themselves as physically attractive and say they are looking for someone who
is older and can provide financial security. Fortunately, these requests fitrather well with what the men say. Men typically are looking for someone who
is younger and physically attractive. They also are likely to describe them-
selves as someone who can provide financial security.
In addition to their practical uses for someone seeking romance, do these
results tell us something about the nature of personality? According to advo-
cates of evolutionary personality theory, the answer is “Yes.”These psychol-
ogists think of romantic relationships in terms of male and female members
of a species getting together to (eventually) reproduce. Consequently, choos-
ing a partner is based in part on concerns for parental investment (Geary,
2000; Trivers, 1972). That is, as members of a species, we are concerned about
reproducing and passing our genes along to the next generation. Because ofthis concern, we select mates who are likely to be a part of successful repro-duction and effective child raising. This analysis does not suppose that we
actively consider reproduction success when we select among potential dating
partners but that certain mate-selection preferences have been passed down tous through the evolutionary process.
According to the evolutionary analysis, men and women have different
ideas about parental investment. Because they bear and in most cases raisethe offspring, females are more selective about whom they choose to mate
and reproduce with. In contrast, in many species males are free to attempt to
reproduce with as many females as they can. Frequent mating with many dif-
ferent females increases the probability that one will pass along the male’ s
genes to the next generation. In evolutionary terms, the investment in select-
ing a mate is larger for women than for men. She has more to lose by making
a poor choice than he does. Because they have different ideas about parental
investment, evolutionary personality theory predicts that men and women
look for very different characteristics in their partners.
What do men look for in a woman? What do women want in a man?
Complete answers to these commonly asked questions have eluded the mostinsightful of us. Although they cannot explain everything, evolutionary per-sonality psychologists argue that men and women select their mates based in
part on what serves the needs of the species. As described in the next section,
research supports many of these speculations.
What Men Look for in Women
From an evolutionary perspective, men can best serve the needs of the species
by reproducing as frequently as possible (D. M. Buss, 1991). Consequently,
men should be attracted to women with “high reproductive value. ”In other
words, a man should select a woman who is likely to give him many children.
But what outward signs do we have of a woman ’s likely fertility? One indi-
cator is the woman ’s age. A young wife has the potential to produce more
offspring than an older wife. Thus some evolutionary personality psycholo-
gists predict that men prefer younger women to older women. Moreover,
physical features associated with young adult women, such as “smooth skin,
good muscle tone, lustrous hair, and full lips, ”provide “cues to femaleEvolutionary Personality Theory and Mate Selection 265