We remember & act on others’ unique preferences, especially our kin and romantic partners; women are better at predicting some preferences (food, environments & pastimes) of their male partner than vice versa

Gifted at gift giving- An evolutionary perspective on preference accuracy. Diana Fleischman, Sophie Berryman. Human Behavior and Evolution Society 31st annual meeting. Boston 2019. http://tiny.cc/aa1w6y

Abstract: Humans remember and act on others’ unique preferences, especially our kin and romantic partners. Preference accuracy has been shown in two monogamous bird species, but there is little other comparative evidence. Although men give the majority of gifts cross-culturally, some evidence indicates women are better at anticipating the gift preferences of others, even when only presented with a photo of the recipient. Here I present a new study of 54 heterosexual romantic couples and their ability to predict one another’s preferences in domains including food, environments and pastimes. We find that, in two out of three domains, women are better at predicting the preferences of their male partner than vice versa. We also find that social intelligence, measured by accuracy in the "Mind in the Eyes" task, predicts better preference accuracy. We replicate a previous counterintuitive effect showing worse prediction accuracy in couples who have been together longer. We do not find that preference accuracy predicts relationship satisfaction. I’ll consider why we take the time, attention and effort to learn one another’s preferences from an evolutionary perspective.