Women care more about age, intelligence, income, trust and emotional connection. Men mostly care about how attractive and fit women are, a new study found.
A study reports that women are more attracted to factors like age, education, intelligence, income, trust, and emotional connection. In contrast, men seem to value different factors. Attractiveness and physical build were the two key factors driving men’s sexual attraction towards women.
The new study, published today in the journal PLoS One, was led by Dr Stephen Whyte, from Queensland University of Technology.
“Sexual attraction is a key driver of human mate choice and reproduction. Our results indicate distinct variations within sex at key life stages which is consistent with theories of selection pressure,” Dr Whyte said in a press release.
The study also analysed how sexual preferences changed over time, finding that as men and women age, they place more importance on similar factors like openness and trust.
“It is as men and women age their preferences come closer together, with both sexes placing greater importance on openness and trust while the relative importance of emotional connection is as important for males and females across all age groups,” Dr Whyte explained.
About the study
The study explored sexual preferences in male and females using data collected from more than 7,000 Australian men and women aged between 18 and 65 years, who participated in the 2016 Australian Sex Survey.
The traits included in each question covered nine key characteristics associated with sexual attraction: age, attractiveness, physical build, intelligence, education, income, trust, openness, and emotional connection.
For each of these questions, respondents gave their opinion on how important was the trait in relation to sexual attractiveness, in a scale from 0 to 100.
Overall, the findings improve our understanding on the differences in mating preferences between men and women.
“Sexual attraction is a key driver of human mate choice and reproduction. Our results indicate distinct variations within sex at key life stages which is consistent with theories of selection pressure,” Dr Whyte said.
“Micro level decision making on sex, reproduction and relationship formation influences a wide variety of macro trends and social norms, including gender roles and equity, labour market dynamics, fertility rates, wider sexual liberalism, politics, religion and the broader institution of marriage,” Dr Whyte added.