Women prefer muscular men for flings, humour for marriage: Study

Women prefer physical strength upperbody strength specifically in shortterm contexts according to a studyThe findings published in Personal Relationships showed that affiliative or benevolent humour is a more attractive trait for success at longterm relationshipsOur data indicate that strength and humour are independent in their influence on womens preferences though we continue to show that women prioritise mens strength in shortterm relationships and affiliative humour in longterm contexts said Mitch Brown psychology instructor in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas in the USldquoThese data provide evidence for how women navigate mating markets through various fitness cuesrdquoThe research focuses on the use of evolutionary perspectives in understanding motives that shape social perceptions and interpersonal preferences It shows how people prioritise physical features and behaviours in determining preferences for shortterm and longterm matesFor the study sampled the preferences of 394 women identifying as either heterosexual or bisexual at a large public universityWith a mean age of 19 years 251 participants identified as single and 143 as partneredHistorically reproductive success has been dependent on the identification of a mate with physical and psychological traits that satisfy relevant reproductive goalsThe ideal has been to select a mate who is both physically attractive and possesses positive behavioural attributes However the improbability of finding this mate has necessitated prioritisation of one set of traits over anotherThe researchers sought to determine how women evaluate the desirability of strong men employing affiliative and aggressive humour across shortterm and longterm contextsAffiliative humour was defined as benevolent a type of humour that attempts to connect or associate rather than offend or alienate This latter type of humour aggressive was emphatically undesirable for women in longterm contextsThe researchers found no interactive effects between physical strength and humour In other words strength and humour operated independently in their influence on womens preferencesOverall Brown said their results indicated that womenrsquos choices in a male partner are varied and ldquofrequently involve evaluating the costs and benefits of various constellations of traitsrdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever