Buss 1990. International Preferences in Selecting Mates – A Study of 37 Cultures.

1. Buss 1990. International Preferences in Selecting Mates – A Study of 37 Cultures. BACKGROUND: Evolutionary psychologists suggest that men and women use different strategies to select a suitable mate. If this is true, then there should be a universal difference between men and women in how they select mates.

2. Buss 1990. International Preferences in Selecting Mates – A Study of 37 Cultures. AIM: This study was designed to investigate whether there are any universal differences between male and female partner preferences.

3. Buss 1990. International Preferences in Selecting Mates – A Study of 37 Cultures. PROCEDURE: 9474 people from 33 countries on six continents and six islands were sampled to participate in this study. A questionnaire was constructed. It was then translated into the different native languages. The questionnaire contained one section where respondents were asked to rate 18 characteristics, e.g. dependability, chastity, good health, on how important or desirable it would be in choosing a mate. Rating was done on a four-point scale from 0 (unimportant) to 3 (indispensible). In another section respondents were asked to rank 13 characteristics on its desirability in a mate. Rank 1 was to be given to the most desirable, and 13 to the least desirable characteristic. There were items like religious, kind and understanding, good earning capacity, and physically attractive.

4. Buss 1990. International Preferences in Selecting Mates – A Study of 37 Cultures. RESULTS: As the researchers made a statistical analysis of the results they found that there were some cultural differences. African responses revealed more sex difference in responses, and gave more importance to religion, chastity, and less importance to mutual attraction and physical appearance. Asians put a higher value on health, chastity and, domestic skills in potential mates than did the average respondent. However, overall the responses were very similar in different cultures.

5. Buss 1990. International Preferences in Selecting Mates – A Study of 37 Cultures. DISCUSSION: Another finding was that there were sex differences in nearly all countries. Males preferred mates who are physically attractive more than females. Females on the other hand preferred mates who show ambition-industriousness and other signs of earning potential more than males did. As mentioned above the differences between the sexes differed between countries, they were larger in countries that practice polygamy. Buss concluded that there are indeed universal sex-differences in mate selection, and that this gives support for evolutionary theory of human mate selection.

6. Eagly and Wood (1999). The origins of sex differences in human behaviour. Criticism from the socio-cultural level of analysis: Claimed that Buss had made invalid conclusion. They said that instead of evolutionary factors, it could be cultural factors responsible for the differences observed between men and women. All cultures are somewhat male-dominated, hence in all cultures we see the same pattern. Eagly and Wood re-analyzed Buss’ data, taking the level of gender-equality into account, and found that cultures which are more gender-equal have less difference between the sexes in desired characteristics “good housekeeper”, and “good earning capacity”. However, even in these cultures men showed a larger preference for “physical attractiveness” than did women. A real problem remains, from the cognitive level of analysis, in that most often people are not aware consciously of what they actually do find attractive in a partner. Hence, we should be careful with concluding that the differences observed by Buss reflect actual differences in men’s and women’s mate selection strategies.

7. Eagly and Wood (1999). Buss (1990). Criticism from the socio-cultural level of analysis: Do we see support for the first opinion or the other? Which disadvantage does the evolutionary perspective have in this case?