Measuring Mate Preferences

Abstract

Mate preferences have a long research history in the social sciences, yet given their evolving nature they must be revisited periodically. We use evolutionary psychology and social role paradigms to frame our study and contribute to this body of work in two important ways. First, we examine preference trends over the past 25 years and find that both men and women increasingly place a higher value on a mate’s financial prospects and desire for home and children. Second, we compare results generated from qualitative mate preference data with two popular methods in mate preference literature in terms of substantive findings and methodological utility.