1. Women’s Long Term Mating Strategies
Chapter 4

2. Theoretical Background
Parental Investment Theory
Females are a valuable reproductive asset
Gametes
Pregnancy
Lactation
Nurturing
How is sex more risky for women?
Is this still true today?

3. Predictions From Parental Investment Theory
The more investing sex (females) will be more selective about mating than the less investing sex
The less investing sex (males) will be more competitive for sexual access to the high investing sex (females).

4. Problems Women Face
Selecting men who possess attributes that confer benefits
Avoiding men who possess liabilities
Detecting deception in potential mates
Integrating various inputs into a weighted decision about whether to accept or reject a potential mate

5. What Women Want in a Long term Mate: Resources
Resources- is he willing and able to invest?
Financial prospects
Status
Age
Ambition
Dependable and stable

6. Protection
Athletic prowess
Height
Strength
Build

7. Health Symmetry: developmental stability Facial features; masculinity
May signal healthier immune system

8. Bad Boy or Baby Face?

9. Love and Commitment Expressions of commitment Fidelity
Resource sharing
Emotional support

10. Willingness to Invest in Children
Men’s desire for sexual variety may lead them to channel resources elsewhere
Men withhold investment when they are less sure of paternity
Women prefer long term partners
who show interest in children
Women can detect men’s interest in
children by looking at their faces

11. Brief Summary- What do Women Want?
Character traits
Signal ability and willingness to invest
Signal ability to protect
Signal long-term cooperation
Health
Symmetry and masculinity may be cues to health
Looks less important than character in long-term mates

12. Similarity Long-term relationships require long term cooperation
Similarity is important in
Values
Political orientation
Worldview
Intelligence
Personality

13. Humor, Incest Avoidance, and Voice
Why do women like men who make them laugh?
Incest avoidance: both men and women
Voice: women prefer deeper voices, but more for short-term mating

14. More successful women place a higher premium on resources
Context Effects on Mating Preferences: What About Women who Have Plenty of Resources Already?
Structural powerlessness hypothesis: Do women prefer resources simply because women lack power
Even in societies where women have power and resources, they still expect it from men
More successful women place a higher premium on resources

15. Menstrual Cycle Effects
Masculine features preferred more at fertile phase
Symmetry preferred more during fertile phase
Women change dress and behavior during fertile phase
Stripper study: strippers earn more tips during fertile phase

16. What About The Woman’s Mate Value?
Women who perceive themselves to be more attractive are more attracted to masculine features for long-term mating
Younger and more attractive women have more criteria for long-term mates

17. Examining Actual Behaviors
In personal advertisements, women respond more to
Older men and taller men
More educated men
Men with higher incomes
Physical attractiveness of wife correlates with husband’s status
Women marry men who are on average about 3 years older
Men compete on the characteristics that women prefer, and deceive women on those characteristics
Exposure to attractive women causes men to value things that women prefer

18. The Problems with Decision Making
The evolution of love (Helen Fisher)
testosterone- lust
dopamine- romance
oxytocin-attachment
Sex and romance feed each other- both suppress critical areas of brain
General arousal can accelerate feelings of romantic attraction
Birth control pills may inhibit evaluation mechanisms early in a relationship