 years, 38 of whom had never married. The latter were asked to describe the reason why they did not marry. About one-fourth (24%) stated that they were single by choice, 13% said they were single due to a break-up from a previous relationship, and 8% said they thought that career and marriage were incompatible. Frazier, Arikian, Benson, Losoff, and Maurer (1996), on a sample of 217 American heterosexual divorced and never-married adults aged 31–68 years, used open-ended questionnaires and identified the follow- ing nine reasons why people were not married: Not meeting the right person, not meeting potential partners, marriage was not a priority in life, importance of other things in life, choice of being single, difficulties in establishing relationships, fear that the relationship will not work, fear of commitment, belief that all good partners are already taken. In a different study, which employed a sample of 160 women in India, nine reasons for not getting married were identified (Prabhakar, Personality and Individual Differences 111 (2017) 263–271 E-mail address: m.apostolou@gmail.com. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.02.034 0191-8869/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 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