ArticlePloS one2016
How Are Mate Preferences Linked with Actual Mate Selection? Tests of Mate Preference Integration Algorithms Using Computer Simulations and Actual Mating Couples.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychological Value Theory: Predicting Initial Romantic Partner Choice From a General-Purpose, Computational Cognitive Model of Value-Based Choice.Cognitive science · 2026Article
- Assortative Mating Is a Natural Consequence of Heritable Variation in Preferences and Preferred Traits.Psychological science · 2025Article
- Ethics trumps resources in women's and men's evaluations of potential mates and competitors.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Research on the Mate Selection Preferences of the Contemporary Chinese Youth.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- *Deconfounding Sex and Sex of Partner in Mate-Preference Research.Psychological science · 2025Article
- Stability and Change of Individual Differences in Ideal Partner Preferences Over 13 Years.Personality & social psychology bulletin · 2024Article
- Consistency of Eye Coloration Across Different Relationship Partners.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Article
- Hearing, touching, and multisensory integration during mate choice.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2022Review
- Why do we pick similar mates, or do we?Biology letters · 2021Review
- Proximate and Ultimate Perspectives on Romantic Love.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Review
- Contrasting Computational Models of Mate Preference Integration Across 45 Countries.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Mate value discrepancies, the Dark Triad and relationship satisfaction: A Euclidean distances approach.Evolutionary psychological science · 2018Article
- Men With a Terminal Illness Relax Their Criteria for Facial Attractiveness.American journal of men's health · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Prior mate preference research has focused on the content of mate preferences. Yet in real life, people must select mates among potentials who vary along myriad dimensions. How do people incorporate information on many different mate preferences in order to choose which partner to pursue? Here, in Study 1, we compare seven candidate algorithms for integrating multiple mate preferences in a competitive agent-based model of human mate choice evolution. This model shows that a Euclidean algorithm is the most evolvable solution to the problem of selecting fitness-beneficial mates. Next, across three studies of actual couples (Study 2: n = 214; Study 3: n = 259; Study 4: n = 294) we apply the Euclidean algorithm toward predicting mate preference fulfillment overall and preference fulfillment as a function of mate value. Consistent with the hypothesis that mate preferences are integrated according to a Euclidean algorithm, we find that actual mates lie close in multidimensional preference space to the preferences of their partners. Moreover, this Euclidean preference fulfillment is greater for people who are higher in mate value, highlighting theoretically-predictable individual differences in who gets what they want. These new Euclidean tools have important implications for understanding real-world dynamics of mate selection.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.