Skip to main content
Log in

The Importance of Physical Attractiveness to the Mate Choices of Women and Their Mothers

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Evolutionary Psychological Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Prior research investigating the mate preferences of women and their parents reveals two important findings with regard to physical attractiveness. First, daughters more strongly value mate characteristics connoting genetic quality (such as physical attractiveness) than their parents. Second, both daughters and their parents report valuing characteristics other than physical attractiveness most strongly (e.g., ambition/industriousness, friendliness/kindness). However, the prior research relies solely on self-report to assess daughters’ and parents’ preferences. We assessed mate preferences among 61 daughter-mother pairs using an experimental design varying target men’s physical attractiveness and trait profiles. We tested four hypotheses investigating whether a minimum level of physical attractiveness was a necessity to both women and their mothers and whether physical attractiveness was a more important determinant of dating desirability than trait profiles. These hypotheses were supported. Women and their mothers were strongly influenced by the physical attractiveness of the target men and preferred the attractive and moderately attractive targets. Men with the most desirable personality profiles were rated more favorably than their counterparts only when they were at least moderately attractive. Unattractive men were never rated as more desirable partners for daughters, even when they possessed the most desirable trait profiles. We conclude that a minimum level of physical attractiveness is a necessity for both women and their mothers and that when women and their parents state that other traits are more important than physical attractiveness, they assume potential mates meet a minimally acceptable standard of physical attractiveness.

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

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Apostolou, M. (2008). Parent-offspring conflict over mating: the case of beauty. Evolutionary Psychology, 6(2), 303–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Apostolou, M. (2011). Parent-offspring conflict over mating: testing the tradeoffs hypothesis. Evolutionary Psychology, 9, 470–495.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Apostolou, M. (2015). Parent–offspring conflict over mating: domains of agreement and disagreement. Evolutionary Psychology, 13(3), 1–12. doi:10.1177/1474704915604561.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Apostolou, M. (2017). The nature of parent-offspring conflict over mating: from differences in genetic relatedness to disagreement over mate choice. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 3(1), 62–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buunk, A. P., & Solano, A. C. (2010). Conflicting preferences of parents and offspring over criteria for a mate: a study in Argentina. Journal of Family Psychology, 24(4), 391–399. doi:10.1037/a0020252.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, W. K. (1999). Narcissism and romantic attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1254–1270. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cousins, A. J. (2003). Male mate guarding, female solicitation, and resistance to male mate guarding in dating couples: scale development and preliminary validation. Dissertation Abstracts International, 64(3-B), 1477.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dion, K., Berscheid, E., & Walster, E. (1972). What is beautiful is good. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24(3), 285–290. doi:10.1037/h0033731.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dubbs, S. L., & Buunk, A. P. (2010). Sex differences in parental preferences over a child’s mate choice: a daughter’s perspective. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27(8), 1051–1059. doi:10.1177/0265407510378666.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dubbs, S. L., Buunk, A. P., & Taniguchi, H. (2013). Parent-offspring conflict in Japan and parental influence across six cultures. Japanese Psychological Research, 55(3), 241–253. doi:10.1111/jpr.12003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eastwick, P. W., & Finkel, E. J. (2008). Sex differences in mate preferences revisited: do people know what they initially desire in a romantic partner? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(2), 245–264. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.94.2.245.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eastwick, P. W., Eagly, A. H., Finkel, E. J., & Johnson, S. E. (2011). Implicit and explicit preferences for physical attractiveness in a romantic partner: a double dissociation in predictive validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(5), 993–1011. doi:10.1037/a0024061.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fugère, M. A., Doucette, K., Chabot, C., & Cousins, A. J. (2017). Similarities and differences in mate preferences among parents and their adult children. Personality and Individual Differences, 111, 80–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gangestad, S. W., & Buss, D. M. (1993). Pathogen prevalence and human mate preferences. Ethology and Sociobiology, 14(2), 89–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gangestad, S. W., & Simpson, J. A. (2000). The evolution of human mating: trade-offs and strategic pluralism. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23(4), 573–644. doi:10.1017/S0140525X0000337X.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gebauer, J. E., Leary, M. R., & Neberich, W. (2012). Big two personality and big three mate preferences: similarity attracts, but country-level mate preferences crucially matter. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(12), 1579–1593. doi:10.1177/0146167212456300.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, A. M., & Langlois, J. H. (2006). Stereotype directionality and attractiveness stereotyping: is beauty good or is ugly bad? Social Cognition, 24(2), 187–206. doi:10.1521/soco.2006.24.2.187.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kurzban, R., & Weeden, J. (2005). HurryDate: mate preferences in action. Evolution and Human Behavior, 26(3), 227–244. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2004.08.012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levesque, M., Nave, C., & Lowe, C. (2006). Toward an understanding of gender differences in inferring sexual interest. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30(2), 150–158. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2006.00278.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, N. P., Bailey, J. M., Kenrick, D. T., & Linsenmeier, J. W. (2002). The necessities and luxuries of mate preferences: testing the tradeoffs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 947–955. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.82.6.947.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Li, N. P., Valentine, K. A., & Patel, L. (2011). Mate preferences in the US and Singapore: a cross-cultural test of the mate preference priority model. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 291–294. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.10.005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, N. P., Yong, J. C., Tov, W., Sng, O., Fletcher, G. J. O., Valentine, K. A., Jiang, Y. F., & Balliet, D. (2013). Mate preferences do predict attraction and choices in the early stages of mate selection. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105, 757–776. doi:10.1037/a0033777.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perilloux, H. K., Webster, G. D., & Gaulin, S. C. (2010). Signals of genetic quality and maternal investment capacity: the dynamic effects of fluctuating asymmetry and waist-to-hip ratio on men’s ratings of women’s attractiveness. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(1), 34–42. doi:10.1177/1948550609349514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perilloux, C., Fleischman, D. S., & Buss, D. M. (2011). Meet the parents: parent-offspring convergence and divergence in mate preferences. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 253–258. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.09.039.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaffer, D. R., Crepaz, N., & Sun, C. (2000). Physical attractiveness stereotyping in cross-cultural perspective: similarities and differences between Americans and Taiwanese. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 31(5), 557–582. doi:10.1177/0022022100031005002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soler, C., Núñez, M., Gutiérrez, R., Núñez, J., Medina, P., Sancho, M., et al. (2003). Facial attractiveness in men provides clues to semen quality. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24(3), 199–207. doi:10.1016/S1090-5138(03)00013-8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sprecher, S. (1989). The importance to males and females of physical attractiveness, earning potential, and expressiveness in initial attraction. Sex Roles, 21(9–10), 591–607. doi:10.1007/BF00289173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weeden, J., & Sabini, J. (2005). Physical attractiveness and health in western societies: a review. Psychological Bulletin, 131(5), 635–653. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.5.635.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zebrowitz, L. A., Wang, R., Bronstad, P., Eisenberg, D., Undurraga, E., Reyes-García, V., & Godoy, R. (2012). First impressions from faces among U.S. and culturally isolated Tsimane’ people in the Bolivian rainforest. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 43(1), 119–134. doi:10.1177/0022022111411386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the Connecticut State University American Association of University Professors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Madeleine A. Fugère.

Ethics declarations

This experiment was approved by the Committee on Using Human Subjects in Research. Informed consent was obtained from both women and their parents prior to their participation (consent from parents was obtained for daughters under 18 as well).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fugère, M.A., Chabot, C., Doucette, K. et al. The Importance of Physical Attractiveness to the Mate Choices of Women and Their Mothers. Evolutionary Psychological Science 3, 243–252 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-017-0092-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-017-0092-x

Keywords

Navigation