I recently figured I'd further my knowledge about evolutionary psychology, and bought the text book (sixth edition by David Buss). Having gone through the first few chapters about general fundamentals and combating the hostile forces of nature, I've finally gotten to a part that may be of interest in a gender discussion sense.

This book has a few specifically focusing on sex differences: Women's long term mating strategies, men's long term mating strategies, and short term sexual strategies. There may be some further interest with regards to gender differences, but I'll hold that off for now.

Fundamentally, there are some relevant core observations:

First: The sex with the highest parental investment is bound to be the most choosy one. This is not necessarily females, in some species men are the ones with the highest parental investment, and in those species, they are also the most choosy sex. In humans though, it is rather obvious that women have the highest obligatory parental investment, so from a simple mating perspective they would be expected to be the more choosy ones, though given a higher male expectation of parental investment, one would also expect male choosiness to increase. In this case we'll focus on female preferences first.

Second: Mate preferences would have to be expressed as evolved psychological mechanisms. Given the advantage of consecutive generations having consistent advantageous preferences, it would be expected to evolve. At the same time, these evolved psychological mechanisms, would be expected, as most evolved mechanisms, to be numerous and specialized. These preferences would have to be evolved in response to adaptive problems, so that will make up the structure of the outline.

So, what are the adaptive problems women face with regards to long term mating?

  • Selecting a mate who is able to invest
  • Selecting a mate who is willing to invest
  • Selecting a mate who is able to physically protect her and her children
  • Selecting a mate who will show good parenting skills
  • Selecting a mate who is compatible
  • Selecting a mate who is healthy

Now, let's find some of the evolved mate preferences identified to handle these problems.

For selecting a mate who is able to invest, we have the following long term mate preferences:

  • Good financial prospects
  • Social status
  • Slightly older age
  • Ambition/industriousness
  • Size, strength, and athletic ability

For selecting a mate who is willing to invest:

  • Dependability and stability
  • Love and commitment cues
  • Positive interactions with children

For selecting a mate who is able to physically protect her and her children

  • Size (height)
  • Bravery
  • Athletic ability
  • Masculine body type

For selecting a mate who will show good parenting skills

  • Dependability
  • Emotional stability
  • Kindness
  • Positive interactions with children

For selecting a mate who is compatible

  • Similar values
  • Similar ages
  • Similar personalities

For selecting a mate who is healthy

  • Physical attractiveness
  • Symmetry
  • Health
  • Masculine features

The underlying theory here is that the mate preferences work to give some information relating to the adaptive problem, so that those who inherit the evolved mate preference effectively have had more children live to a reproductive age than the ones without those preferences, which have caused them to be generally represented through most of human cultures.

For each of these points, rationale and empirical foundations are presented, so I figured I'd try my hand at discussing this.

What, if any, part(s) of women's evolved long term partner preferences do you question the validity of?