1. Evolution & Sexual Selection

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

3. 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...

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

5. Biology Of Love 01 Understanding human sexual attraction
Peter Lovatt go to 14.58

6. 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

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

8. 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

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Buss used 37 samples from 33 countries

13. 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

14. 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 

15. 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?

16. 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

17. 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.

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

19. 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

20. 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?

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

22. 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?

23. 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

24. 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.

25. 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?

26. 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

27. From ‘dog’
Text
book

28. 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