Do women prefer dominant men? The case of the missing control condition

Past research finds evidence that college women prefer a romantic partner w ho is dominant more than one who is not dominant. However, this research fa iled to include a control condition in which neither dominant nor nondomina nt behaviors are described. Study 1 and Study 2 included such a control con dition and found that describing men as either dominant or nondominant decr eased the desirability of hypothetical dating and romantic partners for und ergraduate women. When asked to describe their ideal partner in Study 3, ve ry few women identified dominant as a desirable trait. However, several tra its associated with dominance, such as assertiveness and confidence, were s elected. The findings suggest that a simple dominant-nondominant dimension may not be very useful when predicting women's mate preferences. (C) 1999 A cademic Press.