Looks matter to women, too

Women get pickier about whom they date the more options they have and although females say that they rate intelligence over attractiveness in their search for a mate, when they try "speed dating," physical attractiveness leads their list--outpacing intelligence, sincerity, and compatibility--to the same degree as it does for men, according to a study by Stanford (Calif.) University, Columbia University, New York. and Harvard University, Cambridge. Mass.

"Marketers are interested in how people make choices, and one area in which we make an important choice is whom we want to date" notes Itamar Simonson, professor of marketing at Stanford.

The study examined how men and women respond to each other during speed-dating trials--an increasingly popular option for meeting members of the opposite sex. The premise is simple: Men and women are matched up for a date for a very short time. usually just a few minutes. Participants are asked to indicate privately whether they wish to go out on another date with the person they just met. If two people agree that they would like to see each other again, they are matched for a second, "real" date.

"There has been a great deal of research on mate selection and, by and large, men put a great emphasis on physical attractiveness. Women. particularly in long-term relationships, put more emphasis on such attributes as intelligence, earning potential, and sincerity," Simonson explains. Study participants were asked ahead of time what they would prefer in a partner. Men, rather predictably, said attractiveness, while women listed intelligence and sincerity. Indeed, this preliminary survey showed preferences for the traditional attributes that you would expect from men and women Simonson notes.

However, when they moved through the speed-dating process, there was no appreciable difference between men and women. Both used attractiveness to make their decisions. "In other words there was a much higher correlation between what men said they wanted and what they actually did," Simonson points out. "Men say that appearance is important, and it is. Women do not say that appearance is particularly important to them, but it is, [especially] in the context of speed dating."

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One reason for this could be that, in speed dating, you cannot really assess some one's intelligence, earning potential, or sincerity. "So women end up putting a great deal of emphasis on physical appearance, an attribute that you can evaluate relatively easily."

Another interesting finding was that women tended to be choosier the more options they had. In the smaller group of 10 men and 10 women, both men and women said they would like to see any given person again approximately half the time. In the larger dating group (20 men and 20 women), men kept to the same percentage (10 out of 20 times) Women. however. only said yes 6.5 out of 20 times.

There are a number of possible explanations, including that women might invest more emotional energy in each date and not want to solicit dates from too many potential partners. "You also can come up with all sorts of evolutionary psychology explanations--if you believe in that--as to why women do not want to commit to a large number of yeses, whereas men don't have the same inhibitions," Simonson states.

Moreover, during the last two dates of the session, men were a lot more likely to say that they would like to see someone again. "This corresponds to a saying that 'Women are prettier at closing time,'" Simonson analyzes. "You don't find that spike in women saying yes at the very end of the evening."

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning