Are Human Mating Preferences with Respect to Height Reflected in Actual Pairings?

PLoS ONE

Volumn 8, Issue 1, 2013, Pages

  Stulp, Gert ^a   Buunk, Abraham P ^a,b   Pollet, Thomas V ^c   Nettle, Daniel ^d   Verhulst, Simon ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN   (Netherlands)

^b ROYAL NETHERLANDS ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   (Netherlands)

^c VU UNIVERSITY AMSTERDAM   (Netherlands)

^d NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; BODY HEIGHT; FEMALE; HUMAN; MALE; MATE CHOICE; MATING; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR; SEXUALITY; SIMULATION;

BODY HEIGHT; CHOICE BEHAVIOR; FEMALE; HUMANS; MALE; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR; SEXUAL PARTNERS;

EID: 84872452061     PISSN: None     EISSN: 19326203     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054186     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. Jennions MD, Petrie M, (1997) Variation in mate choice and mating preferences: a review of causes and consequences. Biol Rev 72: 283-327 doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.1997.tb00015.x.
2. Widemo F, Sæther SA, (1999) Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: causes and consequences of variation in mating preferences. Trends Ecol Evol 14: 26-31.
3. Cotton S, Small J, Pomiankowski A, (2006) Sexual selection and condition-dependent mate preferences. Curr Biol 16: R755-R765 doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2006.08.022.
4. Riebel K, Holveck M, Verhulst S, Fawcett TW, (2010) State-dependent mate preferences in birds and humans. Commun Integr Biol 3: 271-273 doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.1222.exual.
5. Rusbult CE, Buunk BP, (1993) Commitment processes in close relationships: an interdependence analysis. J Soc Pers Relat 10: 175-204 doi:10.1177/026540759301000202.
6. Houston AI, Székely T, McNamara JM, (2005) Conflict between parents over care. Trends Ecol Evol 20: 33-38.
7. Candolin U, (2003) The use of multiple cues in mate choice. Biol Rev 78: 575-595 doi:10.1017/S1464793103006158.
8. Magrath MJL, Komdeur J, (2003) Is male care compromised by additional mating opportunity? Trends Ecol Evol 18: 424-430 doi:10.1016/S0169-5347(03)00124-1.
9. Waynforth D, (1999) Differences in time use for mating and nepotistic effort as a function of male attractiveness in rural Belize. Evol Hum Behav 20: 19-28.
10. Johnstone RA, Reynolds JD, Deutsch JC, (1996) Mutual mate choice and sex differences in choosiness. Evolution 50: 1382-1391.
11. Courtiol A, Raymond M, Godelle B, Ferdy J-B, (2010) Mate choice and human stature: homogamy as a unified framework for understanding mating preferences. Evolution 64: 2189-2203 doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.00985.x.
12. Sear R, (2006) Height and reproductive success- How a Gambian population compares with the west. Hum Nature 17: 405-418.
13. Sear R, Marlowe FW, (2009) How universal are human mate choices? Size does not matter when Hadza foragers are choosing a mate. Biol Lett 5: 606-609 doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0342.
14. Sorokowski P, Butovskaya ML, (2012) Height preferences in humans may not be universal: Evidence from the Datoga people of Tanzania. Body Image 9: 510-516 doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2012.07.002.
15. Sorokowski P, Sorokowska A, Fink B, Mberira M, (2011) Variable Preferences for Sexual Dimorphism in Stature (SDS) Might Not Be Universal: Data From a Semi-Nomad Population (Himba) in Namibia. J Cross Cult Psychol 43: 32-37 doi:10.1177/0022022110395140.
16. Sear R (2010) Height and reproductive success: is bigger always better? In: Frey UJ, Störmer C, Willführ KP, editors. Homo novus-a human without illusions. Springer Berlin, Heidelberg. 127-143.
17. Pawlowski B, Koziel S, (2002) The impact of traits offered in personal advertisements on response rates. Evol Hum Behav 23: 139-149 doi:10.1016/S1090-5138(01)00092-7.
18. Kurzban R, Weeden J, (2005) HurryDate: Mate preferences in action. Evol Hum Behav 26: 227-244.
19. Gillis JS, Avis WE, (1980) The male-taller norm in mate selection. Pers Soc Psychol B 6: 396-401.
20. Mcmanus IC, Mascie-Taylor CGN, (1984) Human Assortative Mating for Height- Non-Linearity and Heteroscedasticity. Hum Biol 56: 617-623.
21. Oreffice S, Quintana-Domeque C, (2010) Anthropometry and socioeconomics among couples: Evidence in the United States. Econ Hum Biol 8: 373-384 doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2010.05.001.
22. Silventoinen K, Kaprio J, Lahelma E, Viken RJ, Rose RJ, (2003) Assortative mating by body height and BMI: Finnish twins and their spouses. Am J Hum Biol 15: 620-627 doi:10.1002/ajhb.10183.
23. Spuhler JN, (1982) Assortative mating with respect to physical characteristics. Soc Biol 29: 53-66.
24. Pawlowski B, (2003) Variable preferences for sexual dimorphism in height as a strategy for increasing the pool of potential partners in humans. Proc R Soc B 270: 709-712.
25. Salska I, Frederick DA, Pawlowski B, Reilly AH, Laird KT, et al. (2008) Conditional mate preferences: Factors influencing preferences for height. Pers Indiv Differ 44: 203-215 doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.08.008.
26. Fink B, Neave N, Brewer G, Pawlowski B, (2007) Variable preferences for sexual dimorphism in stature (SDS): Further evidence for an adjustment in relation to own height. Pers Indiv Differ 43: 2249-2257 doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.07.014.
27. Plewis I (2007) Millennium Cohort Study First Survey: technical report on sampling.
28. Hansen K (2008) Millennium Cohort Study First, Second and Third Surveys- A Guide to the Datasets.
29. Stulp G, Verhulst S, Pollet T V, Nettle D, Buunk AP, (2011) Parental Height Differences Predict the Need for an Emergency Caesarean Section. PLoS ONE 6: e20497.
30. Dex S, Joshi H (2004) Millennium Cohort Study: First Survey-A User's Guide to Initial Findings. London, United Kingdom: Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University of London.
31. Spencer EA, Appleby PN, Davey GK, Key TJ, (2002) Validity of self-reported height and weight in 4808 EPIC-Oxford participants. Public Health Nutr 5: 561-565.
32. Rowland ML, (1990) Self-reported weight and height. Am J Clin Nutr 52: 1125-1133.
33. Merrill RM, Richardson JS, (2009) Validity of self-reported height, weight, and body mass index: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. 2001-2006: 1-10.
34. R Development Core Team (2008) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing.
35. Buss DM, Abbott M, Angleitner A, Asherian A, Biaggio A, et al. (1990) International Preferences in Selecting Mates. J Cross Cult Psychol 21: 5-47 doi:10.1177/0022022190211001.
36. Courtiol A, Picq S, Godelle B, Raymond M, Ferdy J-B, (2010) From preferred to actual mate characteristics: the case of human body shape. PLoS ONE 5: e13010 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013010.
37. Silventoinen K, Krueger RF, Bouchard TJ, Kaprio J, McGue M, (2004) Heritability of body height and educational attainment in an international context: Comparison of adult twins in Minnesota and Finland. Am J Hum Biol 16: 544-555 doi:10.1002/ajhb.20060.
38. Cavelaars AEJM, Kunst AE, Geurts JJM, Crialesi R, Grotvedt L, et al. (2000) Persistent variations in average height between countries and between socio-economic groups: an overview of 10 European countries. Ann Hum Biol 27: 407-421.
39. Stulp G, Verhulst S, Pollet T V, Buunk AP, (2012) The effect of female height on reproductive success is negative in Western populations, but more variable in non-Western populations. Am J Hum Biol 24: 486-494.
40. Stulp G, Pollet T V, Verhulst S, Buunk AP, (2012) A curvilinear effect of height on reproductive success in human males. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 66: 375-384 doi:10.1007/s00265-011-1283-2.
41. Stulp G, Kuijper B, Buunk AP, Pollet T V, Verhulst S, (2012) Intralocus sexual conflict over human height. Biol Lett 8: 976-978 doi:10.1098/rsbl.2012.0590.