Evolutionary Psychology and Human Mate Preferences Quiz

Evolutionary Psychology and Human Mate Preferences

• Transition from advertised estrus to concealed ovulation posed a problem for ancestral males
• Concealment of ovulation shifted the problem to determining women's reproductive value and fertility
• Reproductive value refers to the expected future reproduction of a person, differs from fertility
• Women in mid-20s tend to produce the most viable children, fertility peaks in mid-20s
• Detecting fertility or reproductive value was a difficult problem for ancestral men
• Observable cues of a woman's youth and health were correlated with reproductive value
• Men's long-term mate preferences include intelligence, kindness, understanding, and health
• Men also seek partners who share their values and are similar to them in attitudes and personality
• Standards of beauty emerge early in life, infants show preferences for attractive faces and dolls
• Standards of beauty are consistent across cultures, with high consensus on attractiveness
• Attractiveness standards are not learned gradually through cultural transmission
• Exposure to Western media does not affect judgments of attractiveness in different cultures

Evolutionary Psychology of Female Attractiveness

• Study of 9,998 Chinese women found that those with longer legs had more offspring, especially in lower socioeconomic backgrounds
• Women's spinal structure has evolved differently to accommodate the strain of pregnancy, with a wedge-shaped lumbar vertebra
• Men find the optimal degree of lumbar curvature in women maximally attractive, as supported by empirical evidence
• Cue-based judgments of women's attractiveness correlate nearly perfectly with assessments of their reproductive value
• Neuroimaging study showed that the nucleus accumbens area of the brain becomes activated when men look at attractive female faces
• Body cues, such as body fat distribution and waist-to-hip ratio, provide cues to a woman's reproductive capacity
• Standards for female bodily attractiveness vary across cultures, with plumpness signaling wealth and health in some cultures
• Men's preference for heavier women is influenced by food availability and economic conditions
• Women's perception of men's ideal female body size is slimmer than men's actual preference, as revealed in a study across 26 cultures
• Devendra Singh's research suggests a universal preference for a particular ratio between the size of a woman's waist and the size of her hips
• Dramatic changes in fat distribution occur at puberty, with women depositing fat in the lower trunk, primarily on their hips and upper thighs
• The volume of body fat in the lower trunk region is 40 percent greater for women than for men after puberty

Evolutionary Strategies for Paternity Certainty

• Female primates have concealed ovulation, making it difficult for males to ascertain paternity.
• Cryptic ovulation expanded the window of female attractiveness, posing a unique paternity problem for men.
• Marriage potentially provided a solution by increasing paternity certainty through repeated sexual contact.
• Concealed ovulation may have evolved to facilitate long-term committed mating, promoting marriage as a social tradition.
• Marriage serves as a public signal of mating, reducing conflict within male coalitions.
• Men had to seek assurances of their wife’s sexual fidelity to reap the reproductive benefits of marriage.
• Men sought qualities in a mate that could increase the odds of securing paternity, such as premarital chastity and postmarital fidelity.
• The value of chastity has declined over time, coinciding with the availability of birth control.
• Men globally value chastity more than women as an important trait in a long-term mate.
• There are significant cultural variations in the importance placed on chastity as a desirable trait in a potential mate.
• Countries like China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Taiwan, and Palestinian Arab areas value chastity highly, while Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, and France do not.
• The desire for chastity in a long-term mate varies across cultures and is more valued by men than women globally.

Evolutionary Theories of Homosexuality and Contextual Influences on Men's Mating Behavior

• A study in Samoa found that male homosexuals (fa’afafne) exhibited greater avuncular tendencies compared to heterosexual men, investing more in nieces and nephews through babysitting, buying toys, and investing in their education.
• Cross-cultural studies of male androphilia expressed in a transgendered form found elevated levels of kin altruism, suggesting a potential evolutionary explanation for homosexual behavior.
• The female fertility hypothesis suggests that genes for male homosexuality can evolve if they produce an increased reproductive rate in the female relatives of male homosexuals, potentially compensating for lower rates of reproduction in gay males.
• Evidence suggests that the maternal female relatives of gay males produce significantly more offspring than those of heterosexual men, supporting the female fertility hypothesis.
• The alliance formation theory proposes that homoerotic behavior by young men with older men provides a strategy for gaining allies and boosting status, ultimately leading to greater sexual access to women.
• Empirical difficulties have been encountered by the alliance formation theory, and it does not seem to explain the majority of cultures where homoerotic behavior is not used as a strategy of alliance formation.
• The kin altruism theory has received mixed empirical support, while the female fertility hypothesis has accrued the strongest empirical support among the three evolutionary theories of homosexuality.
• Social, ecological, and personal contexts influence men’s mating strategies, and desires may not always correspond with actual mating behavior.
• Humans likely evolved in small groups, where a particular man would have encountered only a few dozen attractive women, but in modern environments, they are bombarded with thousands of images of attractive models.
• Men lacking status and resources may have difficulty attracting women, as evidence from historical data suggests that wealthier and high-status men tend to marry younger brides.
• Kings, emperors, and men of high status historically married younger brides, while men lacking wealth and lower-status counterparts married older brides.
• The contextual influences on men's mating behavior highlight the discrepancy between modern environments and ancestral environments in which human mating strategies likely evolved.

Men's Mate Preferences and Long-Term Mating Strategies

• Women are sensitive to men's mate preferences and use derogation tactics to compete for mates.
• Women in high estrogen phases are more likely to derogate a rival's physical appearance.
• Women feel threatened by women with more feminine faces, larger breasts, and lower WHRs when they flirt with their romantic partners.
• Women spend more on beauty-enhancement products when primed with cues of economic hardship.
• Calling a competitor promiscuous is more effective for women than for men.
• Women's derogation tactics are sensitive to men's long-term mate preferences.
• Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are linked to intense intrasexual competition for mates.
• U.S. women engaged in intense mate competition are more dissatisfied with their bodies and have a high drive for thinness.
• Men's preferences affect behavior in the mating arena, influencing personal ads, marriage age differences, tipping behavior, and mate attraction tactics.
• Marrying increased men's chances of attracting a mate and ensured paternity certainty.
• Men have evolved standards of attractiveness linked to cues of a woman's reproductive capacity, such as youth and health.
• Men's long-term mate-selection decisions revolve around identifying women of high fertility and dealing with the problem of paternity uncertainty.