title: Predicting romantic interest and decisions in the very early stages of mate selection: standards, accuracy, and sex differences.
abstract: In the current study, opposite-sex strangers had 10-min conversations with a possible further date in mind. Based on judgments from partners and observers, three main findings were produced. First, judgments of attractiveness/vitality perceptions (compared with warmth/trustworthiness and status/resources) were the most accurate and were predominant in influencing romantic interest and decisions about further contact. Second, women were more cautious and choosy than men-women underestimated their partner's romantic interest, whereas men exaggerated it, and women were less likely to want further contact. Third, a mediational model found that women (compared with men) were less likely to want further contact because they perceived their partners as possessing less attractiveness/vitality and as falling shorter of their minimum standards of attractiveness/vitality, thus generating lower romantic interest. These novel results are discussed in terms of the mixed findings from prior research, evolutionary psychology, and the functionality of lay psychology in early mate-selection contexts.
authors: 1Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand.
authors: Garth J O
authors: GJ
authors: Fletcher
authors: Patrick S G
authors: PS
authors: Kerr
authors: Norman P
authors: NP
authors: Li
authors: Katherine A
authors: KA
authors: Valentine
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003380:Courtship / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: accuracy; mate selection; sex differences; standards