Men and Women Have Different Expectations from Their Lifepartners

Like-mindedness and compatibility are thought to be the common denominators when it comes to choosing a mate, but a new study says that our choice of a prospective partner still depends on the stereotypical laws of the Neanderthal age.

In the study, the Indiana University cognitive scientist Peter Todd and colleagues found that though individuals may claim otherwise, beauty and good looks are the key ingredients for men, while women, the much choosier of the sexes, leverage their looks for wealth, security and commitment.

According to Todd, this formula has served humans throughout time, with the model of choosy females reflected in most mammals.

"Evolutionary theories in psychology suggest that men and women should trade off different traits in each other, and when we look at the actual mate choices people make, this is what we find evidence for. Ancestral individuals who made their mate choices in this way -- women trading off their attractiveness for higher quality men and men looking for any attractive women who will accept them -- would have had an evolutionary advantage in greater numbers of successful offspring,” Todd said.

The study used a speed-dating session in Germany to compare what people say they want in a mate with whom they actually choose. Speed dating, an increasingly popular way for singles to meet, involves sessions in which men and women have numerous "mini dates" with up to 30 different people, each date lasting anywhere from three to five minutes.

After every date, the men and women checked a box on a card noting whether they would like to see the other person again. The team also asked 46 adults in a speed-dating session to fill out a questionnaire in advance, assessing themselves and their ideal mate according to evolutionarily relevant traits, such as physical attractiveness, present and future financial status, health and parenting qualities.

Initially, according to Todd, participants stated they wanted to find someone who was like themselves, a socially acceptable answer. But once the sessions began, the men sought the more attractive women and the women were drawn to material wealth and security, setting their standards according to how attractive they viewed themselves. Furthermore, while men on average wanted to see every second woman again, the women wanted to meet only a third of the men again.

The results suggest that modern-day singles, like generations of their ancestors, are driven by biology with men seeking the best specimens to procreate with, and women seeking the best long-term partners.

While the study's results came as no surprise to Todd, the research usefulness of the speed-dating forum did. Todd and his colleagues are conducting several other speed-dating studies that could confirm the results.

"Speed dating lets us look at a large number of mate choice decisions collected in a short amount of time. It only captures the initial stage of the extended process involved in long-term mate choice. But that initial expression of interest is crucial for launching everything else,” Todd said.

The study is published in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source-ANI
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