Evolutionary Psychology Lecture

6:
Female Mate Preferences.

Learning Outcomes.
At the end of this session you should be
able to:
1. Discuss evolutionary explanations for
female long-term mate preferences.
2. Evaluate experimental and survey
evidence concerning female mate
preferences.

Thoughts for the day.

Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Henry Kissinger.
If women didnt exist, all the money in the world
would have no meaning. Aristotle Onassis.
When youre famous your love life diminishes. Your
sex life grows. Enrique Iglesias.
Aint nothing going on but the rent. You gotta have
a J.O.B if you want to be with me Gwen Guthrie.
Im not a good-looking person. Ive struggled to get
girls for most of my life, and then, suddenly, I win
the casual-sex lottery by getting famous. Frank
Skinner.
So what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul
Daniels? Mrs Merton to Debbie McGee.

Female Mate Preferences.

Due to inequalities in parental investment, females face
several adaptive problems in finding the right mate.
Ancestral females who had the right psychological
mechanisms to find mates of higher value more
sexually attractive than those of a lower value, would
have been more reproductively successful.
Thus,
females
evolved
preferences
(information
processing biases) that would enable them to assess
such traits, and find them sexually and romantically
attractive.

In our ancestors, what traits would have been

correlated with high male mating value?

1. Ability and Willingness

to Provide Resources.
Human males can provide a range of resources for
the female:
Food.
Shelter.
Protection from other males.
Females should have evolved preferences for males
who:
Have good financial prospects.
Are older than themselves.
Have higher social status.
Display hard working and industrious characters.
These are clear signs of resource acquisition.

Evidence.

In all human societies

women
value
the
economic resources of a
potential
partner
substantially more than
men do.
Trivers (1985) found that
American men who marry
in a given year generally
earn 50% more money
than men of the same age
who do not marry.
Buss (1989) showed that
women valued financial
prospects around twice as
highly as men.

Preference for good

financial prospects

Buss (1999) p109

Male Earning Capacity.

Kenrick et al., (1990) asked

participants to indicate the
minimum
percentiles
of
characteristics they would
find
acceptable
in
a
potential partner.
Females stated that the
minimum
acceptable
earning capacity for a male
partner is around 70% that
of other men.
Women also had higher
standards
regarding
financial prospects at all
stages of a relationship

Kenrick et al., 1990

Education and Job

prospects.
As many women choose males that are still young
and relatively lacking in social status and resources,
a good cue to potential resource acquisition is
education and willingness to seek resources.
Women thus place high value on good education, the
possession of a promising career, and characteristics
indicating hard work in potential mates: career
orientation, industriousness and ambition.
Women are significantly more likely to discontinue
relationships with males who become unemployed,
lack career motivation or show laziness (Betzig,
1989).

Status and Male

Attractiveness.
Townsend & Levy (1990a) investigated the relative
importance of status and attractiveness at six levels
of romantic involvement.
Photographs of people of high, medium, and low
attractiveness were paired with three levels of
occupational status and income.
Students viewed the portrayals and indicated their
willingness to engage in relationships of varying
levels of sexual intimacy.
Male socioeconomic status had a large influence on
female responses at all levels of intimacy. This
increased as the degree of involvement increased.
Physical attraction had some influence but the
highest status was able to offset unattractiveness.

Townsend & Levy (1990b)

Study.
Looked at the effects of status (signified by clothing),
and attractiveness on female willingness to engage in
romantic relationships.
Male targets were pre-rated for physical attraction and
divided into two categories - handsome, and homely. The
targets wore one of three costumes:
1. Blazer, shirt, designer tie, Rolex watch. Described as
being doctors (high status).
2. Plain white shirt. Described as being teachers
(medium status).
3. Uniform of a Burger King employee. Described as
being trainee waiters (low status).
Women were more willing to engage in relationships with
high status/homely males then with medium - or low
status / handsome males at all levels of involvement.

What About High Status

Women?
Women who are of high status also prefer males of a
high status - preferably of even higher status than
themselves.
Townsend (1989) reported that female medical
students became more selective in their criteria in
entering
a
sexual
relationship.
Males
were
convinced that their increasing status would enable
them to engage in more sexual activity.

The Factor of Age.

Older males are
significantly more likely to
have achieved a sound
economic and financial
status than younger,
inexperienced males.
Buss (1989): In a crosscultural survey female
preference was for someone
around 4 years older.
Kenrick & Keefe (1992):
Females consistently
married males who were
around 5 years older than
themselves.

Preferred Age Differences

Buss (2001) p 113

Actual Age Differences at

Marriage.

Kenrick & Keefe, 1992, p81.

A Not Uncommon Result

2. Ability and Willingness to

Provide Protection.
Surveys consistently show that females prefer males
who are socially dominant and have the respect of
their peers.
Forming a relationship with a socially dominant male
would confer greater direct access to resources and
also raise the social status of the female.
Women pay close attention to how men interact
with, and are treated by other men.
Sadella et al., (1987) made videos depicting males
and females engaging in dominant or submissive
behaviour with another male or a female.
Dominant
behaviour
increased
the
sexual
attractiveness and dating desirability of the males,
whilst female targets were unaffected.

Height.
Height is associated with power and status and confers
economic and social advantages. Taller men are
perceived as being more dominant and we would
predict that females should choose taller over shorter
males.
Graziano et al., (1978) had women judge pictures of
men who they believed to be short, medium or tall on
attractiveness and dating desirability. Tall men were
rated more positively than short men, though males of
medium height were most preferred.
In a sample of over 4000 Polish men Pawlowski et al.,
(2000) found that height was significantly associated
with the likelihood of getting married and having
children.
Bachelors were significantly shorter than married men.

Facial Hair.
In humans the presence or absence of head and
facial hair provide strong social/sexual signals.
Facial hair is generated at puberty in the presence
of testosterone and rate of beard growth is
positively related to androgen levels.
It has been suggested that facial hair may have
evolved as a dominance signal as it increases the
apparent size of the jaw, itself a male secondary
sexual characteristic.
Males with facial hair are rated as being more
masculine,
strong,
potent,
dominant
and
courageous, but also as lacking in self-control, dirty,
aggressive and reckless (Reed & Blunk, 1990).

Facial Hair and

Attractiveness?

Women often state that

they do not find male
facial hair attractive.
One study manipulated
the extent of facial hair in
Identi-kit
pictures
and
found that attractiveness
ratings increased as the
quantity of facial hair
increased
(Hatfield
&
Sprecher, 1986).
There
may
be
large
cultural differences in this
respect.

Cranial Hair.
Muscarella & Cunningham (1996) suggested that male
pattern baldness evolved as a signal of aging and
social maturity. This may signal a male with enhanced
social status but reduced physical aggression.
6 male models with different levels of facial and
cranial hair were rated on 32 social perception
adjectives.
Males with facial hair and those with bald or receding
hair were rated as being older than those who were
clean-shaven, or had a full head of hair.
Beards and a full head of hair were also seen as being
more aggressive and less socially mature, baldness
was associated with less attractiveness and more
social maturity.

Torso.
Horvarth (1979) found that shoulder width was a
strong positive predictor of the attractiveness of
male figures.
Maisey et al., (1999) found that waist-chest ratio
(WCR)
was
the
principal
determinant
of
attractiveness - males with an inverted triangle
torso (narrow waist with broad chest and shoulders)
were rated as being more attractive.
More recently, Hughes & Gallup (2003) showed that
males with a high shoulder-to-hip ratio (SHR)
reported having sex at an earlier age, had more
sexual partners, and more extrapair copulations.
A protruding stomach is seen as an exceptionally
unattractive trait in men.

You Choose!

Athleticism
Physical competition is widespread in human
societies and these ritualised encounters enable
males to demonstrate speed, endurance, and
strength. Sporting achievement is an honest signal of
physical condition, motivation and competitiveness.
Faurie et al., (2004) predicted that:
Sports competitors should have more sexual partners
than other people.
Number
of
partners
should
increase
with
performance level.
This should be particularly pronounced in males.
The predictions were confirmed in French students.

Fluctuating Asymmetry.
Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) indicates developmental
stability in the presence of environmental and
genetic challenges, and therefore provides a possible
indicator of health (and therefore perhaps fertility).
Low FA (more symmetrical) males report more sexual
partners, earlier age of first sexual intercourse, and
have more offspring than high FA men (Thornhill &
Gangstead, 1994).
Women whose partners have low FA report more
orgasms than those whose partners have high FA
(Thornhill et al., 1995).
Male faces high in symmetry are rated as being more
attractive, dominant, sexy, and healthy (Grammer &
Thornhill 1994).

Facial Asymmetry and Health.

Shackelford & Larsen (1998) measured the degree of
facial asymmetry in students.
Greater asymmetry was related to self-reported
depression, neuroses, inferiority, more physical
health problems.
High FA males were also rated as being less
attractive,
less
emotionally-stable,
and
less
intelligent.
However, this link between facial symmetry and
health is not always reported (Kalick et al., 1998).

Facial Symmetry and

Attractiveness

Buss, 1999 p 119

Influence of the Menstrual

Cycle.

Penton-Voak et al., (1999): found

that females preferred masculinelooking faces at ovulation, but
less-masculine faces when nonfertile.
However, Koehler et al., (2002)
asked non-pill-using females to
rate the attractiveness of male
faces varying in symmetry during
menses and just before ovulation.
Females did have an overall
preference for symmetry but this
was irrespective of menstrual
cycle phase.

Genetic Compatibility.
Body odour serves as a cue for immunological health,
Gangstead & Thornhill (1998) examined whether female
olfactory preferences for male odour would favour the
scent of more symmetrical men during ovulation.
For contraceptive pill users and females not ovulating,
there was no relationship.
However, non pill-users when ovulating consistently
preferred the scent of symmetrical men.
Herz & Inzlicht (2002) asked males and females to rank
various physical characteristics in a potential partner.
While males where primarily concerned with physical
attractiveness, females considered a man's smell to be
more important than 'looks', 'money' or 'ambition'.

3. Ability and Willingness to

Engage in Parenting.
La Cerra (1994) presented pictures of males in
several different conditions with children.
The picture of the male engaging in positive
interactions with a small child yielded the most
positive reactions.
The picture showing a male ignoring a child in
distress led to the most negative ratings.
Women highly value characteristics such as
dependability, maturity and emotional stability.
They may indicate that the male is willing to provide
resources and continue his investment.
Expressions of love may be a signal of regular
commitment and the majority of women require love
for a long-term relationship.

To attract a female as a long-term

mating partner, a male
should..

1. Show evidence of ambition, hard work, and

intelligence.
2. Be generous (buy gifts, give to charity etc).
3. Dress well.
4. Be confident and assertive (around other males).
5. Be taller than the woman in question.
6. Be clean shaven and have a full head of hair.
7. Have broad shoulders, be moderately hunky and
have no beer belly.
8. Be facially and physically symmetrical, and show
good health.
9. Be athletic and sporty.
10. Smell right.
11. Be nice to babies and children.

And if you cant manage any of

these?
Be absolutely filthy stinking rich.