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Mate choice preferences on humans

When it comes to long term mate choice, there are some traits both sexes find important: love, commitment and dependability. For females these traits indicate the male’s willingness to commit resources to her and her offspring. They are reliable signals that resources will be provided consistently over time and that the male won’t do any harm to her or her offspring. Therefore by choosing to get together with a male who loves her and is dependable, she can increase the likelihood of her offspring’s survival. For males the same traits signal a higher possibility of paternal certainty. This is important because it is not beneficial from a genetic perspective for a male to put his resources on someone else's offspring.

In general, females tend to find financial resources, social status and industriousness more important than males do. By favoring males with resources, the female increases the likelihood of the survival of her offspring. However, we must remember that cultural aspects have an effect on the preference on financial resources: the preference is less strong in western societies where females have access to financial resources themselves and don’t necessarily need males to provide for them. Social status is important since males with a high status typically have more resources, and industriousness is the factor behind this: an industrious male is more likely to achieve a high social status and a lot of resources than a lazy one. In addition to resources, high social status provides the offspring with (social) opportunities that a male with lower social status cannot provide.

Preference for good looks is, in general, more important to males than to females and this applies to both long and short term mate choice. What males find attractive in females is universal (although there are some cultural differences). All the traits considered attractive are linked to youthfulness and fertility. In case you want to know more about the traits that are universally considered attractive, read this post. The preferences stems from the fact that those males who chose a young, fertile female produced more offspring than those who did not, thus passing on the preference for traits telling about youthfulness and fertility to the next generations. Of course, the good looks of the partner is important for females too, because it tells about his high quality and state of health, and it does not make sense to choose an ill partner because they are less likely to be able to acquire resources, care for offspring and, in the worst case, can transmit the disease to their partner.

The previous preferences can be used to explain the differences in the age preferences of females and males. Females typically prefer males that are slightly older than them, while males consistently prefer females that are younger than them. For a female, it is beneficial to prefer a slightly older male, as he has had time to gather resources and gain higher social status. Males, on the other hand, tend to prefer females of reproductive age, especially those in their highest fertility (which is when the female is in her 20s), because this way they can maximize the number of offspring they have and thus ensure that their genes are passed on the the following generations.

Somewhat linked to age is female’s preference for physical size and strength as well as athletic abilities. Physical strength in males tends to peak when they’re in their mid 20s to early 30s, making it smart for young females to prefer males in that age range. In some hunter-gatherer tribes the hunting skills peak somewhat later, at mid to late 30s, making males in that age the most attractive to females. Physical size and strength are important as they predict the male's ability to scare off competitors and protect the female and her offspring. Hunting skills, on the other hand, have been an important selection criterion as a good hunter is able to provide food for his family. In modern societies hunting skills are no longer important for most of the females but the adaptation to prefer physical size and strength has remained.

Males, more often than females, have a preference for individuals with no previous sexual intercourse. The reason for this is that if a female has not had sex with anyone, the male with whom she mates for the fist time can be (almost) certain to be the father of her child. Furthermore, chastity, the state of abstaining from sexual intercourse before marriage, signals future fidelity and therefore is another factor increasing paternal certainty. Nowadays, the development of contraceptives has reduced males' preference for inexperienced females as the probability of getting pregnant when having sexual intercourse is lower.

For both sexes, similarity (as in personality, values, religion and so on) and friendliness are important because both increase emotional closeness, communication and the ability to work together. These in turn are linked to the willingness to care for offspring and thus to the survival of the offspring. Offspring have been mentioned here many times already, which is why it's a bit silly to mention this last, but females have a preference for males who interact positively with children as it suggests he would be a good father. Indeed, females tend to prefer the same traits as their father has but only if the father has been present and nurturing. This is because the father has managed to attract a mate, reproduce and care for the offspring, meaning that the female should prefer males with the same traits. The phenomenon is known as positive sexual imprinting and it occurs not only in humans but also in other species.

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