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“Fatal attraction” syndrome: Not a good way to keep your man

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Anne Campbell
Anne Campbell
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom. [email protected]
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Abstract

Female behavior that is driven by ambivalent attachment is far from passive or withdrawn. As dramatised in the movie “Fatal Attraction,” such women's emotional hyper-reactivity is often expressed in violence, which is antithetical to securing investment from mates or peers. Single motherhood, rather than reflecting an avoidant strategy in which close relationships are devalued, is often the result of ecological conditions in which paternal investment is desired but unavailable.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , February 2009 , pp. 24 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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