Conditional mate preferences: Factors influencing preferences for height

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.08.008Get rights and content

Abstract

Physical stature plays an important role in human mate choice because it may signal dominance, high status, access to resources, and underlying heritable qualities. Although past research has examined overall preferences for height, we propose these preferences are modified by evolved mechanisms that consider one’s own height and prevailing social norms. We examined this proposal using samples of 2000 personal ads and 382 undergraduates. Both sexes preferred relationships where the woman was shorter when specifying the shortest acceptable, tallest acceptable, and ideal dating partner. In the personal ads sample, this norm was more strongly enforced by women than by men: 23% of men compared to only 4% of women would accept a dating relationship where the woman was taller. Preferences for the male-taller norm were less pronounced in short men and tall women, who shifted towards preferring someone closer to their own height. This limited their potential dating pool but ensured they would select a mate within the typical range of variation for height. Surprisingly, endorsement of traditional gender role norms was only weakly related to height preferences, particularly for women. These findings highlight the utility of examining how evolutionary factors, including endorsement of social norms, may influence mate preferences.

Introduction

Do all individuals have a different vision of the ideal body, or is there a high degree of systematic variation in what we find attractive? Over the past several decades evolutionary social scientists have examined how individual differences, contextual factors, and socially transmitted information shape what we find desirable in a mate (Gangestad, Haselton, & Buss, 2006). This research has demonstrated that mate preferences are influenced by factors such as exposure to new social norms (Tovee, Swami, Furnham, & Mangalparsad, 2006), the prevalence of pathogens in the environment (Gangestad et al., 2006), whether one is considering a mate as a short-term sexual partner or long-term dating partner (Buss & Schmitt, 1993), and even a woman’s ovulatory phase (Gangestad, Thornhill, & Garver-Apgar, 2005). These findings support the proposal that evolutionary processes have crafted a flexible set of conditional mate preferences rather than a rigid and fixed set of criteria for attractiveness.

Considering conditional mate preferences is particularly critical when investigating preferences for height. We propose that although there are general preferences for taller-than-average men, preferences for height are strongly influenced by one’s sex, height, and endorsement of traditional gender role norms. Below we investigate what predictions can be derived from existing theoretical perspectives regarding preferences for absolute and relative height of a dating partner.

Section snippets

Preferences for male height

Many women express a preference for males displaying “masculinized” traits that require high levels of testosterone to produce, such as facial masculinity (Johnston, Hagel, Franklin, Fink, & Grammer, 2001) and muscularity (Frederick & Haselton, 2007). Presumably, this preference evolved because testosterone-linked traits are costly to produce in terms of increased metabolic rate and immunosuppression, and therefore signal the presence of positive heritable qualities that can be transmitted to

Sexual dimorphism in height

The preceding analyses suggest there would be general preferences for tall stature in men but not in women. However, an important criterion in human mate attraction is the relative height of men and women, operationalized as the sexual dimorphism ratio in stature (SDR = male height/female height; see Pawlowski, 2003). Rather than attending primarily to absolute height, people may be most sensitive to the extent to which a potential mate is taller or shorter than themselves. Pawlowski (2003)

Present Research

Most research on height has focused on the absolute height that is attractive in men. This bias toward examining what people find “ideal” has limited our ability to identify the range of what people find acceptable in a mate and how individual differences such as height and gender role attitudes relate to these preferences. In this research study we tested the following predictions:

  • 1.

    Preferences for absolute height: Consistent with a costly signaling perspective, women will prefer men who are

Study 1

To test these hypotheses, we first examined information provided by individuals enrolled in a public online dating site. Individuals at these sites have the opportunity to report their own height as well as specify the tallest and the shortest acceptable height for a potential dating partner. This allowed us to test predictions 1–3 described above.

Study 2

The first study provided information about the range of height that men and women find acceptable and how this preference shifts according to their own height. Unspecified in Study 1, however, were perceptions of ideal height and ideal sexual dimorphism, or more specific attitudes about an individual’s willingness to date individuals from across the height continuum. In Study 2, we examined these preferences explicitly, and also tested whether individuals who more strongly endorse traditional

Preferences for Absolute and Relative Height

These findings are consistent with the proposal that women possess mating mechanisms that favor tall men because tall stature provided either heritable advantages to offspring or direct benefits such as resources to women in the ancestral past. Consistent with past research, we confirmed that there is a strong norm favoring men being taller in relationships that nearly all men and women endorse as ideal. Not only do individuals endorse the male-taller norm as an ideal, but many men and women

References (25)

  • D.A. Frederick et al.

    Why is male muscularity sexy? Tests of the fitness-indicator hypothesis

    Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

    (2007)
  • S.G. Gangestad et al.

    Evolutionary foundations of cultural variation: Evoked culture and mate preferences

    Psychological Inquiry

    (2006)
  • Cited by (81)

    • Demographic predictors of objectification theory and tripartite influence model constructs: The U.S. Body Project I

      2022, Body Image
      Citation Excerpt :

      To date, objectification theory has amassed much supporting evidence relating body surveillance and objectification experiences to body dissatisfaction in women (Moradi & Huang, 2008). Although both men and women find aspects of physical appearance desirable (Gallup & Frederick, 2010; Salska et al., 2008) and value “good looks” in a romantic partner (Buss, 1989; Fales et al., 2016), women, qualitatively, tend to have different experiences with sexual objectification than men. Women systematically encounter greater sexual harassment and sexual objectification and are more likely to be viewed as sexual conquests with little regard for their thoughts, feelings, or pleasure.

    • Male height and marital status

      2017, Personality and Individual Differences
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text