ترجیحات همسر چینی: تکامل فرهنگی و تداوم در یک ربع قرن

Expressed mate preferences provide unique windows into the cultural evolution of values and evolved mating psychology. The current study used two research instruments—one ranking procedure and one rating procedure—to examine mate preferences in mainland China. We compared modern Chinese (n = 1060) with Chinese studied a quarter of a century earlier (N = 500). Results revealed several cultural changes in values – a dramatic decrease in the importance of virginity, and an increase in the importance of good financial prospects – changes that occurred for both men and women. In contrast to those cultural changes, gender differences in mate preferences for cues to fertility (youth, physical attractiveness) and resources (good financial prospects, social status) remained invariant. Discussion highlights limitations of the study, and stresses the importance of both cultural evolution and evolved mate preferences.

Mate preferences acquire scientific importance for several key reasons. First, mate preferences influence who is chosen and who is excluded from mating, thus influencing the current direction of sexual selection (Darwin, 1871). Second, mate preferences of one sex determine which members of the opposite sex are considered to be high and low in mate value, which influences variables ranging from the desirability of the mate one can attract to social status within the group (Buss, 2003). Third, mate preferences of one sex influence which mate attraction and mate retention tactics will be effective in members of the opposite sex—tactics that embody the desires of the individual a person is trying to attract or retain (Buss and Shackelford, 1997 and Schmitt and Buss, 1996). Fourth, some mate preferences may be evolved psychological adaptations, representing important solutions to cardinal problems of mating such as choosing a mate who is fertile or a mate willing and able to invest in offspring (Buss, 1989). Fifth, mate preferences reveal important cultural values, and when examined over time, can be used to assay the cultural evolution of values (Buss, Shackelford, Kirkpatrick, & Larsen, 2001). For all these reasons, the study of human mate preferences represents an exceptionally important and necessarily ongoing scientific endeavor.

China is a country that has undergone substantial cultural changes over the past quarter of a century—economically, religiously, and sexually. The current study suggests that some mate preference changes, such as an increase in the importance of resources and religiosity in a mate and a decrease in the importance of virginity in a mate, may be hallmarks of these cultural changes. In addition to demonstrating the evolution of cultural values, the current study provides robust support for several key hypotheses about evolved sex differences in mate preferences. Despite the many cultural changes, women substantially more than men continue to value resources and resource acquisition potential in a mate. Men continue to value key cues to fertility in a mate, notably youth and physical attractiveness. In short, this study of mate preferences in one culture over a quarter of a century provides a unique window into evolved mating psychology and the evolution of cultural values.