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'Butovskaya ML, Smirnov OV, 2005: Why Sex Matters? Differences in Long-term Mate Preferences in Russia. Anthropologie (Brno) 43, 1: 87-96'. |
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| Abstract | | The paper is aimed at the research taken to test evolutionary psychology predictions concerning gender differences in long-term mate preferences. 82 male and 132 female Moscow students (19.9 y. o. on average) evaluated 40 physical and socio-psychological characteristics of a potential partner. We tested the evolutionary psychology hypotheses which are traced back to R. Triver's theory of parental investment and sexual selection. According to this theory the selection pressure has shaped long-term mate preferences such a way that in humans males are expected to put more significance than females on the characteristics linked with a partner's reproductive qualities and ensuring their parental certainty, while females are expected to value higher than males do characteristics ensuring the partner's prosperity and willingness to invest resources in the family. The most of the results do not falsify this prediction. While both sexes emphasize love, males do tend to value more than females do a potential mate's physical appearance, absence of unhealthy habits, eyes and hair colour, waist, hip and shoulder parameters, weight, the absence of kids from previous relationships, and fidelity. Females do put more stress than males on a partner's intellect, educational level, financial prosperity, industriousness and ability to assert one's interest, social status, care, similarity in values and interests, sexual experience. Nevertheless, some results contradict the initial predictions. The feature of previous sexual experience in a mate associated with a cue to male's parental certainty is found to be less significant for males than for females. Moreover, both sexes consider it to be a positive feature. Two interrelated possible explanations are proposed: that there is no more straight association between sexual act and possible following pregnancy due to the development of contraception industry; the change in the attitude towards sex is a consequence of so-called 'sexual revolution' as a cultural phenomenon in Russian society. | | | | Keywords | | Gender (sex) differences - Evolutionary psychology - Long-term mate preferences - Sexual selection - Parental investment - Reproductive potential - Reproductive strategies - Evolved psychological mechanism - Russia | | |
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