Gender and Mating Preferences: Do Men or Women Care More About Looks? When selecting mates, women and men have certain qualifications and expectations that must be met. These expectations vary among men and women. These expectations include, but are not limited to, age, attractiveness, socioeconomic status, education, and which color the potential mate is wearing. These characteristics are shaped by biology. Biology seems to play a large role in selecting mates in both men and women. In women, ovulation cycle predicts attractiveness in potential mates. In men, fertility predicts attractiveness in potential mates. It is important to acknowledge that this research only applies to heterosexual mating preferences. The goal of this study is to …show more content…
Women describe themselves based on characteristics of attractiveness, faithfulness and obedience, while men describe themselves based on characteristics of being financially stable, or powerful. This difference in how men and women describe themselves predicts that they understand what people of the opposite sex prefer when mating. Women focus on characteristics of attractiveness because men value attractiveness. Men focus on characteristics of socioeconomic status, because women are more attracted to men that are educated and have a high income. Men and women often look for potential mates with certain personality requirements. In a long term mate, men value honesty and sincerity, while women value faithfulness. These personality characteristics are important when looking for a mate of the opposite …show more content…
After time and consideration, the male or female would decide whether their friend is a potential mate or not. That being said, it is essential to acknowledge what characteristics men and women are attracted to when selecting friends. In the study, Friends with benefits II: Mating activation in opposite-sex friendships as a function of sociosexual orientation and relationship status, Lewis et al, “discovered that interactions between sex, sociosexual orientation, and relationship status predicted opposite sex friendships” (Lewis, Al-Shawaf, Conroy-Beam, Asao, & Buss, 2012, p. 625). Lewis et al also found that men, as you may have thought, view attractiveness as an important aspect in opposite-sex friendship. On the contrary to what you may have thought, women view attractiveness in opposite sex friendships equally to men. As it has been researched and proven time and time again, men are more attracted to younger women, and women are more attracted to older men. In a study on mating preferences, Mating preferences in choosing a partner. Does Georgia repeat the same worldwide trend? (2008), none of the women were interested in selecting a younger mate, while ninety-seven percent of men were interested in selecting mates that were younger than them in age. The other three percent of the men sought older women due to economical reasons, such as women with high