The effects of female status on sex differentiated mate preferences

Mate selection--Sex differences;Human behavior--Sex differences;Interpersonal attraction

Moore, Fhionna R. ; Byrne, Richard W. ; Byrne, Richard W.

University:University of St Andrews

Department:Psychology & Neuroscience (School of)

关键词: Mate selection--Sex differences;    Human behavior--Sex differences;    Interpersonal attraction;   

Others  :  https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/332/FhionnaMooreThesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

来源: DR-NTU

【 摘 要 】

Mate preferences provide an opportunity to explore the validity of evolutionaryand social role origin theories of sex differences in human behaviour. Inevolutionary models, preferences are sex-specific adaptive responses toconstraints to reproductive success. In social role models, sex differences arisefrom the allocation of men and women to different gender roles. I explored theeffects of the status of women on preferences to assess the validity of the origintheories. I developed an adequate measure of female status (i.e. resourcecontrol), and explored its effects on female preferences in an online survey(Chapter 3), a mail-shot survey (Chapter 4), and a sample of non-industrialsocieties (Chapter 5). Results implicated a role of constraints on women in theexpression of female-typical preferences. In an experimental manipulation offemale perceptions of their status, results enabled greater confidence in theattribution of causal direction to relationships (Chapter 6). In Chapter 7, Iexplored the conditions under which the relationships of interest occurred. InChapter 8, to further explore the origin models I investigated the effects ofresource control on the magnitudes of sex differences in preferences. In Chapter9, I explored relationships between a characteristic more closely related to themale gender role (i.e. apparent intelligence) and femininity in female faces.Women who were considered to look more intelligent were perceived as lessfeminine. In Chapter 10, I investigated the effects of reproductive strategy onmate preferences. Results were consistent with evolutionary models ofbehaviour. I argue that “status” is a multidimensional construct, and that itseffects on mate preferences are complex, that while results were generally moreconsistent with an evolutionary than the biosocial model, integration of modelswould provide greater insight into human mate preferences.