Young Adults’ Desired Life Tradeoffs: Love First, Sex Last

Abstract

Every human and non-animal must make tradeoffs in investments in terms of time, energy, and resources. The aim of this study was to extrapolate from the types of investments in survival and mating that non-human animals make and translate these into human motivations. 16 potential goals were presented to 851 childless, 18-23-year-old adults from 11 world regions in an online study. Each young adult was asked to weight the importance of every goal to his or her ideal life. Weights had to sum to 100, requiring tradeoffs. Results revealed striking agreement across young adults with only four goals weighted above chance. The two most important goals were having a mutually loving romantic relationship and being healthy followed by earning money or resources, with lots of sexual partners the least important goal. Helping young adults achieve success requires understanding their goals, rather than focusing on popular media’s depictions of what young adults should desire.