Effects of Attractiveness and Social Status on Dat

Authors: Thao Ha Geertjan Overbeek Rutger C M E Engels

Publish Date: 2009/10/15

Volume: 39, Issue: 5, Pages: 1063-1071

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Abstract

The present study examined to what extent adolescent dating desire is based on attractiveness and social status of a potential shortterm partner Further we tested whether selfperceived mate value moderated the relationship between dating desire and attractiveness of a potential partner Data were used from a sample of 1913 adolescents aged 13–18 Participants rated the importance of various characteristics of a potential partner and also participated in an experimental vignette study in which dating desire was measured with either low or high attractive potential partners having either a high or low social status The results showed that boys rated attractiveness as more important than girls while social status was rated as relatively unimportant by both sexes In addition in the experimental vignette study it was found that attractiveness was the primary factor for boys’ dating desire Only when a potential partner was attractive social status became important for boys’ dating desire For girls on the other hand it appeared that both attractiveness and social status of a potential partner were important for their dating desire Finally boys and girls who perceived themselves as having a high mate value showed more dating desire toward an attractive potential partner compared to adolescents who perceived themselves as having a low mate value The present results extend previous research by showing that attractiveness of a potential partner is important to both adolescent boys and girls but social status does not strongly affect dating desire during this particular age periodEvolutionary psychologists propose that men and women have different strategies that underlie shortterm mating1 According to the sexual strategies theory SST Buss Schmitt 1993 men and women have different mate preferences since the levels of parental investment in offspring are higher for women than for men Feingold 1992 Trivers 1972 While women invest nine months in pregnancies and even more years to raise their offspring eg lactation and care men do not have these responsibilities Consequently the benefits of shortterm mating differ for men and women The main benefit of shortterm mating for men is that it maximizes their number of sexual mates and therefore their number of offspring Schmitt et al 2003 Schmitt Shackelford Buss 2001 Benefits of shortterm mating for women are more complex but scholars generally assume that women endeavor to gain access to high quality genes Gangestad Thornhill 1997 and attempt to acquire immediate resources such as food jewelry and fashionable clothes These may be the indicators that in case of pregnancy the mate will be able to provide the resources for a safe upbringing of offspring Buss Schmitt 1993 Greiling Buss 2000SST holds that in order to maximize the number of healthy offspring men are primarily driven by the attractiveness of a potential mate since attractiveness is assumed to be an indicator of “good genes” in terms of good health and high reproductive value Barber 1995 Gangestad Thornhill Yeo 1994 Thornhill Grammer 1999 In the case of shortterm mating attractiveness might also be an important cue for women as it increases the likelihood of healthy offspring if the shortterm mating behavior led to pregnancy or if a shortterm mate became a longterm mate Gangestad Simpson 1990 Since females’ levels of parental investment are high in the case of a pregnancy attracting a mate with a high social status might also be important for shortterm mating In support of the SST studies showed that attractive features of a potential shortterm mate were essential for both men and women Buunk Dijkstra Fetchenhauer Kenrick 2002 Li Kenrick 2006 Sprecher Regan 2002 Wiederman Dubois 1998 and social status is particularly important for women Buss Schmitt 1993 Townsend Wasserman 1998 Wiederman Dubois 1998Although previous studies provided valuable knowledge on shortterm mate preferences most studies reviewed here exclusively relied on questionnaires in which respondents explicitly rated the importance of various characteristics These answers could be biased by social desirability and might not measure actual influences of mate preferences Therefore direct selfreports might primarily tap into general beliefs about shortterm relationships rather than one’s own individual mate preference Feingold 1990 Fletcher Kininmonth 1992 In other words whether the same pattern of results can be found if the importance of attractiveness and social status of a potential mate are manipulated in a experimental design remains to be investigated DeSteno Bartlett Braverman Salovey 2002 Schmitt Couden Baker 2001 To overcome this limitation we applied an experimental vignette study in which we also provided visual stimuli to enhance external validity Townsend Wasserman 1998So far the vast majority of empirical research focusing on SST has been conducted with adults However the first steps on the mating market are made—in most Western societies—during the teenage years Connolly Furman Konarski 2000 Neemann Hubbard Masten 1995 Moreover it is during these years that the human brain undergoes maturational changes that lead to many profound physical changes such as the development of breasts in girls and the growth of facial hair in boys Spear 2000 These biological and physical changes are accompanied by psychological changes such as an increasing interest in relationships with oppositesex peers and sexual fantasies which also stimulate the development of active sexual strategies in adolescents Buss 1995 It is essential to gain more knowledge on the sexual strategies that underlie adolescents’ dating desire since several differences exist in terms of relationship goals and orientations between adolescents and adults that might be linked to differences in sexual strategies and reasons for partner choices Collins 2003 Unlike many adult relationships adolescent’s intimate relationships are characterized by a much shorter duration and a general lack of a “future” orientation Consequently dating goals and desire may be different for adolescents than for adults For adolescents for example dating might primarily be a context in which one experiments with sexual experiences as such Feiring 1996Despite the fact that adolescent relationships differ from adult relationships only a few empirical studies have focused on teenagers’ partner preferences Therefore the present study aims to investigate adolescents’ dating desires based on attractiveness and social status of a potential shortterm partner In the present study attractiveness was defined as the global attractiveness of a potential shortterm partner for a date Previous studies showed that attractiveness of a potential shortterm partner was rated as highly important by both boys and girls Regan Joshi 2003 More specifically others suggested that a partners’ attractiveness might be—as in adults—more significant to boys than girls Dunkel 2005 Feiring 1996 However no support has been found for social status as an important determinant of adolescents’ dating desire Feiring 1996 Regan Joshi 2003 Nevertheless Eyre Read and Millstein 1997 found that compared to girls boys reported using more dating strategies that emphasized spending of money which might serve as an indicator of high social status for girls Thus although it is known that adult women prefer partners with a high social status it is unclear whether it is important for adolescent girls as wellIn addition to sex differences withinsex variations in the use of sexual strategies may also be important despite the fact that such variations have received less attention both theoretically and empirically Buss Schmitt 1993 Gangestad Simpson 2000 According to SST it depends on one’s own mate value whether a preferred sexual strategy can be realized Buss Schmitt 1993 It could be that somebody prefers a partner who is highly attractive and has a high social status but that one’s own mate value is not high enough to attract that particular partner In that case in order to increase mating success one should lower one’s standards and settle for a partner who is lower in attractiveness and/or social status Indeed support was found for this “matching principle” as people tend to select mates who are more alike in terms of attractiveness and social status Berscheid Dion Walster Walster 1971 Byrne Clore Smeaton 1986 Jones et al 2005 Van Straaten Engels Finkenauer Holland 2008 The few empirical studies that examined the role of selfperceived mate value in the context of shortterm mating provided some preliminary evidence that selfperceived mate value was related to the specific types of sexual strategies adults engage in Landolt Lalumière Quinsey 1995 Van Straaten et al 2008 Nonetheless the key difference between adults and adolescents is the widely varying nature of adolescents’ relationship experience In the Netherlands 35 of the adolescents in the age range of 12–18 reported to have none or very little relationship experience Overbeek 2006 Possibly because adolescents do not have much experience with different sexual strategies they are less skilled in estimating which partners they can attract Consequently they may aim for the best partner possible in terms of both attractiveness and social statusThe present study aimed to extend previous research by investigating adolescents’ dating desires based on attractiveness and social status of a potential shortterm partner We investigated this question based on 1 data from survey questions about their partner preferences and 2 data from an experimental vignette study Based on SST premises we first hypothesized that attractiveness of a potential shortterm partner was important for both boys’ and girls’ dating desire Second we hypothesized that girls would show a preference for a shortterm partner with a high social status and that on the contrary social status was not important for boys’ dating desire More specifically we expected that social status would only become important for boys’ partner preference if a potential shortterm partner was attractive and for girls social status would be important irrespective of attractiveness of a potential shortterm partner Importantly we scrutinized these hypotheses controlling for potential confounder effects of variation in relationship experiences and current relationship status Finally we tested the potential moderator effects of selfperceived mate value on adolescents’ desire to date with an attractive person We hypothesized that boys’ and girls’ preference for attractive and high social status persons would be independent of their own perceived mate value

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