Mary Joyce Dungca

Alicia Landry
Beatrice Quintanilla
Patrick Shaghzoian
Professor Rodriguez
Biology 11 H
5 October 2014
Human Mate Selection: Physical Attraction and Interaction
The tradition of arranged marriages is one in which a bride and groom are selected by a
third party rather than by each other, or autonomously, for love. More often than not, arranged
marriages occurred in monarchies and powerful families in order to keep power or wealth
centralized. The practice of an arranged marriage is more similar to mating for survival than
most assume. Simply put, it is just another way in which to ensure financial security for a future
generation, much like sexual selection in mate choice does. In order to ensure survival of the
human species, people are hard-wired to select mates based on their offspring's chance of
survival. Human mate selection is an essential part of life. When arranged marriage is not
involved, there are many different attributes individuals look for when choosing a mate,
especially qualities that ensure their offspring's best chance of future reproduction. According to
Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, people select mates who have the best genes to
ensure that these genes will be passed down to later generations for the best survival of the
human race. In our study of human mate selection, we hypothesized that males and females seek
mates based mainly on physical appearance and comparing their own personalities to others
based on observable interactions.

Attraction starts after birth. The first signs begin with the infant's attraction towards their
mother. This kind of attraction is different than when finding a mate, nonetheless it all stems
from childhood. After the "cooties" stage, children become attracted to looks. They go after the
prettiest toys and soon they go after what they believe is the prettiest person. Pretty is an
objective term, but physical attraction combines objective feelings with natural survival instincts.
Physical attraction not only focuses on aesthetically pleasing features on the surface, but physical
attraction also stems from the need to look for traits that will ensure future reproduction. Even
though people do not consciously think about future reproduction, humans are hard-wired to look
for features that help with this. These looks not only include facial features, but also about the
body. In previous studies, people have studied physical attraction through eye tracking devices to
see if people's eyes linger longer on the people who were considered to be more attractive than
those who were not. The study showed the difference between how males and females lingered
on the more attractive faces. Their results showed that males tend to linger longer on more
attractive females rather than other females and females tend to linger longer on more attractive
males. It just shows to prove that people show more interest in the more attractive individuals.
(Maner & Kenrick & Becker & Delton & Wilbur & Neuberg 2003). Physical attraction also has
to do with the expression of physical attraction. It is how the person smiles, walks, dances, etc.
The reason for this is that these aesthetics also represent traits and attributes to contribute to
fitness (Rodriguez). A male or female seeking a partner with not only appealing looks but also
good hygienic habits or a body that is physical fit and in shape signals their desire for the trait of
good health and good genes to pass on to their offspring (ibid).In addition to physical attraction
though, people also look for attractive personalities when looking for a mate.
There are many other traits and attributes that factor into human mate selection rather

than just the physical. After studying how traits such as independence, financial stability,
responsibility, and paternal and maternal instinct affect survival and reproduction, which are
harder to asses aesthetically than traits like good genes or fertility, we hypothesized that males
and females also seek mates based on the way their prospects interact with other human beings.
In terms of sexual selection, it is found that females have a tendency to be more selective as they
make a greater investment in the mating process from carrying the child itself to providing
parental care for years (Rodriguez). Humans in general are a K-selected species meaning they
only reproduce a few times in their lifetime and invest heavily in their offspring. In Mate
Choice Copying in Humans, David Waynforth of the University of Durhams School of
Medicine studies the evidence that females copy each others mate choice decisions rather than
solely relying on their own judgment of male attractiveness (Waynforth). Furthermore, based on
the like's attract hypotheses, both male and females pick their mates based on self-perception.
This means that they tend to pick other people who resemble themselves in physical
attractiveness, socioeconomic status and education. (Allen and Hauber 2013). Individuals who
do not look for partners who have similar traits often end up in unstable relationships because
different personalities often times clash with one another (Buston and Emlen). The saying
"opposites attract" is one that many people say and believe, however the truth is that in order to
have a strong relationship there has to be some similarities. In order to test this, we conducted an
experiment to find out if people would want to be with someone who had similar personality
traits or if they would want someone who is completely opposite.
In an attempt to support our hypothesis, we made two separate surveys, one for those
who are attracted to males and another for those who are attracted to females, to find out what
people look for when they are trying to find a mate. We went online and found 8 face pictures,

two sets of girls and two sets of guys, and combined them with two body type pictures. Each girl
and guy had another picture next to it that looked slightly similar; however, one was made to
look more attractive than the other. We put these similar pictures next to each other for an easy
side by side comparison. Along with the pictures, we paired each person with a list of personality
traits. We decided to pair both good and bad traits for all of the pictures; however, for the least
attractive one we put all good traits and the most attractive one we put mostly bad traits. By
doing this we were able to see if people would choose someone based mainly on their looks. We
did have a variety of different combinations for each person and traits. Our survey went on to ask
each person a set of questions to find any signs of self-perception. These questions would tell us
how important physical attractiveness and personality was to them. It also told us if these
personality traits were linked backed to the way they act. We went to the Starbucks across
campus to find people to participate in our study. We used an iPad and a computer with both
surveys opened to make it easier as we went from person to person. Everyone was very
cooperative in taking our survey but we encountered a few complications. Firstly, we did
consider differing sexual preferences however, when we began conducting the survey we would
forget to ask if our respondents found themselves more attracted to males or females. Though it
did not make a difference for our study, we did not want to fall into the gender binary of
assuming everyone was attracted strictly to the opposite sex when asking people to participate in
our study. Moreover, we did not consider race or ethnicity when choosing our models and people
questioned why we did not have more culturally diverse pictures however, there were not enough
choices to more accurately accommodate most people's taste. In gathering our data, we also
texted friends and relatives the survey link and asked for their participation for our project to
ensure our goals were accomplished. It was completely random sampling, as we believe that this

is the best way to be able to come to a more accurate conclusion. All things considered, we had
fun doing this and we learned more about the types of people that males and females are
attracted to.
We managed to get 100 responses for our surveys, 50 for the male survey and 50 for the
female survey. After analyzing the results, we saw many similarities between both genders'
preferences. Both of the overall results were pretty much the same. The graphs look similar,
however there were slight differences. We found that those who prefer males rated slightly
higher for wanting to find a mate with a better personality overall and traits that are similar to
their own. This signaled a sense of self-perception. Those who prefer females rated physical
appearance and a likeness of interests to their own higher than those who preferred males
however, both rated personality to be an extremely important fact when selecting a mate with
66% of those who were attracted to women valuing its importance highly and 78% of those who
were attracted to men doing the same (See Question 2). Since part of our experiment was to mix
and match good and bad personality traits with seemingly good and bad looks, our last question
asked that if all of the traits were the same for all of the people, which person they would choose.
We did this in order to see if looks truly mattered and if our respondents would hold true to their
original choice. Surprisingly enough, 11 of those who were attracted to men and 7 of those who
were attracted to women said that looks did not matter do them at all (See Question 4). We are
not able to prove our hypothesis fully through one study, but it opens up possibilities for other
studies similar to this one to find out if males and females seek mates based mainly on physical
appearance and self-perception of personality traits. Watching people take the survey showed us
that when they were taking the survey, they actually took their time to compare faces, bodies,
and personalities. This shows the importance everyone feels towards finding a perfect mate.

Also, observing people when they took the survey in groups or individually created differences.
When people were taking it alone, they were not able to compare with their friends which could
have affected some of results. Although most people took it alone, for the few that took the
survey in groups, the influence of friends could have jarred our results. Overall, the results
proved our hypothesis. It shows that most people value physical attraction and looking for
personality in others that reflect themselves.

Survey Images
Male:

Female:

Results
Male:

Question 1)

Question 2)

Question 3)

Question 4)

Female:
Question 1)

Question 2)

Question 3)

Question 4)

Works Cited:
Allen, Katherine R., and Mark E. Hauber. "Self-referencing and mate choice among college
students: Epiphenomenon or consistent patterns of preference across populations?."
Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology 7.2 (2013): 163-174. EBSCO
Host. Web. 4 Oct. 2014.
Buston, Peter M., and Stephen T. Emlen. "Cognitive Processes Underlying Human Mate Choice:
The Relationship between Self-perception and Mate Preference in Western Society."
PNAS 22 July 2003: n. pag. PNAS. Web. 28 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.pnas.org/content/100/15/8805.full>.
Maner, J. K., Kenrick, D. T., Becker, D., Delton, A. W., Hofer, B., Wilbur, C. J., & Neuberg, S.
L. (2003). Sexually Selective Cognition: Beauty Captures the Mind of the Beholder.
Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 85(6), 1107-1120. doi:10.1037/00223514.85.6.1107
Waynforth, D. "Mate Choice Copying In Humans." Human Nature 18.3 (2007): 264-271.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Sept. 2014.
Rodriguez, Katie. "Human Mate Choice Project Lecture." Pasadena City College, Pasadena. 24
Sept 2014. Lecture.