|
Pair formation and finding Mr. or Ms. Right is a
complicated process, and choosing a mate may involve
compromising on less important factors like their
height.
Due to constraining factors such as availability of
mates, rival competition, and mutual mate choice,
preferred characteristics may not be realised in the
actual partner.
In addition to such constraints, the risk of being
deserted for a better option after pair formation
may make it strategically optimal to forego mating
options with members of the opposite sex that are
preferred by many, to ensure a long-term pair bond.
This consideration arises because even when a pair
is formed, the availability of attractive
alternatives is a determinant of the stability of
that pair.
A research published January 16 in the open access
journal PLOS ONE by Gert Stulp and colleagues from
the University of Groningen, Netherlands suggests
that despite the many other factors involved,
people's preferences for a partner's height are
reflected in real couples in the UK.
Given the average heights of men and women in
typical Western populations, two out of every
hundred couples should comprise a woman who is
taller than her male companion. However, such
couples are seen much less frequently than this.
Previous studies show that men generally prefer to
pair with women shorter than themselves, and women
prefer men who are taller than they are.
Short women and tall men appear to prefer larger
height differences with their partner, whereas tall
women and short men prefer smaller differences in
height.
These trends have previously been studied only in
terms of preferences or expectations. In the current
study, the authors analyze to what extent these
preferences translate into actual partner choices.
Their results suggest that all of these trends do
exist in a sample of over 10,000 couples in the UK,
and the difference in height between a man and woman
in a couple tends to be less than 8 inches. However,
the patterns observed in actual couples were not
seen as frequently as would be expected based on
people's preferences from previous studies.
According to the authors, their results suggest that
"while preferences for partner height generally
translate into actual pairing, they do so only
modestly."
More information: Stulp G, Buunk AP, Pollet TV,
Nettle D, Verhulst S (2013) Are Human Mating
Preferences with Respect to Height Reflected in
Actual Pairings? PLoS ONE 8(1): e54186. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0054186
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0054186
(MDN)
|
