What Do Males and Females Want in a Long-Term Relationship?

Christina Frost, Evelyne Kolker, Denise Zhang Evolution and Human Behavior 16 March 2013

Introduction

Reproductive success depends in part upon selecting a suitable mate, but because men and women differ in their approaches to reproduction, they should also differ in what they find desirable in a mate. Women invest a lot of time and resources in their offspring. Therefore traits such as social standing, responsibility/work ethic, and financial stability should be most desirable to them because this will ensure their children are provided with necessary resources. Men on the other hand employ a different breeding tactic: they invest much less in each offspring and try to spread their seed far and wide. Their reproductive strategy rests solely on their ability to mate with a woman healthy enough to bear offspring. Therefore agreeability should be important to men (because an agreeable woman will be more likely to have sex with them), as should attractiveness (because outward beauty generally indicates good health). Also, men should value fidelity to minimize sperm competition and the risk that the children borne by their mate are not their own.

Methods
To collect data for our research question, we created a survey (Figure 1) online with SurveyMonkey and distributed the link via Facebook to students at the University of Washington. The questionnaire asks for the gender of the participant and then asks them to rank the importance of seven traits they are looking for in a partner for a long-term relationship with number one denoting most important and number seven denoting least important. We added the trait favorite color as a control variable that both genders should rank as the least important factor when choosing a long-term mate. In order to determine if differences in ranking of traits between men and women are significant, a two-sample t test will be used with a critical value set to 5% significance. If our hypothesis that women choose mates based on potential resource investment and men choose mates based on likelihood of bearing their offspring is correct, we should observe that in women, social standing, financial stability, and responsibility/work ethic will be ranked highest, while for men agreeability, attractiveness, and fidelity will rank highest. If our hypothesis is incorrect, results may vary: men and women may show no differences in preferences or differences may be opposite form what we have predicted.

Results
As seen in figure 2, women rank fidelity and responsibility/work ethic as most important. As seen in figure 3, men rank fidelity and agreeability as most important. Figure 4 reveals the differences in preferences between men and women. Women rank financial stability and work ethic/responsibility as more important than men. Men rank agreeability, social standing, and attractiveness higher than women, but the difference in ranking between men and women for agreeability is not statistically significant. Men and women both rank favorite color (7) and fidelity (1) the same.

Discussion
We expected women to rank social standing, financial stability, and work/ethic responsibility higher than men because a womans reproductive success is primarily dependent on her ability to provide the necessary resources for her offspring. Our results showed that women did rank financial stability and work ethic/responsibility higher than men, but there was not a statistically significant difference between mens and womens ranking of social status.

Both men and women ranked social standing relatively low. This could be due to the relatively egalitarian society we find ourselves in. Although class is still present in our society, it has relatively little influence on whether or not we have access to enough food, clean water, and health care. Also, our society is relatively fluid in its class system (people can change classes). This may explain why women still value financial stability and work ethic/responsibility highly: these are the things that truly determine how well a mate will be able to provide for offspring, social standing is simply a byproduct of the aforementioned traits. Similarly, we expected men to rank fidelity, attractiveness, and agreeability highly because these traits will determine a mans reproductive success. Unlike women, men adopt a reproductive strategy that values quantity over quality simply because men do not need to invest nine months in each offspring. Their reproductive success, therefore, relies solely upon successful copulation (successful meaning that the child is born healthy and carrying their genes). For this reason we predicted that men would rank attractiveness higher than women because it reveals something about the health of the woman and consequently her ability to carry a child to term. According to our results, this was the case. Men should also rank agreeability high. Although men did rank agreeability near the top of their list, so did women. There was no statistically significant difference between the average rank men and women gave to agreeability. This can still be explained on an evolutionary basis. While men might seek agreeability in women because it gives them a better shot at copulation, women may also desire agreeability in their mates so that they may coerce them into investing more in their offspring, lightening the burden on the woman and thereby maximizing her reproductive success. Men also ranked fidelity as the most important trait in their mates. Although this is in keeping with our hypothesis, there was no statistically significant difference between mens and womens ranking of fidelity: they both ranked it first. Again, this result can be explained on an evolutionary basis. While men value fidelity in women to eliminate sperm competition and ensure that the offspring she bears are his, women may value fidelity in their mates to ensure that their offspring are the sole benefactors of their fathers bread-winning efforts and that they are not having to share valuable resources with children that do not carry their mothers genes. Fidelity can maximize reproductive success for both genders. Finally, our control trait, color, was ranked lowest for both men and women. There was no statistically significant difference between mens and womens ranking of favorite color. This gives us some confidence that the results of this survey can be trusted and that our statistical techniques were sound. A study conducted by Michael Wiedermn at Bowling Green State University in 1993, supports and expands upon many of the conclusions reached in this study. The study looked at trends in personal ads, specifically what men and women advertised in their own ads and claimed to seek from others. Men were more likely to advertise their financial attributes and emphasize sincerity/honesty while women were more likely to seek such attributes. The fact that women value financial stability more than men was reaffirmed in our study, but the honesty preference on the part of women is not something that was replicated. If we consider fidelity to be a form of honesty, then our study found that both men and women value honesty about the same. The Wiederman study also claimed that women were more likely to advertise an attractive body type while men were more likely to seek an attractive body type. This result is in line with the findings of our study as men ranked attractiveness higher then women. The Wiederman study also expanded upon the results in our study by claiming that men tend to seek younger women

while women tend to seek older men. Evolutionarily speaking this makes sense because younger women are more fertile, but older men are more financially stable. Both genders seek mates of an age most likely to maximize their own reproductive success. Finally, the Wiederman study claims that women are more likely to seek friendship first and sex later, while men are more likely to seek a primarily sexual relationship. Again, this makes evolutionary sense. Women invest a lot of time and resources in their offspring so they need to see a commitment from a potential mate prior to copulation, but because men invest so little in offspring, they are more willing to fuck first and ask questions later. Because this study was done ten years ago, it would be interesting to repeat the study and attempt to replicate results with a younger generation. It might be interesting to see if older and younger generations differ in their preferences or if these preferences remain relatively stable over time. A new survey could be made and distributed at colleges, corporate offices, and nursing homes in an attempt to simulate three generations.

Works Cited
SurveyMonkey.com Wiederman, Michael. "Evolved gender differences in mate preferences: Evidence from personal advertisements." Ethology and Sociobiology. 14.5 (1993): 331-351. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

Figures
Figure 1: Format of survey used to collect data 1. What is your gender? 2. Please rank the following from 1-7 on how important each trait is to you in a long-term partner (1 being most important). Favorite Color Agreeability Financial Stability Social Standing Attractiveness Work Ethic/Responsibility Fidelity

Figure 2: Results of data from female responders Rank of Traits by Females

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Figure 3: Results of data from Male responders Rank of Traits by Males

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Figure 4: Average Importance and Statistical Significance of Traits (lower number = more important) Favorite Color 6.73 6.69 .005 .099 no Agreeability Financial Stability 3.21 3.84 2.69 4.71 .1924 .1853 2.2 4.4 no yes Social Standing 5.67 5.45 .04 .137 no Attractiveness 4.19 3.61 .16 2.7 yes Work Ethic/Responsibility 2.46 3.02 .1848 2.66 yes Fidelity 1.87 1.86 .0076 .039 no

F.avg M.avg % difference T (cv=2.6, =.05) Significant difference?