Sex differences in human mate preferences vary across sex ratios
Metadatos
Afficher la notice complèteEditorial
Royal Society
Materia
Mate preferences Sex ratio Sex differences Cross-cultural Mating market
Date
2021-07-21Referencia bibliográfica
Walter KV... [et al.] 2021. Sex differences in human mate preferences vary across sex ratios. Proc. R. Soc. B 288: 20211115. [https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1115]
Patrocinador
National Science Foundation (NSF) 1845586; National Foundation for Science & Technology Development (NAFOSTED) 501.01-2016.02; Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland; European Commission 626/STYP/12/2017; National Science Centre, Poland 2014/13/B/HS6/02644; Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Moscow, Russia 01201370995; Orszagos Tudomanyos Kutatasi Alapprogramok (OTKA) K125437; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 71971225; UKRI/GCRF Gender, Justice, Security Grant AH/S004025/1Résumé
A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating
behaviours in non-human animals. However, research
examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in
scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between
sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating
as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates.
Less empirical attention has been directed towards the
relationship between sex ratio and mate preferences,
despite the importance of mate preferences in the human
mating literature. To address this gap, we examined sex
ratio’s relationship to the variation in preferences for attractiveness,
resources, kindness, intelligence and health in a
long-term mate across 45 countries (n = 14 487). We predicted
that mate preferences would vary according to
relative power of choice on the mating market, with
increased power derived from having relatively few competitors
and numerous potential mates. We found that
each sex tended to report more demanding preferences
for attractiveness and resources where the opposite sex
was abundant, compared to where the opposite sex was scarce. This pattern dovetails with those found for mating
strategies in humans and mate preferences across species,
highlighting the importance of sex ratio for understanding
variation in human mate preferences.