Mate preferences and choices for facial and body hair in heterosexual women and homosexual men: influence of sex,population, homogamy,and imprinting-like effect

Recent research has reported that male body and facial hair influence women's mate preferences. However, it is not clear whether such preferences are typical for women or for individuals who prefer males as sexual partners. Here we explored body and facial hair in preferred and actual partners among men and women who prefer men as sexual partners. Including homosexual individuals provides a unique opportunity to investigate whether evolved mating psychologies are specific to the sex of the individual or sex of the partner. Based on an online survey of 1577 participants from Brazil and the Czech Republic, we found that, on average, homosexual men preferred hairier stimuli than heterosexual women, supporting past findings that homosexual men have strong preferences for masculine traits. Preferences for facial and body hair appear to be influenced less by sex of the preferred partner than sex of the individual, pointing to a possible sex-specific mating psychology. Further, Brazilians preferred bigger beards than Czechs, which was positively associated with the self-reported amount of beardedness in Brazil, suggesting that familiarity effects underpin cross-cultural differences in preferences for facial hair. Moreover, homosexual men preferred a self-similar degree of beardedness, and Czech women preferred a similar degree of beardedness as their fathers had during their childhood. However, these effects were not associated with the level of facial hair in their actual partners; in general, mate preferences and actual mate choices for facial and body hair differed. Thus, individual differences in some self-reported characteristics, cultural factors, and aspects of personal experience may modulate differences in preferences for masculine traits.     

Musical improvisation skill in a prospective partner is associated with mate value and preferences,consistent with sexual selection and parental investment theory: Implications for the origin of music

Music is a human universal, which suggests a biological adaptation. Several evolutionary explanations have been proposed, covering the entire spectrum of natural, sexual, and group selection. Here we consider the hypothesis that musical behaviour constitutes a reliable or even costly signal of fitness, and thus may have evolved as a human trait through sexual selection. We experimentally tested how musical performance quality (MPQ), in improvisations on the drums, saxophone, and violin, affects mate values and mate preferences perceived by a prospective partner. Swedish student participants (27 of each sex) saw a face of a person of the opposite sex and heard a piece of improvised music being played. The music occurred in three levels of MPQ and the faces in three levels of facial attractiveness (FA). For each parametric combination of MPG and FA, the participants rated four mate value scales (intelligence, health, social status, and parenting skill) and four mate preference scales (date, intercourse, and short- and long term relationship). Consistent with sexual selection theory, mate value ratings were generally increased by MPQ for raters of both sexes. Consistent with more specific hypotheses that follow from combining sexual selection and parental investment theory, women’s but not men’s preference for a long-term, but not short-term, relationship was significantly increased by MPQ, MPQ generally affected women’s ratings more than men’s, FA generally affected men’s ratings more than women’s, and women’s ratings of intelligence were even more influenced by MPQ than by FA.     

Female preference for nests with many eggs: a cost-benefit analysis of female choice in fish with paternal care

In several fish species with paternal care, females prefer malesguarding many eggs in their nest. This preference might be advantageousbecause the presence of many other eggs dilutes the risk ofnewly laid eggs being eaten by the father. To evaluate thishypothesis quantitatively, we constructed a simulation modelthat mimics the breeding biology of the blenny Aidablenniussphynx. In contrast to earlier verbal models, the costs of choiceare explicitly taken into account We systematically varied factorssuch as the stringency of choosiness and the level and natureof the costs of choice. For realistic parameter values femalechoosiness may result in a fitness advantage of more than 50%.The optimal choice strategy created a distribution of eggs overthe nests which resembles that found in the field for A. sphynx.Our model shows that the relative fitness of a choice strategyis not constant but frequency dependent in a complicated way.If most females are choosy, a bimodal distribution of eggs overthe nests results, with many nests containing few and some nestscontaining many eggs. In such a situation choosiness is profitable,since randomly laying females will often lay their eggs in nestswith few eggs, producing a high mortality per egg due to filialcannibalism. If, on the other hand, only few choosers are present,their influence on the egg distribution is limited. A unimodaldistribution results which is profitable for nonchoosers, sincethe average egg mortality is low and nonchoosers do not bearthe costs of choice. The positive relation between chooser frequencyand chooser fitness makes it easy to understand why choosinessis evolutionarily stable. However, it is not obvious how thetrait is established by selection in the first place.[BehavEcol 7: 353–361 (1996)