Social Sciences and Humanities Open (Jan 2020)
The relative impact of looks, income, warmth, and intelligence on female online dating preferences
Abstract
Female participants (N = 70) were exposed to a series of simulated online dating profiles and asked to indicate their likelihood of entering into either a short-term or long-term relationship with each. Sets of 16 profiles were constructed to orthogonally vary the physical attractiveness, income, warmth, and intelligence. Results were generally supportive of other work in finding that women tended to be most influenced by the physical appearance of the model. However, the non-physical features were also predictive of short-term mate choices, albeit in a somewhat weaker fashion. For long-term selection, physical attractiveness still appeared to have the greatest impact on choice, and tended to serve as a preliminary filter for mate selection such that the other three factors were taken into consideration primarily for profiles whose models received high ratings in physical appearance, but did not significantly vary otherwise.
