TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender differences in mate preference among law students
T2 - Divergence and convergence of criteria
AU - Townsend, John Marshall
AU - Roberts, Laurence W.
PY - 1993
Y1 - 1993
N2 - We examined six hypotheses derived from evolutionary theory regarding sex differences in mate-selection criteria. The subjects were 160 law students who viewed color photographs of live models that were paired with different status cues such as costume variation and descriptions of income and occupation. A multivariate analysis of variance and regression analyses revealed highly significant sex differences in the following responses: Reported willingness to engage in unqualified sexual relations; reported willingness to have sexual relations with stimulus persons as compared with the willingness to engage in higher investment relationships such as dating and marriage; the effects of stimulus persons' status and physical attractiveness in determining thresholds of initial acceptability; and tradeoffs, that is the ability of high physical attractiveness to compensate for low status, and of high status to compensate for low physical attractiveness. Law students also responded to nine statements concerning prospective spouses' relative income, occupational prestige, and physical attractiveness. These responses exhibited sex differences consistent with those found in the experimental manipulation.
AB - We examined six hypotheses derived from evolutionary theory regarding sex differences in mate-selection criteria. The subjects were 160 law students who viewed color photographs of live models that were paired with different status cues such as costume variation and descriptions of income and occupation. A multivariate analysis of variance and regression analyses revealed highly significant sex differences in the following responses: Reported willingness to engage in unqualified sexual relations; reported willingness to have sexual relations with stimulus persons as compared with the willingness to engage in higher investment relationships such as dating and marriage; the effects of stimulus persons' status and physical attractiveness in determining thresholds of initial acceptability; and tradeoffs, that is the ability of high physical attractiveness to compensate for low status, and of high status to compensate for low physical attractiveness. Law students also responded to nine statements concerning prospective spouses' relative income, occupational prestige, and physical attractiveness. These responses exhibited sex differences consistent with those found in the experimental manipulation.
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U2 - 10.1080/00223980.1993.9914888
DO - 10.1080/00223980.1993.9914888
M3 - Article
C2 - 8271229
AN - SCOPUS:84953609443
VL - 127
SP - 507
EP - 528
JO - Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied
JF - Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied
SN - 0022-3980
IS - 5
ER -