Physical Beauty:

Rolf Degen

@DegenRolf

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14h

Men strive for greater physical attractiveness in a mate than the partner market provides, and the pickiest men spent more time in singledom. Humans seek to spend considerable portions of their lives in long-term mating relationships, yet remain selective about whom they are willing to partner with. We examined whether pickiness (i.e., minimum mate standards) predicts how many years individuals have spent single, in uncommitted relationships, and in committed relationships. A representative Norwegian sample indicated their pickiness... The sample's pickiness was generally greater than the population could be expected to live up to. When all traits were averaged together, few participants were willing to partner with someone below average, and around a quarter of individuals could be classified as requiring a partner two standard deviations greater in desirability than the expected population average. [In practical terms, being two standard deviations above the population average means an individual or item ranks in the top 2.3% of desirability relative to the rest of that population, assuming a normal distribution, or "bell curve"]. For men, greater pickiness for physical attractiveness predicted more years single, fewer years in committed relationships, and fewer committed relationships overall. Furthermore 85% and 80% of men required their partner to be at least average or above average in facial and bodily attractiveness, respectively. As such, most men reported being unwilling to partner with someone below average in physical attractiveness. These findings may be interpreted as men's expectations for physical attractiveness being excessive, thereby resulting in increased singlehood. The finding that pickiness for physical attractiveness increased singlehood among men need not reflect that men struggle to set realistic standards. On the contrary, it may be adaptive for men to trade half a year of additional singlehood per increase in pickiness for attractiveness in exchange for acquiring a mate of greater mate value. Among women, overall pickiness was associated with more years in uncommitted relationships, but not with more years single. At the observed-variable level women's standards for physical attractiveness did not appear excessive, sometimes falling below the expected population average. For bodily attractiveness, more women were willing to partner with someone below average (35%) than required an above-average partner (23%). Moreover, the greater women's overall pickiness, the more they reported both having been in uncommitted relationships they wished had become committed and being single due to interest in partners unwilling to commit.