title: Warm and homely or cold and beautiful? Sex differences in trading off traits in mate selection.
abstract: Prior research and theory suggest that people use three main sets of criteria in mate selection: warmth/trustworthiness, attractiveness/vitality, and status/resources. In two studies, men and women made mating choices between pairs of hypothetical potential partners and were forced to make trade-offs among these three criteria (e.g., warm and homely vs. cold and attractive). As predicted, women (relative to men) placed greater importance on warmth/trustworthiness and status/resources in a potential mate but less importance on attractiveness/vitality. In addition, as expected (a) ratings of ideal standards partly mediated the link between sex and mate choices, (b) ideal standards declined in importance from long-term to short-term relationships, with the exception of attractiveness/vitality, and unexpectedly, (c) sex differences were higher for long-term (compared to short-term) mate choice. Explanations and implications are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. G.Fletcher@psyc.canterbury.ac.nz
authors.forename: Garth J O
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: Jacqueline M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tither
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: O'Loughlin
authors.forename: Myron
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Friesen
authors.forename: Nickola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Overall
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001504:Beauty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D010551:Personality; D012737:Sex Factors; D014342:Truth Disclosure