The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating

by David M. Buss

After a lecture on the subject of sex differences in mate preferences, one woman suggested that I suppress the findings because of the distress they would cause women. Women already have it hard enough in this male-dominated world, she felt, without having scientists tell them that their mating problems may be based in men’s evolved psychology. Yet suppression of this truth is unlikely to help, just as concealing the fact that people have evolved preferences for succulent, ripe fruit is unlikely to change their preferences. Railing against men for the importance they place on beauty, youth, and fidelity is like railing against meat eaters because they prefer animal protein. Telling men not to become aroused by signs of youth and health is like telling them not to experience sugar on their tongues as sweet. Many people hold an idealistic view that standards of beauty are arbitrary, that beauty is only skin-deep, that cultures differ dramatically in the importance they place on appearance, and that Western standards stem from the media, parents, the culture, or other agents of socialization. But standards of attractiveness are not arbitrary—they reflect cues to youth and health, and hence to reproductive value. Beauty is not merely skin-deep. It reflects internal reproductive capabilities. Although modern fertility technology grants women greater latitude for reproducing across a wider age span, men’s preferences for women who show apparent signs of reproductive capacity con...