Rules Of Mate Choice Essay

In people’s perspective, attractiveness possess a wide variety of positive personal qualities compared to unattractive people. Result from the study on physical attractiveness stereotypes show the attractive people had the most positive ratings. For example, they are judged as less disturbed, rated as happier and more successful, and more likely to be hired after a job interview. Thus, the concept of attractiveness having a correlation between an individual’s physical appearance and his/her achievements, abilities, psychological well-being and/or other status characteristics to create a perception is

In his article, The Strategies of Finding a Mate, David M. Buss discusses the act of finding a mate and the characteristics that people are drawn to in a mate. He begins the article with a brief look at the history of mating and the theories that have previously been proposed. In particular he addressed Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual evolution and belief in preferential mate choice. Buss proposes that there are three components to human mating. He states that “human mating is inherently strategic… mating strategies are context-dependent… [and that] men and women have faced different mating problems over the course of human evolution and, as a consequence, have evolved different strategies” (Buss, 1994, p. 241). He uses this theory to propose nine different hypotheses to prove that despite humans being varied and different from each other, all humans look for similar characteristics when trying to find a mate (Buss, 1994).

In another study, Langlois and Roggaman (1990) took photos of faces and morphed them together to produce composite images made up of 4, 8, 16 or 32 images. Participants rated faces as increasingly attractive the more faces that went into each image; this applied to both male and female faces. The more faces in an image, the more symmetrical they become, it seems that moving a facial image closer to the average increases its perceived attractiveness. It is likely that symmetry equates to fitness and “good genes”, these people are less likely to have been affected by harmful mutation. People with attractive faces are preferred because of the benefits of passing on these attractive characteristics to offspring. Little & Hancock propose that humans have evolved to be attracted to symmetrical faces because they indicate “averageness”, which equates to genetic health. Grammar and Thornhill (1994) found that females are attracted to males with masculine characteristics, for example: large jaw and prominent cheekbones. These features arise as a result of testosterone, which is also a handicap because it suppresses the immune system. Therefore, showing only “healthy” individuals can afford to produce these traits- advertising a strong immune system. Cartwright (2000) supported this, finding men prefer photographs of women with symmetrical faces and vice versa.

This essay aims to show a comparison between the differences between both female short-term mating strategies and female long-term mating strategies. It will explore the evolution of psychology that has shown reasons for human mating and how these reasons go above and beyond the general idea of physical attractiveness and love. This essay will identify how mate preferences have evolved and further identify psychological mechanisms that women have used to select their mates over the past. This essay will compare and critically discuss the differences and outline them between female short-term mating strategies and female long-term mating

70% of ladies admitted that they would ignore or avoid a potential love interest because of the way they looked (Buchanan). We live in a world where superficial beauty is an important advantage especially when choosing a partner in life. People try their hardest to look attractive and gone are the days when inner beauty are more accounted for. What if you have the opportunity to choose between an understanding, kind but not good-looking guy and an inconsiderate, selfish but stunningly appealing man? The 2017 Disney movie Beauty and the Beast is an epic hero myth which shows us that real love and beauty are not only about physical appearance but looking beyond what you can see and seeing one’s character within.

Previous researchers have concentrated on the effect of smiling on physical attractiveness. Reis, et al., (2010) conducted a research by using 15 males and 15 females neutral and smiling photos of each subject that served as a stimulus to 50 females and 50 males college students. Participants rated each photograph on 20 traits adjectives. An analysis of variance showed that people rated smiling profiles as more favorable than non-smiling profiles. Moreover,

When the adolescents were rating the different characteristics the results were as followed, boys rated attractiveness higher than the girls and social status wasn’t important to either group. In the vignette portion of the research, when the social status and the attractiveness were displayed on pictures, it showed that both groups found attractiveness important. Social status was only important for the boys when the mate was attractive and the girls found social status was important whether attractive or not. Lastly, as stated by Ha (2009) “self-perceived mate value moderated the relationship between attractiveness and dating desire for both boys and girls.” Also stated be Ha (2009) “adolescents who perceived themselves as having high mate value showed more dating desire if the other person was attractive compared to adolescents who perceived themselves as having a lower mate value.”

Humans attracted to certain features, such as wide hips or bigger busts for females (Gaulin et al. 2012). Scientists believe that we are attracted to certain features because they help humans increase the chances of reproduction. Biological predisposition means that our genes determine our personalities based on our parents. My research will answer the question, “Does biological predisposition influence attraction more than cultural influences?” There are multiple studies done on the topic of what influences attraction. There are some cultural influences in who we are attracted to. Helen Fisher states “but I have come to

“Yet we judge people by their appearances all the time,” said David Perrett. When you find another person attractive it is your human instinct to find a mate. Women look for strong but gentle fathers for their child and men look for gentle birthing mothers for their children. This is the scientific reasoning behind composite faces. Composite faces are a mixture of the attractive features that your brain sees and understands it as beautiful. It is believed that the human brain’s occipital lobe and limbic system are responsible for the desire and feeling of attractiveness toward faces. (Perrett)

Mating selection is a complex system influenced by many factors. There have been several studies that try to understand the complexity of this system. Many of these studies show that multiple signals provide females with information for mate quality and enough information to differ between males (Candolin 2005). These factors range from physical signals to genetic preferences. The experiments that have been done assumes that the cost of choice increases with the number of signals used. This cost would limit the expectation of multiple signals used (Ccandolin 2005). Selection for health or immunity is still understudied. Those factors represent the genotype and the phenotype of an individual. Health is a conditional phase for an

Beauty can manifest itself in countless forms; it can come in the form of making art, whether it be writing a song or painting a picture. Beauty is found in nature, from beautiful nighttime skylines to mountains poking out through the morning fog. But in its most potent form, beauty is seen in people’s physical characteristics. Hair, eyes, nose, skin color, and body shape are some of the common features looked at to define beauty. In a world where first impressions mean more than almost anything else when it comes to interaction, a massive fixation has been put on beauty. Before any conversation begins, people will judge one another based off their physical appearance; measuring how pretty or handsome someone is, how approachable they look,

used to rate either attractiveness or symmetry. In conclusion, the study was able to provide evidence that supported the perceptual bias view.

The first section addresses the question of whether it is possible to use measures of beauty to analyze the role of looks in the labour market. Since, it would be futile to examine the effect of beauty on employment if there is no mutual agreement on what defines beauty. Using data from

Overall, research studies pertaining to biological symmetry, as a whole, and impression formation have been ambiguous thus, leaving current findings open to debate. Conversely, research studies pertaining to facial symmetry, attractiveness, and mate selection have been modestly more definitive. Thereupon, leading to the conclusion that facial symmetry may render more results in the construction of