From: ct (tilley314@attbi.com)
Date: Thu May 30 2002 - 06:16:30 MDT
At 03:57 AM 5/30/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>On Wednesday, May 29, 2002, at 02:02 pm, James Rogers wrote:
>>I have a theory...
>>there is an equilibrium between the man's...
>>and the woman's ...
>... It is insulting to the intellectuals in this forum to trot out little
>pet theories without any evidence or data. it is insulting to all readers
>of this forum to stir up a divisive topic that had just barely died down.
>Harvey Newstrom
=================================================================
Kindness, Intelligence Important in Mate Selection
Wed May 29, 5:35 PM ET
By Charnicia E. Huggins
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The idea that men are interested in a woman's
beauty while women are interested in the size of a man's wallet is overly
simplistic, according to new study findings.
The truth is, though attractiveness and income may indeed be factors of
interest, qualities such as kindness and creativity are also very
important, researchers report.
Norman P. Li, a PhD candidate at Arizona State University, and his
colleagues studied two groups of undergraduate men and women who were given
a budget of "mate" dollars and told to spend the appropriate amount on the
qualities most important to them.
When under budget constraints, women placed the most importance--meaning
they spent the highest proportion of their mate dollars--on intelligence or
kindness and yearly income/social level, whereas men placed the most
importance on physical attractiveness and intelligence, the investigators
report in the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology (news - web sites).
"Everyone really wants a well-rounded mate, but physical attractiveness
matters first and social status matters first to men and women,
respectively," Li explained.
Yet, when given additional income to spend on luxuries, men and women did
not allocate more dollars towards physical attractiveness and social
status, respectively, but rather added qualities such as creativity and
special nonwork talents.
"At a low budget you really can't have it all," Li said, so "you tend to
spend money on necessities; when you start getting more money, you spend
towards luxuries."
Lastly, the investigators conducted a third study in which they asked 58
undergraduates to participate in a computer activity to choose the
qualities most essential to them in a mate.
Similar to the previous two study findings, women chose social level first,
with kindness as a close second. For men, physical attractiveness and
kindness topped the list.
Overall, for both men and women, a person's physical attractiveness, social
level and kindness were key to their being accepted or rejected as a
potential mate. Men also considered a woman's liveliness as a crucial
factor, the report indicates.
"If you want to find a mate, you don't have to be the most physically
attractive or the richest," Li said.
SOURCE: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2002;82:947-955.
===================================================================
Public Release: 29-May-2002 ET
Ethology
What big-city women really want: Men with money
Women in high cost-of-living cities and birds in crowded habitats want the
same things, according to a Cornell biologist's reading of lonely-hearts
ads. In densely populated places, material comforts seem more important. In
smaller cities, women emphasize emotional aspects or personal interests of
potential mates.
Contact: Roger Segelken
hrs2@cornell.edu
607-255-9736
Cornell University News Service
Cornell biologist Kevin McGraw at the site of his personal-ad study, the
reading room of the university's Olin Library. Nicola Kountoupes/Cornell
University PhotographyCopyright © Cornell University A high-resolution copy
of this photo (315 x 315 pixels, 139K) is available here.
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Kevin J. McGraw, a biologist at Cornell University, knew
what female birds and other animals in crowded, resource-scarce
environments look for in their mates: males with potential to materially
care for females and their offspring. But what about the human animal? What
do women really want, McGraw wondered, as he read thousands of
lonely-hearts personal ads in newspapers from 23 American cities. After two
months of research, the graduate student in Cornell's Department of
Neurobiology and Behavior concludes, "In densely populated and
resource-demanding environments, birds and women may not be all that
different."
Where resources are at a premium -- expensive, big cities from San
Francisco to Boston -- so are the men who can provide them, says McGraw. In
such densely populated places, personal ads indicate that male-provided
material comforts seem more important to women than do emotional or
intellectual aspects of a relationship. But in medium- and smaller-sized
cities, the biologist's reading of newspaper personal ads found the
opposite: Women place more emphasis on emotional aspects or personal
interests of potential mates, and less on materialism.
McGraw comments: "This study emphasizes the flexibility of mating
strategies, depending on the environments individuals find themselves in.
The rich guys don't always win. And the nice guys don't always finish last
-- although they might have to move to be found by the right mate."
The personal-ad reader, whose more traditional scientific studies -- the
effects of diet, genetics and physiology on birds' plumage color, for
example -- have taken him to natural habitats around the world, published
his findings, "Environmental Predictors of Geographic Variation in Human
Mating Preferences," in Ethology (Vol. 108, pp. 303-317), a European
journal of behavioral studies.
Physical attractiveness -- the male attribute that seems to motivate women
in the popular television series, "Sex and the City" -- does not vary with
geographic location or city size, McGraw discovered. Women across the
country, who in their personal ads stated preferences for attractive men,
were the same ones who also boasted of physical appeal, such as
"attractive, blue-eyed blonde."
New York City, the setting for "Sex and the City," was not included in the
study because the city's daily newspapers publish too few lonely hearts ads
to offer a representative sample. The largest city in the sample was Los
Angeles and the smallest was Montgomery, Ala.
Among large cities where female ad-writers rate men who are good providers
over men who are good listeners, San Francisco ranked first -- followed by
Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Miami, in that order. However, money is
much less important to women in St. Louis and Kansas City, with The Big
Easy (New Orleans) and Montgomery, Ala., tying for honors as places where
women care about things other than income.
Comparing human mate-choice strategies to those of other animals, McGraw
says women seeking resource-rich men use phrases like "financially stable"
and "professional and intelligent." And those attributes "are important to
animals, too, when natural resources are in short supply and the cost of
living is high," he adds, nothing that the same species of animals in less
crowded environments might have the luxury of looking for other attributes
in potential mates.
However, the emotional aspects of interest to women -- such as honesty,
compassion and sincerity -- are harder to judge in non-human animals, the
biologist says, "although we might look for a male's attentiveness to his
mate as a sign of commitment." Regarding shared personal interests, he
says, "It's hard for us to put a finger on the hobbies of wild animals, but
if you wanted to impress a bird, you might escort her to a foraging site or
sing a song with her."
Asked to write a personal ad that would accurately portray himself, McGraw
says the advertisement certainly wouldn't emphasize money -- "not on a
graduate student's income!"
Besides, a mate already has found McGraw, and he doesn't have time to read
newspaper ads these days. He and his wife are expecting their first child
in August.
-30-
Syntax and the City: Lonely-hearts ad language reveals where money matters
and sincerity slides Desired traits in women-seeking-men personal
advertisements in 23 American newspapers, expressed as percentages of all
words in ads . Boldface percentages are highest in each category;
underlined are the lowest Source: "Environmental Predictors of Geographic
Variation in Human Mating Preferences" (Ethology, Vol. 108, pp. 303-331) by
Kevin J. McGraw, Cornell University Department of Neurobiology and Behavior.
Physical Resources Emotional
Hobbies
Atlanta, GA 32% 19% 31% 17%
Boston, MA 30233513
Buffalo, NY 3716389
Charlotte, NC 29173420
Chicago, IL 33223214
Cleveland, OH 35203015
Denver, CO 31163122
Detroit, MI 35183018
Hartford, CT 31173616
Houston, TX 25163424
Kansas City, MO 3133720
Los Angeles, CA 3324367
Miami, FL 28213319
Montgomery, AL 21123829
New Orleans, LA 35123222
Orlando, FL 32163517
Philadelphia, PA 33183118
Pittsburgh, PA 30183518
Salt Lake City, UT 23183326
San Francisco, CA 34282711
Seattle, WA 28172925
St. Louis, MO 29143522
Washington, DC 42182713
====================================
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/May02/Lonely_hearts.hrs.html
[for the above, ' cause ah rather slaughtered the data presentation]
As you can see, evidence and/or data and/or pet theories can be equally
valid and/or invalid.
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