Romantic
interest
Should anyone be in any doubt about the importance of romantic
relationships to our lives, they need only marvel for a moment at the
international, multi-billion-dollar dating industry. Or consider all the
thousands of dreamy poems, love songs and novels penned through
the ages. That finding a romantic partner is such a priority for so many
people should come as no surprise. The only reason most of us are
here is because our biological parents successfully courted and then
mated, and it’s their genes, after all, that exert a powerful ongoing
influence on our own amorous proclivities.
Evolutionary roots
Recognizing the importance of reproduction for our evolutionary ances-
tors, and the threats to it, can help illuminate many of our romantic
tendencies today. When the evolutionary psychologist David Buss
travelled the world observing the differing mate-preferences of 10,000
men and women across 37 cultures, from China to Sweden, he found
a consistent pattern. Heterosexual women are attracted to men who
appear to have status and resources, and who are a few years older than
they are, while straight men tend to desire women who appear youthful,
faithful and attractive. This pattern makes evolutionary sense – females
want to know that a potential father is able to protect and fend for her
offspring, while males want their kin to be as healthy as possible, and
they want to be sure the child really is theirs (a younger female is less
likely to have copulated with another male).
A study in 2010 seemed to back up this point about the differential
appeal of status to the two sexes. Michael Dunn at the University of
Wales Institute in Cardiff found that women rated a man as more
attractive when he was seen sitting in a snazzy sports car rather than
a bog-standard Ford Fiesta, but men’s perception of the attractiveness