ROMANTIC POPULARITY AND MATE PREFERENCES - A PEER-NOMINATION STUDY

In their quest to understand romantic relationships, researchers have extensively examined mate preferences. Self-report methods have been m ost commonly employed. In this study, the authors used a methodology n ot employed in other studies to date. First, they used peer reports of dating popularity to assess the extent to which individuals of varyin g qualities are romantically pursued by opposite-sex individuals. Seco nd, the authors obtained peer nominations of a variety of qualities th at self-report studies of mate preferences indicate may be important. Results revealed that romantically popular men. are physically attract ive outgoing, and seen as trendsetters. Romantically popular women wer e also viewed as physically attractive and as trendsetters. In contras t to the self-report literature, men who were seen as having most pote ntial for financial success were not particularly popular. Results are discussed with respect to the self-reported preferences literature.