Recent psychological research suggests that gold digging is not simply a gender-based stereotype, but rather a calculated social strategy associated with traits such as psychopathy and narcissism. This finding provides evidence that people who engage in this behavior are willing to sacrifice emotional intimacy in order to extract economic resources from their partners. This study was published in the journal personality and individual differences.
Scientists Lennart Fries and Peter K. Jonasson designed this study to understand the psychological motivations behind highly materialistic dating behavior. Freyth is affiliated with the Institute of Behavioral and Social Sciences in Austria and the HSD Hochschule Döpfer University of Applied Sciences in Germany. Jonasson is affiliated with the Institute of Behavioral and Social Sciences and the University of Human Sciences in Poland.
Fleiss previously published research that analyzed dating apps like Tinder as “digital recreation.” This is a biological term that refers to the environment in which an individual presents himself and attracts mates without providing emotional investment. That early research provided evidence that people with highly opportunistic, short-term mating strategies are most successful on these platforms. Based on these findings, he wanted to investigate how some people use dating to actively exploit others.
“As I continued to research dating, I became interested in people who go beyond simple preferences for resourceful partners (e.g., money or status) to highly exploitative dating strategies,” Fleiss told PsyPost. “After discussing gold mining methods with friends and colleagues, I created a decision-based online survey in which participants chose between an intimacy-focused (or relationship-focused) option and an option focused on getting some benefit from their partner.”
In biology and psychology, exploitative dating is often considered an “early life history strategy.” This concept explains how individuals adapt to their environment by seeking immediate, selfish rewards rather than investing in mutually beneficial relationships over time. Scientists suspected that gold mining represented a specific, reckless version of this hasty strategy.
To test these ideas, the researchers collected data from 351 participants through an online course at a German university. After excluding 10 people who completed the survey too early, the final group consisted of 105 men and 236 women. The average age of the volunteers was approximately 30 years.
The study required participants to repeatedly make forced choices, a method known as the ipsive test. They had to choose between a hypothetical partner focused on emotional support and a partner focused solely on material benefits. This format forced participants to reveal whether they would readily sacrifice a supportive relationship for financial gain.
The researchers also measured a “dark tetrad” of personality traits, including narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism. Narcissism involves extreme vanity, while Machiavellianism is characterized by cynical manipulation of others. Psychopathy involves impulsive and callous behavior, and sadism involves enjoying the suffering of others.
Participants also provided demographic details such as political orientation and population size of their hometown. They also rated their own “mate value.” This is a self-assessment that indicates how attractive and desirable a person believes they are in the dating market.
Analyzing the results, the scientists found that women scored higher on the gold mining criteria than men. However, this behavior was present in both men and women and was consistently associated with darker personality traits. Freyth outlined the main takeaways from these findings.
“First, gold miners not only prefer resource-rich partners, but also sacrifice characteristics of happy relationships in order to extract resources from their partners,” Fleiss said. “Second, gold mining is strongly associated with psychopathy, which supports the reckless elements mentioned in pop culture.”
Researchers found that other demographic factors also played a role. “Third, factors such as being in a large city, being a student, being non-heterosexual, and having a high self-reported mate value are associated, and these are the same for men and women (with the exception of female students scoring higher than male students),” Fleiss said.
Because these factors were similarly amplified in both genders, researchers consider this a widespread behavioral pattern. “This confirms a general human sexual strategy that is not uniquely used by women,” Fleiss explained. “And yet, the female gold miners were also sadistic.”
The study suggested that this materialistic approach requires a very cold mindset, which surprised the researchers. “Some of the results were very clear and theoretically expected, and as a psychologist, this is a surprise to the field,” Fleiss said. “For example, there was no noise in the data regarding the association with psychosis.”
Fleiss elaborated on how these traits manifest equally under the right circumstances. “Also, the propensity to dig for gold is amplified in men and women under certain conditions, but less strongly in women,” he added. “Again, this becomes human behavior, not gender-specific behavior.”
Fleiss suggests that certain political connections may be highly strategic for some groups. “There was a group of right-wing female students who had a high level of gold mining,” he pointed out. “In addition to being in their reproductive prime, people on the right tend to be more hardworking, so this association could be a result or motive.”
Another clear pattern emerged among left-wing men, who reported the highest self-perceived mate value but did not score high on gold mining. “Interestingly, those with the highest self-proclaimed mate value (related to gold mining) were left-wing men, not right-wing women. This may be a complementary behavior to present themselves as vulnerable and empathetic,” Fleiss said.
Researchers suggest these males may be using deceptive mating tactics to attract partners. “In order to do so and increase their chances in the mating market, this group is labeling itself as left-wing,” Frais concluded. “To our knowledge, this is the first empirical observation of performative men (i.e., marriage theft).”
Although the study provides new insights into dating strategies, the researchers acknowledge some limitations. “Of course, as a scientist, I am always thinking about what to improve. The sample was mainly leftists and young people, and perhaps other influences may have been underestimated,” Fleiss said. “Also, this study was cross-sectional.”
The cross-sectional design means that the study only captured a specific moment in time and cannot prove that specific properties directly cause the discovery of gold. “I would like to see further experiments on this topic and more aspects of the observed effects,” Fleiss added. “But overall, the decision task, the scales used, and the sample size allow us to understand at a glance the principles of gold excavation.”
Fries plans to investigate how these exploitative strategies affect broader aspects of society. “I’m currently switching to a more fundamental field of research that captures the evolutionary and theoretical framework of social decision-making,” he said. “For example, in this study I distinguish between adaptive mate preferences for resourceful partners and potentially maladaptive exploitative strategies such as gold mining.”
He would like to extend this framework to understand broader behavioral trends. “In doing so, we began to explore broader group-related and social research questions,” Fleiss said. “As a young scientist, I am particularly interested in connecting with laboratories working on evolutionary psychology, social decision making, and related social outcomes.”
The study, “Mercenary Predators: Individual Characteristics of Gold Miners,” was authored by Lennart Fries and Peter K. Jonasson.
