Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Mate Preferences in Social Cognitive Context: When Environmental and Personal Change Leads to Predictable Cross-Cultural Variation

  • Chapter
The Body Beautiful

Abstract

As is common for many men, Shakespeare was idealising a woman. The search for an ideal partner was not only critical for Shakespeare — it is, by evolutionary standards, the central goal for all male and female life forms (Buss, 1985;Darwin, 1859;Vandenberg, 1972). Anthropological and psychological evidence continues to document the features women seek in a male partner (Symons, 1979), but for the purposes of this chapter we primarily focus on the features men seek in a female partner. The ideal feminine form has been characterised by painters and sculptors for as long as paintings and sculptures have existed (e.g., see Zollner & Nathan, 2003) and Shakespeare is, of course, hardly the first writer to try a verbal description.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

∽ Shakespeare, 1564–1616

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Adams, G. R. (1980). Social psychology of beauty: Effects of age, height, and weight on self-reported personality traits and social behavior. Journal of Social Psychology, 112, 287–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, J. L., Crawford, C. B., Nadeau, J., & Lindberg, T. (1992). Was the Duchess of Windsor right? A cross-cultural review of the socioecology of ideals of female body shape. Ethology & Sociobiology, 13, 197–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barber, N. (1998a). Secular changes in standards of bodily attractiveness in American women: Different masculine and feminine ideals. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 132, 87–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barber, N. (1998b). The slender ideal and eating disorders: An interdisciplinary telescope model. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 23, 295–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berscheid, E., & Reis, H. T. (1998). Attraction and close relationships. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology, Vol. 2 (4th ed., pp. 193–281). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Björntorp, P. (1991). Adipose tissue distribution and function. International Journal of Obesity, 1S, 67–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Björntorp, P. (1997). Body fat distribution, insulin resistance and metabolic disease. Nutrition, 13, 795–803.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, P. J., & Konner, M. (1987). An anthropological perspective of obesity. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 499, 29–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buss, D. M. (1985). Human mate selection. American Scientist, 73, 47–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buss, D. M. (1989). Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 12, 1–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buss, D. M. (1994). The evolution of desire: Strategies of human mating. New York, NY: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buss, D. M., & Barnes, M. (1986). Preferences in human mate selection. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 559–570.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buss, D. M., & Kenrick, D. T. (1998). Evolutionary social psychology. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology, Vol. 2 (4th ed., pp. 982–1026). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, M. R. (1986). Measuring the physical in physical attractiveness: Quasi-experiments on the sociobiology of female facial beauty. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 925–935.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, M. R., Roberts, A. R., Barbee, A. P., Druen, P. B., & Wu, C. H. (1995). ‘Their ideas of beauty are on the whole the same as ours.’ Consistency and variability in the cross-cultural perception of female physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 261–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1859). On the origin of the species by means of natural selection, or, preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: Murray.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1871). The descent of man and selection in relation to sex. London: Murray.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeWall, N. C., & Baumeister, R. F. (2006). Alone but feeling no pain: Effects of social exclusion on physical pain tolerance and pain threshold, affective forecasting, and interpersonal empathy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, germs, and stell: The fates of human societies. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doty, R. M., Peterson, B. E., & Winter, D. G. (1991). Threat and authoritarianism in the united states, 1978–1987. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 629–640.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enlow, D. M. (1982). Handbook of facial growth (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PN: Saunders.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feingold, A. (1990). Gender differences in effects of physical attractiveness on romantic attraction: A comparison across five research paradigms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 981–993.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford, C. S., & Beach, F. A. (1951). Patterns of sexual behavior. New York: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frisch, R. E. (1990). Body fat, menarche, fitness, and fertility. In R. E. Frisch (Ed.), Adipose tissue and reproduction (pp. 1–26). Basel: Karger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Furnham, A., & Baguma, P. (1994). Cross-cultural differences in the evaluation of male and female body shapes. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 15, 81–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gangestad, S. W., & Buss, D. M. (1993). Pathogen prevalence and human mate preferences. Ethology and Sociobiology, 14, 89–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guthrie, R. D. (1976). Body hotspots. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hildebrandt, K. A., & Fitzgerald, H. E. (1978). Adult’s responses to infants varying in perceived cuteness. Behavioral Processes, 212, 46–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, D. (1995). Sexual selection, physical attractiveness, and facial neoteny: Cross-cultural evidence and implications. Current Anthropology, 36, 723–748.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, P. R. M., Hunt, M. J., Brown, T. P., & Norgan, N. G. (1986). Waist-hip circumference ratio and its relation to age and overweight in British men. Human Nutrition: Clinical Nutrition, 40, 239–247.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keating, C. F., Mazur, A., & Segall, M. H. (1981). A cross cultural exploration of physiognomic traits of dominance and happiness. Ethnology and Sociobiology, 2, 41–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, H., & Markus, H. R. (1999). Deviance or uniqueness, harmony or conformity? A cultural analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 785–800.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Korthase, K. M., & Trenholme, I. (1982). Perceived age and perceived physical attractiveness. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 54, 1251–1258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kruger, J. (1999). Lake wobegon be gone! The ‘below-average effect’ and the egocentric nature of comparative ability judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 221–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lanska, D. J., Lanska, M. J., Hartz, A. J., & Rimm, A. A. (1985). Factors influencing anatomical location of fat tissue in 52,953 women. International Journal of Obesity, 9, 29–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leung, F., Lam, S., & Sze, S. (2001). Cultural expectations of thinness in Chinese women. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, 9, 339–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz, K. (1943). Die angeborenen formen moglicher arfahrung. Zietschrift Für Tierpsychologie, 5, 233–409.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, W. D., Schwegler, A. F., & Terry-Murray, R. M. (2000). Threat and television viewing in the United States, 1960–1990. Media Psychology, 2, 35–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, W. D., Murray, J. D., Murray, R. M., & Manian, S. (2006). Sexual humor in Hollywood films: Influences of social and economic threat on the desirability of male and female characters. Mass Communication & Society, 9, 239–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mutz, D. (1998). Impersonal influences: How perceptions of mass collectives affect political attitudes. New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, L. D., & Morrison, E. L. (2005). The symptoms of resource scarcity: Judgments of food and finances influence preferences for potential partners. Psychological Science, 16, 167–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, L. D., Sherman, D. K., & Kim, H. S. (2006). Effect of sex and hunger on mate preference, self-esteem, and SUVs. Unpublished Raw Data.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1997). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 13, 279–301.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I., & Norenzayan, A. (2001). Culture and systems of thought: Holistic versus analytic cognition. Psychological Review, 108, 291–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pettijohn, T. F., II. (2003). Relationships between U.S. social and economic hard times and popular motion picture actor gender, actor age, and movie genre preferences. North American Journal of Psychology, 5(1), 61–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettijohn, T. F., II, & Jungeberg, B. J. (2004). Playboy playmate curves: Changes in facial and body feature preferences across social and economic conditions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1186–1197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pettijohn, T. F., II, & Sacco, D. F., Jr. (2005, May). Popular U.S. music preferences across time and social and economic conditions. Poster presented at the 17th Annual American Psychological Society Convention, Los Angeles, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettijohn, T. F., II, & Tesser, A. (1999). Popularity in environmental context: Facial feature assessment of American movie actresses. Media Psychology, 1, 229–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pettijohn, T. F., II, & Tesser, A. (2003). History and facial features: The eyes have it for actresses but not for actors. North American Journal of Psychology, 5, 335–343.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettijohn, T. F., II, & Tesser, A. (2005). Threat and social choice: When eye size matters. Journal of Social Psychology, 145(5), 547–570.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettijohn, T. F., II, & Yerkes, M. J. (2004, May). Miss America facial and body feature changes across social and economic conditions. Poster presented at the 16th Annual American Psychological Society Convention, Chicago, IL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettijohn, T. F., II, & Yerkes, M. J. (2005, May). Miss Hong Kong facial and body feature changes across social and economic conditions and time. Poster presented at the 17th Annual American Psychological Society Convention, Los Angeles, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettijohn, T. F., II, Sacco, D. F., Jr., & Yerkes, M. J. (2005, May). Hungry men prefer more mature women: A field test of the environmental security hypothesis. Poster presented at the 17th Annual American Psychological Society Convention, Los Angeles, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettijohn, T. F., II, Sacco, D. F., Jr., Yerkes, M. J., & Walzer, A. S. (2007). The effect of anticipated uncertainty on physical and personality characteristic preferences. Unpublished manuscript.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, G., Zebrowitz, L. A., Clark, A., Kalick, S. M., Hightower, A., & McKay, R. (2001). Do facial averageness and symmetry signal health? Evolution and Human behavior, 22, 31–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross, L., Greene, D., & House, P. (1977). The false consensus effect: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 279–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sales, S. M. (1972). Economic threat as a determinant of conversion rates in authoritarian and nonauthoritarian churches. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 23, 420–428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sales, S. M. (1973). Threat as a factor in authoritarianism: An analysis of archival data. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28, 44–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, N. (1999). Self reports: How the questions shape the answers. American Psychologist, 54, 93–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (1983). Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being: Information and directive functions of affective states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(3), 513–523.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons, J. P., & Nelson, L. D. (2006). Intuitive confidence: Choosing between intuitive and nonintuitive alternatives. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 135, 409–428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, D. (1993). Adaptive significance of female physical attractiveness: Role of waist-to-hip ratio. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 293–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, D., & Young, R. K. (1995). Body weight, waist-to-hip ratio, breasts, and hips: Role in judgments of female attractiveness and desirability for relationships. Ethology and Sociobiology, 16, 483–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. M. (1982). Recognizable patterns of human malformation. Philadelphia, PN: Saunders.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sobal, J., & Stunkard, A. J. (1989). Socioeconomic status and obesity: A review of the literature. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 260–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swami, V., & Tovée, M. J. (2006). Does hunger influence judgements of female physical attractiveness? British Journal of Psychology, 97, 353–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swami, V., Poulogianni, K., & Furnham, A. (2006). The influence of resource availability on preferences for human body weight and non-human objects. Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis, 4, 17–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swami, V., Caprario, C., Tovée, M. J., & Furnham, A. (2006). Female physical attractiveness in Britain and Japan: A cross-cultural study. European Journal of Personality, 20, 69–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Symons, D. (1979). The evolution of human sexuality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tooby, J., Cosmides, L., & Barrett, H. C. (2005). Resolving the debate on innate ideas: Learnability constraints and the evolved interpenetration of motivational and conceptual functions. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (Eds.), The innate mind: Structure and contents. (pp. 305–337). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tovée, M. J., & Cornelissen, P. L. (1999). The mystery of human beauty. Nature, 399, 215–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tovée, M. J., & Cornelissen, P. L. (2001). Female and male perceptions of female physical attractiveness in front-view and profile. British Journal of Psychology, 92, 391–402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tovée, M. J., Swami, V., Furnham, A., & Mangalparsad, R. (2006). Changing perceptions of attractiveness as observers are exposed to a different culture. Evolution and Human behavior, 27, 443–456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vandenberg, S. G. (1972). Assortative mating, or who marries whom? Behavior Genetics, 2, 127–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zollner, F., & Nathan, J. (2003). Leonardo Da Vinci: The complete paintings and drawings. Los Angeles, CA: Taschen.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stern School of Business, New York University, USA

    Leif D. Nelson (Assistant Professor of Marketing)

  2. Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania, USA

    Terry F. Pettijohn II (Associate Professor of Psychology)

  3. New York University’s Stern School of Business, USA

    Jeff Galak (marketing doctoral candidate)

Authors
  1. Leif D. Nelson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Terry F. Pettijohn II
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jeff Galak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Liverpool, UK

    Viren Swami (Research Associate) (Research Associate)

  2. University College London, UK

    Adrian Furnham (Professor of Psychology) (Professor of Psychology)

Copyright information

© 2007 Leif D. Nelson, Terry F. Pettijohn II, and Jeff Galak

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Nelson, L.D., Pettijohn, T.F., Galak, J. (2007). Mate Preferences in Social Cognitive Context: When Environmental and Personal Change Leads to Predictable Cross-Cultural Variation. In: Swami, V., Furnham, A. (eds) The Body Beautiful. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230596887_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation