Psychological Science

, volume 31 , issue 4 , pages 408-423

Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Across 45 Countries: A Large-Scale Replication

Kathryn V. Walter ¹

Daniel Conroy-Beam ¹

David M. Buss ²

Kelly Asao ²

Agnieszka Sorokowska ^{3, 4}

Piotr Sorokowski ⁵

Toivo Aavik ⁶

Grace Akello ⁷

Mohammad Madallh Alhabahba ⁸

Charlotte Alm ⁹

Naumana Amjad ¹⁰

Afifa Anjum ¹⁰

Chiemezie S. Atama ¹¹

Derya Atamtürk Duyar ¹²

Richard Ayebare ¹³

Carlota Batres ¹⁴

Mons Bendixen ¹⁵

Aicha Bensafia ¹⁶

Boris Bizumic ¹⁷

Mahmoud Boussena ¹⁸

Marina Butovskaya ^{19, 20}

Seda Can ²¹

Katarzyna Cantarero ²²

Antonin Carrier ²³

Hakan Cetinkaya ²⁴

Ilona Croy ²⁵

Rosa María Cueto ²⁶

Marcin Czub ³

Daria Dronova ¹⁹

Seda Dural ²¹

Izzet Duyar ¹²

Berna Ertugrul ²⁷

Agustín Espinosa ²⁶

Ignacio Estevan ²⁸

Carla Sofia Esteves ²⁹

Luxi Fang ³⁰

Tomasz Frackowiak ³

Jorge Contreras Garduño ³¹

Karina Ugalde González ³²

Farida Guemaz ³³

Petra Gyuris ³⁴

Mária Halamová ³⁵

Iskra Herak ³⁶

Marina Horvat ³⁷

Ivana Hromatko ³⁸

Chin-Ming Hui ³⁰

Jas Laile Jaafar ³⁹

Feng Jiang ⁴⁰

Konstantinos Kafetsios ⁴¹

Tina Kavčič ⁴²

Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair ¹⁵

Nicolas Kervyn ³⁶

Truong Thi Khanh Ha ⁴³

Imran Ahmed Khilji ⁴⁴

Nils C. Köbis ⁴⁵

Hoang Moc Lan ⁴³

András Láng ³⁴

Georgina R. Lennard ¹⁷

Ernesto León ²⁶

Torun Lindholm ⁹

Trinh Thi Linh ⁴³

Giulia Lopez ⁴⁶

Nguyen Van Luot ⁴³

Alvaro Mailhos ²⁸

Zoi Manesi ⁴⁷

Rocio Martinez ⁴⁸

Sarah L. McKerchar ¹⁷

Norbert Meskó ³⁴

Girishwar Misra ⁴⁹

Conal Monaghan ¹⁷

Emanuel C. Mora ⁵⁰

Alba Moya-Garófano ⁴⁸

Bojan Musil ⁵¹

Jean Carlos Natividade ⁵²

Agnieszka Niemczyk ³

George Nizharadze ⁵³

Elisabeth Oberzaucher ⁵⁴

Anna Oleszkiewicz ^{3, 4}

Mohd Sofian Omar-Fauzee ⁵⁵

Ike E. Onyishi ⁵⁶

Baris Özener ¹²

Ariela Francesca Pagani ⁴⁶

Vilmante Pakalniskiene ⁵⁷

Miriam Parise ⁴⁶

Farid Pazhoohi ⁵⁸

Annette Pisanski ⁵⁰

Katarzyna Pisanski ^{3, 59}

Edna Ponciano ⁶⁰

Camelia Popa ⁶¹

Pavol Prokop ^{62, 63}

Muhammad Rizwan ⁶⁴

Mario Sainz ⁶⁵

Svjetlana Salkičević ⁶⁶

Ruta Sargautyte ⁵⁷

Ivan Sarmány-Schuller ⁶⁷

Susanne Schmehl ⁵⁴

Shivantika Sharad ⁶⁸

Razi Sultan Siddiqui ⁶⁹

Franco Simonetti ⁷⁰

Stanislava Yordanova Stoyanova ⁷¹

Meri Tadinac ⁶⁶

Marco Antonio Correa Varella ⁷²

Christin-Melanie Vauclair ²⁹

Luis Diego Vega ³²

Dwi Ajeng Widarini ⁷³

Gyesook Yoo ⁷⁴

Marta Zatková ³⁵

Maja Zupančič ⁷⁵

Hide authors affiliations Show authors affiliations: 75 affiliations

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara |

Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin |

Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw |

⁴

Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Smell & Taste Clinic, Technische Universität Dresden |

⁵

Institute of Psychology, University of Opole |

⁶

Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu |

⁷

Department of Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Gulu University |

⁸

English Language Department, Middle East University |

⁹

Department of Psychology, Stockholm University |

¹⁰

Institute of Applied Psychology, University of the Punjab |

¹¹

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Nigeria |

¹²

Department of Anthropology, Istanbul University |

¹³

North Star Alliance, Kampala, Uganda |

¹⁴

Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College |

¹⁵

Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology |

¹⁶

Laboratory Education-Formation-Travail (EFORT), Department of Sociology, University of Algiers |

¹⁷

Research School of Psychology, Australian National University |

¹⁸

Laboratory EFORT, Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Algiers |

¹⁹

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences |

²⁰

Center for Social Anthropology, Russian State University for the Humanities |

²¹

Department of Psychology, Izmir University of Economics |

²²

Social Behavior Research Center, Faculty in Wroclaw, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities |

²³

Psychology Faculty (Center for the Study of Social Behavior), Université Catholique de Louvain |

²⁴

Department of Psychology, Ankara University |

²⁵

Department of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden |

²⁶

Grupo de Psicología Política y Social, Departamento de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú |

²⁷

Department of Anthropology, Sivas Cumhuriyet University |

²⁸

Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de la República |

²⁹

Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (CIS-IUL) |

³⁰

Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong |

³¹

Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Unidad Morelia |

³²

Psychology Department, Universidad Latina de Costa Rica |

³³

Laboratory EFORT, Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Setif |

³⁴

Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs |

³⁵

Faculty of Social Sciences and Health Care, Department of Psychological Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University |

³⁶

Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organisations, Université Catholique de Louvain |

³⁷

Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology, University of Maribor |

³⁸

Department of Psychology, Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb |

³⁹

Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, University of Malaya |

⁴⁰

Organization and Human Resource Management, Central University of Finance and Economics |

⁴¹

Psychology Department, University of Crete |

⁴²

Faculty of Education, University of Primorska |

⁴³

Department of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities

Vietnam National University, Hanoi

⁴⁴

Department of Psychology, Islamabad Model College for Boys, F-10/4, Islamabad |

⁴⁵

Department of Economics, Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision Mating, University of Amsterdam |

⁴⁶

Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore |

⁴⁷

Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam |

⁴⁸

Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada |

⁴⁹

Department of Psychology, University of Delhi |

⁵⁰

Department of Animal and Human Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Havana |

⁵¹

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor |

⁵²

Department of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro |

⁵³

Department of Social Sciences, Free University of Tbilisi |

⁵⁴

Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna |

⁵⁵

School of Education, Universiti Utara Malaysia |

⁵⁶

Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria |

⁵⁷

Institute of Psychology, Vilnius University |

⁵⁸

Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia |

⁵⁹

Equipe de Neuro-Ethologie Sensorielle (ENES), Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (CRNL), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Lyon/Saint-Étienne |

⁶⁰

Institute of Psychology, University of the State of Rio de Janeiro |

⁶¹

Department of Psychology, Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences, Universitatea Nationala de Arta Teatrala si Cinematografica-Centrul Internațional de Cercetare şi Educație în Tehnologii Inovativ Creative (UNATC-CINETIc), Romanian Academy |

⁶²

Department of Environmental Ecology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University |

⁶³

Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences |

⁶⁴

Delve Business Network, Islamabad, Pakistan |

⁶⁵

School of Psychology, University of Monterrey |

⁶⁶

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb |

⁶⁷

Center for Social and Psychological Sciences, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences |

⁶⁸

Department of Applied Psychology, Vivekananda College, University of Delhi |

⁶⁹

Department of Management Sciences, DHA Suffa University

⁷⁰

School of Psychology, Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile |

⁷¹

Department of Psychology, South-West University “Neofit Rilski” |

⁷²

Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo |

⁷³

Faculty of Communication, University Prof. Dr Moestopo (Beragama), Jakarta, 10270, Indonesia |

⁷⁴

Department of Child and Family Studies, Kyung Hee University |

⁷⁵

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana |

Publication type: Journal Article

Publication date: 2020-03-20

SAGE

Psychological Science

scimago Q1

wos Q1

SJR: 2.500

CiteScore: 9.7

Impact factor: 5.1

ISSN: 09567976, 14679280

DOI: 10.1177/0956797620904154

Copy DOI

PubMed ID: 32196435

General Psychology

Abstract

Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives—an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective—offer alternative explanations for these findings. However, the original data on which each perspective relies are decades old, and the literature is fraught with conflicting methods, analyses, results, and conclusions. Using a new 45-country sample ( N = 14,399), we attempted to replicate classic studies and test both the evolutionary and biosocial role perspectives. Support for universal sex differences in preferences remains robust: Men, more than women, prefer attractive, young mates, and women, more than men, prefer older mates with financial prospects. Cross-culturally, both sexes have mates closer to their own ages as gender equality increases. Beyond age of partner, neither pathogen prevalence nor gender equality robustly predicted sex differences or preferences across countries.

Found

2 citations

Smojver-Ažić Sanja

21 publications, 124 citations

h-index: 6

University of Rijeka

1 citation

Grigoryev Dmitry

🥼 🤝

PhD in Psychology

89 publications, 1 205 citations, 279 reviews

h-index: 19

National Research University Higher School of Economics

Research interests

Bayesian statistics

Intergroup Relations

International Migration

Psychometrics

Social Identity

Social psychology

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Walter K. V. et al. Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Across 45 Countries: A Large-Scale Replication // Psychological Science. 2020. Vol. 31. No. 4. pp. 408-423.

GOST all authors (up to 50) Copy

Walter K. V. et al. Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Across 45 Countries: A Large-Scale Replication // Psychological Science. 2020. Vol. 31. No. 4. pp. 408-423.

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BibTex (up to 50 authors) Copy

@article{2020_Walter,

author = {Kathryn V. Walter and Daniel Conroy-Beam and David M. Buss and Kelly Asao and Agnieszka Sorokowska and Piotr Sorokowski and Toivo Aavik and Grace Akello and Mohammad Madallh Alhabahba and Charlotte Alm and Naumana Amjad and Afifa Anjum and Chiemezie S. Atama and Derya Atamtürk Duyar and Richard Ayebare and Carlota Batres and Mons Bendixen and Aicha Bensafia and Boris Bizumic and Mahmoud Boussena and Marina Butovskaya and Seda Can and Katarzyna Cantarero and Antonin Carrier and Hakan Cetinkaya and Ilona Croy and Rosa María Cueto and Marcin Czub and Daria Dronova and Seda Dural and Izzet Duyar and Berna Ertugrul and Agustín Espinosa and Ignacio Estevan and Carla Sofia Esteves and Luxi Fang and Tomasz Frackowiak and Jorge Contreras Garduño and Karina Ugalde González and Farida Guemaz and Petra Gyuris and Mária Halamová and Iskra Herak and Marina Horvat and Ivana Hromatko and Chin-Ming Hui and Jas Laile Jaafar and Feng Jiang and Konstantinos Kafetsios and Tina Kavčič and others},

title = {Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Across 45 Countries: A Large-Scale Replication},

journal = {Psychological Science},

year = {2020},

volume = {31},

publisher = {SAGE},

month = {mar},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620904154},

number = {4},

pages = {408--423},

doi = {10.1177/0956797620904154}

}

MLA

Cite this

MLA Copy

Walter, Kathryn V., et al. “Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Across 45 Countries: A Large-Scale Replication.” Psychological Science, vol. 31, no. 4, Mar. 2020, pp. 408-423. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620904154.

Publisher

SAGE

Journal

Psychological Science

scimago Q1

wos Q1

SJR

2.500

CiteScore

9.7

Impact factor

5.1

ISSN

09567976 (Print)

14679280 (Electronic)