I also object to the notion that "women generally ...

2009-07-01T21:28:45.419-04:00

I also object to the notion that "women generally don't choose dates on that criterea". Sex differences imply a difference in the extent of focus on a quality, but they are not so easily reduced to (1) this quality is most important to men and not women or (2) one sex uses this criterea and the other does not.

That's not to suggest they're not important in mate selection, but differences do not imply that a quality is not used altogether.

I have a tendancy to comment on old posts, but any...

2009-07-01T21:25:10.136-04:00

I have a tendancy to comment on old posts, but anyway, here it goes.

First of all, to the broad point that men are more likely to focus on attractiveness than women, what you see depends on how you look. Much of the research that finds men place more emphasis on attractiveness comes out of questionaires and personal ad studies.

If you look at Feingold's 1990 meta-analysis, men did focus on attractiveness more than women, but the effect was more pronounced in self-reported paradigms than behavioral paradigms.

This can also be seen in specific papers.

Sprecher, S. (1989). The importance to males and females of physical attractiveness, earning potential and expressiveness in initial attraction. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,
21, 591-607.

Eastwick, P. W. & Finkel, E. J. (2008). Sex differences in mate preferences revisited: Do people know what they initially desire in a romantic partner? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 245-264.

Also, Julie Carmault's recent paper:
Carmalt, J.H., Cawley, J., Joyner, K., & Sobal, J. (2008). Body Weight and Matching with a
Physically Attractive Romantic Partner. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70(5), 1287-1296

Studies show that male attractiveness contributes to being with an attractive parnter:
Carmalt, J.H., Cawley, J., Joyner, K., & Sobal, J. (2008). Body Weight and Matching with a
Physically Attractive Romantic Partner. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70(5), 1287-1296

Moreover, you note the work of Rhodes explicitly. She did a study on sexual behavior, and the components of attractiveness influences mating success in both genders.

Rhodes, G. Simmons, L., & Peters, M. (2005). Attractiveness and sexual behavior: Does attractiveness enhance mating success? Evolution & Human Behavior, 26, 186-201.

Moreover, these effects are not solely isolated results. If you remember the testosterone papers, two showed that attractiveness enhanced success.

Peters et. al 2008 Animal Behavior and Honekopp et. al 2007 Evolution and Human Behavior found correlations between sexual partners and facial and body attractiveness. Hughes and Gallup found in two papers that male Shoulder-to-hip ratios are associated with higher mating success.

Another study found attractiveness was linked to higher sexual activity, and didn't note sex effects :
Weeden and Sabini Subjective and Objective measures of attractiveness and sexual behavior and sexual attitudes in University Students

Additionally, Marcus Jokela recently found that attractiveness was related to higher reproductive success in both genders. Evolution and Human Behavior in press.

Physical attractiveness and reproductive success in humans: evidence from the late 20th century United States

In the 1980s, Feingold found women who had more attractive partners than themselves were funnier and less neurotic.

Finally, in Barry Harper's 2000 paper, unattractive men were less likely to marry.

It's a reasonable question of how sex differences in the emphasis on
physical attractiveness, but the notion that studies of physical attractiveness have limited utility in mate choice because men focus on good looks more than women is clearly contradicted by a fair amount of data.

Comments on Difference Blog by Dan4th: Sexual Dimorphism in faces

I also object to the notion that "women generally ...

I have a tendancy to comment on old posts, but any...