Saturday, December 5, 2009 12/05/2009 06:44:00 PM
This explains it all about woman and man
In contrast, a man's reproductive value cannot be evaluated
as accurately from physical appearance (Symons, 1979). Because
age imposes fewer constraints on a man's capacity for reproduction,
preference for characteristics that covary with male age
affords no strong selective advantage. Reproductive investment,
however, extends beyond insemination and fertility. Specifically,
access to resources provided by monetary power can contribute
(a) immediate material advantages of offspring, (b) enhanced
reproductive advantage provided to the offspring through acquired
social and economic advantages, and (c) genetic reproductive
advantages provided for offspring if the qualities that
contribute to earning power are partly genetically based.
In principle, this form of reproductive investment could be
provided by either men or women. However, two considerations
make this form of reproductive investment more characteristic
of men. First, men tend to have greater access to monetary resources
than do women. Second, and perhaps more important,
there is greater variance among men than among women in their
possession of this resource. Both considerations lead to the prediction
that women will place greater importance on this cue to
reproductive investment than will men.
In sum, this hypothesis is that a selective advantage has been
afforded to those individuals who have enacted a preference for
mates who are capable of reproductive investment Because a
women's fertility and reproductive value are more closely tied
to age and health, men value female beauty because it signifies
relative youth and hence reproductive fertility. In contrast, a
selective advantage has been given to women who have preferences
for men who can provide the environmental and genetic
investments that are associated with strong earning power.
extracted from
Buss, D. M., & Barnes, M. (1986). Preference in human mate selection.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, (3) , 559-570.