SEX-DIFFERENCES IN INTRA-SEX VARIATIONS IN HUMAN MATING TACTICS - AN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

We assessed sex differences in the effects of physical attractiveness and earning potential on mate selection, and sex differences in prefer ences and motivations with regard to short-term and long-term mating. We also investigated the effect of a variable likely to produce intra- sex variations in the selection of mating tactics, self-perceived mati ng success. Forty-eight university students were presented with pictur es and short descriptions of persons of the opposite sex varying in ph ysical attractiveness and earning potential. Dating interest was influ enced, for both sexes, by stimulus-person's physical attractiveness an d earning potential, but these two characteristics interacted only for female raters. Male and female subjects showed discrepant preferences and motivations with regard to short-term and long-term mating. In ad dition, self-perceived mating success was related to mating tactics in males only: Males who perceived themselves as more successful, compar ed to males who perceived themselves as less successful, tended to pre fer and to more often select short-term mating. This effect was maximi zed when the stimulus person was very attractive and of high earning p otential. These results confirm sex differences in mating preferences, strongly suggest a proximal factor of tactic selection, and suggest t hat males' mating strategies may be more variable than females'.