Being More Educated and Earning More Increases Romantic Interest: Data from 1.8 M Online Daters from 24 Nations

Human Nature 33 (2):115-131 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

How humans choose their mates is a central feature of adult life and an area of considerable disagreement among relationship researchers. However, few studies have examined mate choice (instead of mate preferences) around the world, and fewer still have considered data from online dating services. Using data from more than 1.8 million online daters from 24 countries, we examined the role of sex and resource-acquisition ability (as indicated by level of education and income) in mate choice using multilevel modeling. We then attempted to understand country-level variance by examining factors such as gender equality and the operational sex ratio. In every nation, a person’s resource-acquisition ability was positively associated with the amount of attention they received from other site members. There was a marked sex difference in this effect; resource-acquisition ability improved the attention received by men almost 2.5 times that of women. This sex difference was in every country, admittedly with some variance between nations. Several country-level traits moderated the effects of resource-acquisition ability, and in the case of unemployment this moderating role differed by sex. Overall, country-level effects were more consistent with evolutionary explanations than sociocultural ones. The results suggest a robust effect of resource-acquisition ability on real-life mate choice that transcends international boundaries and is reliably stronger for men than women. Cross-cultural variance in the role of resource-acquisition ability appears sensitive to local competition and gender equality at the country level.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Romantic Conception of Robert J. Richards.Ruse Michael - 2004 - Journal of the History of Biology 37 (1):3 - 23.
An Over-view of Online Recruitment: The Case of Public and.Nuran Ally Mwasha - 2013 - European Journal of Business and Management 5 (32):11-21.
The Phenomenology of the First Date after Connecting Online.Nicholas Jacobs - 2019 - Phenomenology and Practice 13 (1):42-51.
So You Think You Are a Darwinian?David Stove - 1994 - Philosophy 69 (269):267 - 277.
Nietzsche Contra Nietzsche. [REVIEW]George J. Stack - 1991 - Review of Metaphysics 44 (4):838-839.
Love Online: Emotions on the Internet.Aaron Ben-Ze'ev - 2004 - Cambridge University Press.
What Does It Mean to Be an Educated Person?Naomi Hodgson - 2010 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 44 (1):109-123.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-04-06

Downloads
5 (#1,344,154)

6 months
1 (#1,040,386)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations