Mate preferences on actual mating decisions, on tactics of mate attraction/retention, patterns of deception, causes of sexual regret, attraction to cues to sexual exploitability, attraction to cues to fertility, attraction to cues to resources and protection, derogation of competitors, causes of breakups, & patterns of remarriage

Mate preferences and their behavioral manifestations. David M. Buss and David P. Schmitt. Brunel University, Dept of Life Sciences Research Papers, http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/16165

Abstract: Evolved mate preferences define a central causal process in Darwin’s theory of sexual selection. Their powerful influence has been documented in all well-studied sexually reproducing species, and is central to Sexual Strategies Theory (SST) as applied to humans. This chapter takes stock of what is scientifically known about human mate preferences and their many behavioral manifestations. We discuss sex differences and sex similarities in the design features of human sexual psychology as they vary according to short-term and long-term mating temporal contexts. We review context-specific shifts in mating strategy depending on individual, social, and ecological qualities such as mate value, life history strategy, sex ratio, gender economic inequality, and cultural norms. For mate preferences to have evolved, they must be manifested in actual mating behavior in some individuals some of the time, such as those with high mate value in contexts where freedom of mate choice is permitted. We review the empirical evidence for the impact of mate preferences on actual mating decisions, as well as on tactics of mate attraction, tactics of mate retention, patterns of deception, causes of sexual regret, attraction to cues to sexual exploitability, attraction to cues to fertility, attraction to cues to resources and protection, derogation of competitors, causes of breakups, and patterns of remarriage. We conclude by articulating unresolved issues and offer a future agenda for the science of human mating. This agenda includes resolving key debates, such as competing evolutionary hypotheses about the functions of women’s short-term mating; how humans invent novel cultural technologies to better implement ancient sexual strategies; and how cultural evolution may be dramatically influencing our evolved mating psychology.

Keywords: Human mating;Sexual strategies;Mate preferences;Sex differences;Evolutionary

---
Do women’s preferences translate into actual mating behavior? In one study of speed dating, women were more likely to actually select men who indicated that they had grown up in an affluent neighborhood (Hitch et al., 2010). Another study of 382 speed daters found that women were more likely than men to select dates who had higher levels of income and education (Asendorpf et al., 2011; see also Li & Meltzer, 2015). A study of mail-order brides from Colombia, the Philippines, and Russia found that women actively sought men with higher levels of status and ambition (Minervini & McAndrew, 2006). A study of 2,956 Israelis using a computer dating service found that women, far more than men, sought mates who owned their own cars, had good economic standing, and who placed a high level of importance on their careers (Bokek-Cohen et al., 2008). In the Kipisigis of Kenya, women and their parents preferentially select men who have large plots of land (Borgerhoff Mulder, 1990). And the men who women choose to marry, compared to same-aged men who do not marry, have consistently higher incomes (Buss, 2016).

Would women who acted on these long-term mate preferences, actually selecting men of high status and resources, have experienced greater reproductive success? There is evidence that women married to older, higher-status men have more and more surviving children (Nettle & Pollet, 2008). For instance, in a study of 1700s pre-industrial Finland, women married to wealthier men had more children and better child survival rates than women married to poorer men (Pettay et al., 2007). Fieder and Huber (2007) found marrying a man four years older was associated with maximum levels of fertility among women, which matches closely what women say is their ideal long-term mate (Buss, 1989; Kenrick & Keefe, 1992).

A cross-cultural study of the causes of divorce found that inadequate economic support, including inadequate food, housing, and clothing, was a sex-linked cause of marital dissolution (Betzig, 1989). In no society did a woman’s failure to provide economic resources constitute grounds for divorce. Women’s mate preferences for economic resources and social status in a long-term mate translate into actual mating behavior, from selective decisions in speed dating to real-life fertility outcomes to the causes of divorce. As with men’s preferences, women’s mate preferences matter in real-world mating markets.