Monday, June 07, 2010
Strangers Influence Our Dating Preferences
From Indiana University
Skyler Place, a researcher in IU’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences has conducting this interesting study along with Peter M. Todd, professor in IU’s Cognitive Science Program.
In the researcher’s own words: “Humans don’t exist in a vacuum. From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes sense that we have evolved mechanisms that let us take advantage of the additional social information in our environment,” says Place.
In other words, paying attention to others’ preferences has advantages in terms of natural selection. Other animals do it, so why shouldn’t humans? It “make[s] for a more efficient search process,” Place says. “Who others like might also be a good choice for ourselves.”
For example, the concept of “mate choice copying” is one of the behaviors common in the animal world, and which this study tested for a similar response in human subjects. Researchers used video of speed-dating couplings to find evidence of “mate choice copying,” where an individual copies the mate selections of others.
The men’s interest in the women generally increased significantly if their male peer in the video appeared to be interested in the women. With the female study participants, their interest in the men in the video increased if their peers in the video appeared interested; but unlike their male counterparts, their interest in the men decreased if the women in the video appeared uninterested.
An intriguing finding involved the sway men had on each other. Place found that the interest of his male study participants in the women in the videos increased in relation to the good looks of the men in the video.
“For men, relative attractiveness of the people they’re watching matters—not just anyone can influence their behavior, just other men they think are at least as attractive as they are,” Place said. “We have also seen signs of this influence for women in a larger study still being analyzed.”
Read the full article here.
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