ArticleEvolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior
Self-Perceived Mate Value, Facial Attractiveness, and Mate Preferences: Do Desirable Men Want It All?
Article in Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Research on the Mate Selection Preferences of the Contemporary Chinese Youth.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Choosiness as a Predictor of Sexual (In)frequency in Single Heterosexual Adults.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Observed Aspects of Mate Value and Sociosexuality Account for Mate Preferences: Data from a Large, Representative Study from Czechia.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Polygamous Interest in a Mononormative Nation: The Roles of Sex and Sociosexuality in Polygamous Interest in a Heterosexual Sample from the UK.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Predictors and memory consequences of dating decisions in a dating app-analogue study.Evolutionary human sciences · 2024Article
- The influence of resource-gaining capacity on mate preferences: an eye tracking study.BMC psychology · 2023Article
- Individual Differences in How Desirable People Think They Are as a Mate.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Review
- Female intrasexual competitiveness interacts with body mass index to predict willingness to use a risky diet pill.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Self-perceived Mate Value is Predicted by Biological and self-reported Indices of Health in Young Adults.Adaptive human behavior and physiology · 2023Article
- Preference for ugly faces? -A cognitive study of attentional and memorial biases toward facial information among young females with facial dissatisfaction.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- In humans, only attractive females fulfil their sexually imprinted preferences for eye colour.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Women's Romantic Jealousy Predicts Risky Appearance Enhancement Effort.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behaviorArticle
- Self-rated Attractiveness and Sociosexual Behavior Predict Gay Men's Preferences for Masculine Cues in Male Voices in China.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behaviorArticle
- Self-Perceived Mate Value Is Poorly Predicted by Demographic Variables.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behaviorArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Ten years ago, Buss and Shackelford demonstrated that high mate value (i.e., physically attractive) women held more discerning mate preferences relative to lower mate value women. Since then, researchers have begun to consider the equally important role of men's sexual selectivity in human mate choice. Yet, little research has focused on whether high mate value men are similarly choosy in their mate preferences. In a sample of 139 undergraduate men, relationships between self-perceived mate value as well as female-rated facial attractiveness were examined in relation to men's expressed mate preferences. Results showed that self-perceived mate value was unrelated to men's facial attractiveness as rated by women. Men who believed they were of high mate value were more likely than lower mate value men to prefer to marry at a younger age; to have a spouse who was younger than them; and to have a partner who was sociable, ambitious, high in social status, with good financial prospects, a desire for children, health, good looks, and mutual attraction. Objective male facial attractiveness was generally unrelated to heightened mate preferences, with the exception of heightened preference for similar religious background and good physical health. Findings suggest that men who perceive themselves as high in overall mate value are selective in their mate choice in a manner similar to high mate value women.
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Registered trials
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.