Choosing A Mate

September 2007 - Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explored cognitive processes underlying choice of a mate and found that beauty is still of paramount consideration for men while women are more discriminating, placing greater emphasis on the need for security and commitment.

Peter Todd, lead author and cognitive scientist at the University of Indiana explained:

"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."

Focusing on a speed-dating event in Germany, researchers compared what people said they were looking for in a mate with whom they actually chose. They explain that this increasingly popular phenomenon enables participants to have "mini dates" lasting 3-5 minutes with up to 30 different people after which they record who they would like to see again. The study included 46 adults who completed self-assessment questionnaires beforehand, also identifying evolutionarily relevant characteristics of their ideal mate such as physical attractiveness, financial status and prospects, health and parenting qualities.

Researchers found that participants stated they wanted to find "someone who was like themselves" defining this as a socially acceptable answer. However, in practice men sought the more physically attractive women in the group whereas female participants gravitated towards men demonstrating affluence, their aspirations dependent on how they had assessed their own attractiveness. The average male participant wanted to see half of the women again, but female participants wanted to meet only one-third of the men.

While not surprised at this outcome, researchers found that speed-dating proved a useful forum, a "microcosm where mate choices are made sequentially in a faster and more formalized fashion than in daily life."

Peter Todd added:

"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."

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