Evolution & Sexual Selection

What demonstrates fertility? Certain body features Waist-hip ratio For women, hourglass For men “V” shape Tall men preferred

Singh(1993) Men prefer women with waist to hip ratio of 0.7. Slimmest part of your waist Widest part of your hips What is a possible criticism...

What do we find attractive? 2:00 Really interesting website to explore Researching body shape

Biology Of Love 01 Understanding human sexual attraction Peter Lovatt go to 14.58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kCZZp3u_xE

Are there cultural differences? If sexual selection is important in effecting human reproductive behaviour, we should expect that the same physical characteristics are attractive to all people as they signal fertility. So we would expect sex differences in reproductive behaviour to be consistent across different cultures. Evidence for this comes from

‘’’”’Sex differences in human mate preferences’ Buss (1989) ‘’’”’Sex differences in human mate preferences’

I know, I’ll do a questionnaire THIS IS BUSS… I know, I’ll do a questionnaire How can I find out about male and female mate preferences …HE’S INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT WHAT MEN AND WOMEN DESIRE IN A MATE

Fill in your age, gender and marital status 17, Female, single 32, Female, Married 41, Male, single 25, Male, single

Buss also asked participants … PPts answered using a 4 point rating scale ranging from indispensable to irrelevant How important 18 characteristics were to them, including… Good job Good looks Chastity Ambition Which characteristics were most desirable including… Good earning capacity Physical attractiveness At what age they wanted to marry How big they like the age gap to be between themselves and their partner How many children they want

Let’s see if we get different results in other cultures I’m off to ask my questions in Europe, America, Africa, Iran, New Zealand, Let’s see if we get different results in other cultures I’ll go to some other countries too just to be sure

Buss used 37 samples from 33 countries

MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF PEOPLE WERE USED… 10,000 ppts! …AND THEY WERE SELECTED USING DIFFERENT SAMPLING TECHNIQUES So a strength of this research is that it has a representative sample that is generalizable

In all 37 samples both males and females preferred the male to be older In 36/37 samples women rated good financial prospects higher than men did In all 37 samples men rated ‘good looks’ in their mate more than women did Kindness and intelligence were also highly valued amongst all ppts 

There were some differences between cultures Good financial prospects was rated low in the Netherlands and Great Britain In 34 samples women rated ambition as more important than men did But was rated highly in Indonesia and Nigeria There were some differences between cultures How would you explain these findings?

In Scandinavian countries chastity was seen as irrelevant Good looks were particularly important for men in Bulgaria and Nigeria But China, India and Indonesia chastity was seen as important

How would you evaluate Buss’ research. G R A V E E. Is the study valid How would you evaluate Buss’ research? G R A V E E? Is the study valid? Maybe it shows us what people prefer rather than what they actually choose. What about arranged marriages where there is little personal choice? – maybe questionnaires like Buss’ help us understand what people would choose if they could choose.

What Mating Strategies I found out this information using books from the library What Mating Strategies Do We Use? Long term v short term

I found out this information using the a book from the library Is there further evidence to support Buss’ findings? Well…here is some more research to show differences in inter-sexual selection Buss and Schmitt (1993) PPts were asked how many sexual partners would you like to have in the next 2 years? Men = 8 Females = 1 PPts were then asked how many sexual partners would you like to have in a life time? Men = 18 Females = 4-5

Clarke and Hatfield (1989) Men and women approached strangers on a college campus and said……………. “Hi, I've been noticing you around the campus and I find you very attractive” Next they asked 1 of 3 questions: Would you go on a date with me? Would you come back to my apartment with me? Would you have sex with me?

Females: 50% agreed to go on a date 6% agreed to go back to the apartment 0% agreed to have sex

Males: 50% agreed to go on a date 69% agreed to go back to the apartment 75% agreed to have sex What does this tell us about male and female mating strategies?

Male strategies to maximise mating success include: I found out this information using the White Mask book Male strategies to maximise mating success include: Courtship Rituals – showing off Body Size –showing off Mate Guarding – stopping female looking elsewhere Sneak Copulation Female strategies to maximise mating success include: Sexy Son hypothesis – being picky Courtship Rituals – taking time to select Sneak Copulation at certain times of the menstrual cycle

I found out this information using the ‘ dog’ book Look at a variety of 6.2 text books Dog book – good evaluation section Bernstein (2015) makes the point that gender differences in mate preference patterns may be down to culture rather than evolution. Buller 2005 – suggests the evidence is wrong about females wanting high status males. It is suggested that this is due to a sampling bias and that women do not necessarily choose high status males in all cultures.

I found out this information using the White Mask book Can you find any evidence that males and females experience different types of jealousy? Buss (1992) suggested men were more jealous of sexual infidelity whereas as women were more jealous of emotional infidelity. Does this fit with evolutionary theory? How could you test this theory? Who has tested this theory and what were the results?

Discuss the relationship between sexual selection and human reproductive behaviour (16) From june 2012 See next slide for some top tips First lesson next week

From ‘dog’ Text book

Evaluation Ideas You can include any issue or debate that you feel is relevant. Freewill vs Determinism – a possible choice Nature vs Nurture - a possible choice Holism vs Reductionism Idiographic vs Nomothetic Issues include: Gender- a possible choice Culture - a possible choice Ethical implications of the research