The nine questions were worded in such a way: “To what extent do you find a person’s [SPECIFIC TRAIT] influences how sexually attractive you find them?” And participants had an option to rate the importance of each trait on a scale ranging from one to 100 (100 being the most important).
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Whyte points out that there’s really no “typical” male or female. Across both sexes, there were those who rated every trait as very important — and those who cared less about all the traits. But the differences that remain suggest there’s a seed of truth in some stereotypes about searching for a mate. Yes, young, straight men are a little more concerned with looks. Yes, women cared a little more intensely about intelligence, emotional connection, and trust.
This may have to do with evolution and parenting, Whyte says. Females have to devote so much time and energy to the evolutionary product of sex — pregnancy — and so the cost of a bad choice of a mate may be higher on an evolutionary level.
“It seems logical that from an evolutionary sense, you would find characteristics in a male that either allowed you resources for you and your offspring, or showed personality types, or education, or levels of intelligence, that show that this individual was committed to you and committed to raising your offspring,” Whyte says.
But there may be more than biology at play. The theory of “sexual scripts,” for example, holds that in sexual encounters, men and women learn certain sexual behaviors that follow a certain “script” — as if to fulfill a role in a play.
Other research suggests dominant beliefs and practices within a culture can influence the sexual behavior of men and women. That is, we might not be biologically “programmed” to look for certain traits in a partner — our environment may also dictate what is or is not considered desirable and acceptable in a mate.
www.inverse.com
[clip]
Whyte points out that there’s really no “typical” male or female. Across both sexes, there were those who rated every trait as very important — and those who cared less about all the traits. But the differences that remain suggest there’s a seed of truth in some stereotypes about searching for a mate. Yes, young, straight men are a little more concerned with looks. Yes, women cared a little more intensely about intelligence, emotional connection, and trust.
This may have to do with evolution and parenting, Whyte says. Females have to devote so much time and energy to the evolutionary product of sex — pregnancy — and so the cost of a bad choice of a mate may be higher on an evolutionary level.
“It seems logical that from an evolutionary sense, you would find characteristics in a male that either allowed you resources for you and your offspring, or showed personality types, or education, or levels of intelligence, that show that this individual was committed to you and committed to raising your offspring,” Whyte says.
But there may be more than biology at play. The theory of “sexual scripts,” for example, holds that in sexual encounters, men and women learn certain sexual behaviors that follow a certain “script” — as if to fulfill a role in a play.
Other research suggests dominant beliefs and practices within a culture can influence the sexual behavior of men and women. That is, we might not be biologically “programmed” to look for certain traits in a partner — our environment may also dictate what is or is not considered desirable and acceptable in a mate.
7,325 online daters reveal what men and women actually want
Researchers looked at the data of 7325 Australian men and women on internet dating sites and asked daters about what they found sexy in a potential mate.