Evolutionary explanations for partner preferences Flashcards
Natural selection
-Natural selection suggests that human behaviour is driven by the need to survive and reproduce
-Both male and females need to make sure they have children and that their offspring survives till adulthood
-Genes that provide a reproductive advantage will increase in frequency in the gene pool as those are the genes that are passed on to the next generation
Inter sexual selection
-Inter sexual selection is the strategy used by a single sex to pick the highest quality mate out of a wide variety of potential mates based on attractive features that indicate good genes
Why is inter sexual selection most often used by females
-Females have a high investment cost (9 months pregnancy)
-Females have 100% certainty of maternity
Intra sexual selection (why is it most often used by males)
-Intra sexual selection is the strategy of one sex to compete amongst themselves for access to a large quantity of members of the opposite sex (favours large dominant males)
-This is most often used by males due to low investment costs and parental uncertainty
Dimorphism
-Dimorphism is the obvious differences between members of the same gender
-For example, larger males are more likely to win in a physical altercation with another rival male
-Therefore being large is a reproductive advantage
What do women look for in males?
-Qualities that will help them to raise a childhood to adulthood: resources/ money
-Physical attributes linked to dominance (tall/healthy)
-v-shaped chest?
what do males look for in females?
-Qualities indicating production of healthy offspring:
-Large breasts
-Young facial features
-0.7 waist to hip ratio, indicating sexual maturity but not pregnancy
Research evaluation in support of the evolutionary explanation (BUSS 1989)
-Across 33 countries, Buss (1989) surveyed over 10,000 peopkle on partner preferences when looking for a mate
-Found that males prioritised features that indicated reproductive capacity whereas females prioritised features that indicated resources such as money or ambition
-This suggests that real life partner preferences match those predicted by the evolutionary explanation
-Additionally, as this research was conducted across multiple countries, it can be said to lack cultural bias, and shows these partner preferences to be a universal behaviour across all cultures
Research evaluation in support of the evolutionary explanation (dunbar and waynforth) newspaper dating ads content analysis
-Dunbar and Waynforth conducted a content analysis on 900 dating ads from american newspapers
-They found that males were more likely to advertise economic status whereas women were more likely to advertise their good looks
This supports the evolutionary explanation that women priorities resources and status , which men advertise, and men are looking for reproductive capacity, which women tend to advertise
Research evaluation in support of evolutionary explanation (inter/ intra sexual selection) Hatfield and Clarke
-Student researchers asked other students on campus one of three questions: “will you go out with me?”, “will you go back to my house?” or “will you have sex with me?”
-They found that while both genders agrees to the date 50% of the time, 0% of women agrees to sex while 75% of males agreed to sex
-This support the concept of intra sexual selection (males will attempt to sleep with as many women as possible) and inter sexual selection (women will be more selective)
Negative evaluation of Evolutionary explanation (alpha bias)
-The evolutionary explanation can be criticised for legitimising gender double standards and exaggerating sexual differences between men and women
-This is an example of alpha bias
