Attractiveness and sexual behavior: Does attractiveness enhance mating success?

Evolution and Human Behavior

Volumn 26, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 186-201

  Rhodes, Gillian ^a   Simmons, Leigh W ^a   Peters, Marianne ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA   (Australia)

Author keywords

Attractiveness; Averageness; Human mate choice; Sexual dimorphism; Sexual selection; Symmetry

Indexed keywords

EID: 14644413426     PISSN: 10905138     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2004.08.014     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. M.G. Alexander T.D. Fisher Truth and consequences: Using the bogus pipeline to examine sex differences in self-reported sexuality Journal of Sex Research 40 2003 27-35
2. S.J. Arnold D. Duvall Animal mating systems: A synthesis based on selection theory American Naturalist 143 1994 317-348
3. A.J. Bateman Intrasexual selection in Drosophila Heredity 2 1948 349-368
4. D.M. Buss D.P. Schmitt Sexual strategies theory: A contextual evolutionary analysis of human mating Psychological Review 100 1993 204-232
5. T.H. Clutton-Brock The Evolution of Parental Care 1991 Princeton University Press Princeton
6. T.H. Clutton-Brock G.A. Parker Potential reproductive rates and the operation of sexual selection Quarterly Review of Biology 67 1992 437-456
7. M. Daly M. Wilson Sex, evolution and behavior 2nd ed. 1983 Wadsworth Publishing California
8. Darwin, C. (1998/1874). The descent of man. New York: Prometheus Books Amherst.
9. J.A. Ericksen Kiss and tell: Surveying sex in the twentieth century 1999 Harvard University Press Harvard
10. A. Feingold Do taller men have prettier girlfriends? Psychological Reports 50 1982 810
11. B. Fink I. Penton-Voak Evolutionary psychology of facial attractiveness Current Directions in Psychological Science 11 2002 154-158
12. S.W. Gangestad K.L. Bennett R. Thornhill A latent variable model of developmental instability in relation to men's sexual behaviour Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B 268 2001 1677-1684
13. S.W. Gangestad R. Thornhill The evolutionary psychology of extrapair sex: The role of fluctuating asymmetry Evolution and Human Behavior 18 1997 69-88
14. S.W. Gangestad R. Thornhill The analysis of fluctuating asymmetry redux: The robustness of parametric statistics Animal Behavior 55 1998 497-501
15. J.S. Gillis W.E. Avis The male - taller norm in mate selection Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 6 1980 396-401
16. K. Grammer R. Thornhill Human (Homo sapiens) facial attractiveness and sexual selection: The role of symmetry and averageness Journal of Comparative Psychology 108 1994 233-242
17. D. Hasselquist S. Bensch T. Schantz Correlation between male song repertoire, extra-pair paternity and offspring survival in the great reed warbler Nature 381 1996 229-232
18. W.E. Hensley Height as a basis for interpersonal attraction Adolescence 29 1994 469-474
19. S.M. Hughes G.G. Gallup Sex differences in morphological predictors of sexual behavior: Shoulder to hip and waist to hip ratios Evolution & Human Behavior 24 2003 173-178
20. L.A. Jackson K.S. Ervin Height stereotypes of women and men: The liabilities of shortness for both sexes Journal of Social Psychology 132 1992 433-445
21. B. Kempenaers G.R. Verheyen M. Van den Broeck T. Burke C. Van Broekhoven A.A. Dhondt Extra-pair paternity results from female preference for high-quality males in the blue tit Nature 357 1992 494-496
22. N. Koehler L.W. Simmons G. Rhodes M. Peters The relationship between sexual dimorphism in human faces and fluctuating asymmetry Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B 271 Suppl. 2004 S233-S236
23. J.H. Langlois L. Kalakanis A.J. Rubenstein A. Larson M. Hallam M. Smoot Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review Psychological Bulletin 126 2000 390-423
24. F. Marlowe Male care and mating effort among Hadza foragers Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 46 1999 57-64
25. A.P. Møller J.P. Swaddle Asymmetry, developmental stability and evolution 1997 Oxford University Press Oxford
26. A.P. Møller R. Thornhill Male parental care, differential parental investment by females, and sexual selection Animal Behaviour 55 1998 1507-1515
27. U. Mueller A. Mazur Evidence of unconstrained directional selection for male tallness Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 50 2001 302-311
28. D. Nettle Height and reproductive success in a cohort of British men Human Nature 13 2002 473-491
29. D. Nettle Women's height, reproductive success and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in modern humans Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B 269 2002 1919-1923
30. M.B. Oliver J.S. Hyde Gender differences in sexuality: A meta-analysis Psychological Bulletin 114 1993 29-51
31. A.R. Palmer C. Strobeck Fluctuating asymmetry analyses revisited In: M. Polak (Ed.) Developmental instability: Causes and consequence 2003 Oxford University Press Oxford 279-319
32. B. Pawlowski R.I.M. Dunbar Impact of market value on human mate choice decisions Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 266 1999 281-285 [NB - year is 1999, not 1998].
33. B. Pawlowski R.I.M. Dunbar A. Lipowicz Tall men have more reproductive success Nature 403 2000 156
34. I.S. Penton-Voak D.I. Perrett D.L. Castles T. Kobayashi D.M. Burt L.K. Murray R. Minamisawa Menstrual cycle alters face preference Nature 399 1999 741-742
35. G. Rhodes J. Chan L.A. Zebrowitz L.W. Simmons Does sexual dimorphism in human faces signal health? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B 270 2003 S93-S95
36. G. Rhodes C. Hickford L. Jeffery Sex-typicality and attractiveness: Are supermale and superfemale faces super-attractive British Journal of Psychology 91 2000 125-140
37. G. Rhodes F. Proffitt J.M. Grady A. Sumich Facial symmetry and the perception of beauty Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 5 1998 659-669
38. Rhodes, G., Simmons, L. W., & Peters, M. (2004). Correlations between total asymmetries and sexual behaviors. Unpublished raw data.
39. G. Rhodes T. Tremewan Averageness, exaggeration and facial attractiveness Psychological Science 7 1996 105-110
40. G. Rhodes L.A. Zebrowitz Facial attractiveness: Evolutionary, cognitive and social perspectives 2002 Ablex Westport, CT
41. G. Rhodes L.A. Zebrowitz A. Clark S.M. Kalick A. Hightower R. McKay Do facial averageness and symmetry signal health? Evolution and Human Behavior 22 2001 31-46
42. A.J. Rubenstein J.H. Langlois L.E. Kalakanis Infant preferences for attractive faces: A cognitive explanation Developmental Psychology 35 1999 848-855
43. J.A. Shepperd A.J. Strathman Attractiveness and height: The role of stature in dating preference, frequency of dating, and perceptions of attractiveness Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 15 1989 617-627
44. L.W. Simmons G. Rhodes M. Peters N. Koehler Are human preferences for facial symmetry focused on signals of developmental instability? Behavioral Ecology 15 2004 864-871
45. D. Singh Adaptive significance of female physical attractiveness: Role of waist-to-hip ratio Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65 1993 293-307
46. D. Singh Female health, attractiveness and desirability for relationships: Role of breast asymmetry and waist-to-hip ratio Ethology and Sociobiology 16 1995 465-481
47. A. Slater C. Von der Schulenberg E. Brown M. Badenoch G. Butterworth S. Parsons C. Samuels Newborn infants prefer attractive faces Infant Behavior & Development 21 1998 345-354
48. D. Symons The evolution of human sexuality 1979 Oxford University Press New York
49. R. Thornhill S.W. Gangestad Human fluctuating asymmetry and sexual behavior Psychological Science 5 1994 297-302
50. R. Thornhill S.W. Gangestad Facial attractiveness Trends in Cognitive Sciences 3 1999 452-460
51. R. Thornhill K. Grammer The body and face of woman: Once ornament that signals quality? Evolution & Human Behavior 20 1999 105-120
52. T. Thornhill A.P. Møller Developmental stability, disease and medicine Biological Reviews 72 1997 497-548
53. J.L. Tomkins L.W. Simmons Fluctuating asymmetry and sexual selection: paradigm shifts, publication bias and observer expectation In: M. Polak (Ed.) Developmental instability: Causes and consequences 2003 Oxford University Press New York 231-261
54. M.J. Tovée J.L. Maisey J.L. Emery P.L. Cornelissen Visual cues to female physical attractiveness Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B 266 1999 211-218
55. M.J. Tovée K. Tasker P.J. Benson Is symmetry a visual cue to attractiveness in the human female body? Evolution and Human Behavior 21 2000 191-200
56. R. Trivers Parental investment and sexual selection In: B. Campbell (Ed.) Sexual selection and the descent of man 1972 Aldine-Atherton Chicago 136-179
57. M.W. Wiederman The truth must be in here somewhere: Examining the gender discrepancy in self-reported lifetime number of sexual partners Journal of Sex Research 34 1997 375-386
58. M.W. Wiederman S.R. Hurst Body size, physical attractiveness, and body image among young adult women: Relationships to sexual experience and sexual esteem Journal of Sex Research 35 1998 272-281
59. G.C. Williams Sex and evolution 1975 Princeton University Press Princeton
60. L.A. Zebrowitz G. Rhodes Nature let a hundred flowers bloom: The multiple ways and wherefores of attractiveness In: G. Rhodes & L.A. Zebrowitz (Eds.) Facial attractiveness: Evolutionary, cognitive and social perspectives 2002 Ablex Westport, CT 261-293