Ebook Attractive Women Want it all
Humans possess a menu of mating strategies that includes long-term mating, shortterm opportunistic copulations, extra-pair copulations, and serial mating (Buss, 1994/2003; 2007; Buss and Schmitt, 1993; Gangestad and Simpson, 2000; Greiling and Buss, 2000; Symons, 1979). Much empirical work has documented how mate preferences shift according to context. Women pursuing short-term mating compared to long-term mating, for example, increase the importance they place on a man’s physical attractiveness, sex appeal, muscularity, and extravagant and immediate resource displays (Buss and Schmitt, 1993; Frederick and Haselton, 2007; Gangestad, Garver-Apgar, and Simpson, 2007; Haselton and Gangestad, 2006; Haselton and Miller, 2006; Pawlowski and Jasienska, 2005). Women pursuing long-term mating, in contrast, place greater importance on resource acquisition potential, such as “has a promising career” and “has good financial prospects” (Buss and Schmitt, 1993).
Mate preferences have been shown to shift as a function of personal and ecological contexts. In ecologies with a high prevalence of parasites, for example, both sexes increase the importance they place on physical attractiveness, presumed to be a powerful health cue (Gangestad and Buss, 1993). Mate preferences have also been shown to vary according to operational sex ratio (Stone, Shackelford, and Buss, 2007), cultural norms surrounding premarital sex (Buss, 1989), menstrual cycle (Gangestad et al., 2007; Pillsworth, Haselton, and Buss, 2004; Puts, 2005), age (Kenrick and Keefe, 1992), and mating system (e.g., legally polygynous versus presumptively monogamous) (Buss, 1989). One personal circumstance that has not explored in depth, however, is the role of mate value in affecting standards imposed on potential mates.
Gangestad and Simpson (2000) hypothesize that women make trade-offs in mating along two dimensions—good gene fitness indicators and good investment indicators. Good gene indicators are hypothesized to include masculinity, physical attractiveness, muscularity, symmetry, intelligence, and “confrontativeness” (Gangestad, Garver-Apgar, and Simpson, 2007). Good investment indicators are hypothesized to include resources and resource acquisition potential (Buss and Schmitt, 1993). Women might also choose “good dad” indicators such as warmth and kindness (La Cerra, 1994). Because most women cannot “get it all,” they are hypothesized to favor investment and perhaps “good dad” indicators in long-term mating, while choosing short-term affair partners who possess indicators of good genes (Gangestad and Simpson, 2000; Gangestad et al., 2007). As a caveat, it must be noted that nearly all stable personal characteristics show moderate heritability (Larsen and Buss, 2008), and hence qualities associated with being a “good dad” or “good provider” may also provide “good genes.”
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Ebook Attractive Women Want it all
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