Posted on 12/21/2004 3:59:39 PM PST by beavus
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Men are more likely to want to marry women who are their assistants at work rather than their colleagues or bosses, a University of Michigan study finds.
The study, published in the current issue of Evolution and Human Behavior, highlights the importance of relational dominance in mate selection and discusses the evolutionary utility of male concerns about mating with dominant females.
"These findings provide empirical support for the widespread belief that powerful women are at a disadvantage in the marriage market because men may prefer to marry less accomplished women," said Stephanie Brown, lead author of the study and a social psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR).
For the study, supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, Brown and co-author Brian Lewis from UCLA tested 120 male and 208 female undergraduates by asking them to rate their attraction and desire to affiliate with a man and a woman they were said to know from work.
"Imagine that you have just taken a job and that Jennifer (or John) is your immediate supervisor (or your peer, or your assistant)," study participants were told as they were shown a photo of a male or a female.
After seeing the photo and hearing the description of the person's role at work in relation to their own, participants were asked to use a 9-point Likert scale (1 is not at all, 9 is very much) to rate the extent to which they would enjoy going to a party with Jennifer or John, exercising with the person, dating the person and marrying the person.
Brown and Lewis found that males, but not females, were most strongly attracted to subordinate partners for high-investment activities such as marriage and dating.
"Our results demonstrate that male preference for subordinate women increases as the investment in the relationship increases," Brown said. "This pattern is consistent with the possibility that there were reproductive advantages for males who preferred to form long-term relationships with relatively subordinate partners.
"Given that female infidelity is a severe reproductive threat to males only when investment is high, a preference for subordinate partners may provide adaptive benefits to males in the context of only long-term, investing relationships---not one-night stands."
According to Brown, who is affiliated with the ISR Evolution and Human Adaptation Program, the current findings are consistent with earlier research showing that expressions of vulnerability enhance female attractiveness. "Our results also provide further explanation for why males might attend to dominance-linked characteristics of women such as relative age or income, and why adult males typically prefer partners who are younger and make less money."
For more information on the ISR Evolution and Human Adaptation Program, visit: http://rcgd.isr.umich.edu/ehap/
And I bought her a new diamond "past present future" ring for Christmas and let her open it yesterday.
If you want to see a strong woman go to a divorce hearing.
Sounds odd to me. What state?
Sometimes I'm in the mood for an 'Outer Limits/House-on-Haunted-Hill' rush of adrenalin...;-D
Btw, I've rescheduled my lobotomy...
That isn't a strong woman, that is a beeyatch.
Let's him have the remote????? He seizes the remote, which is just fine (most of the time) since I prefer reading to watching TV.
Since I "let" him open his new digicam the other day it was only fair.
Simple - they decided they weren't attracted to you any more (and there's no nice or easy way to tell you that, so they evade explanations). Once a woman decides she is no longer attracted to you, it's all over, and there's nothing you can do to change her mind - whether you've been dating for two weeks or married for twenty years.
I think men have a slight preference to "marry down" as the article describes, though it's not as strong as women's preference to "marry up". A man always worries about the terrible risk of looking like John Kerry if he marries above his station. ;)
In all 3 cases, it was well over a year LATER when I asked them, "Please, just tell me WHY ...
By which I meant, a year or more after the breakup. None of these women dated me for a year or even close to it.
But that doesn't detract from your point at all. They just decided, suddenly, they were no longer attracted to me, and you're quite right:
Once a woman decides she is no longer attracted to you, it's all over, and there's nothing you can do to change her mind.
Awwww, honey. You didn't have to do that for ME. You're SUCH a wonderful guy! What'd I EVER do to deserve you?
Oh, and sweetie, could you fix my shoe before I take you to the doc, pretty please? I can't find the mask! Just the pearls. Do you suppose you won't need that lobotomy after all?
Bubula? Wha???
Majority of women that choose to aspire to go to an Ivy League university do not select to work arduously before getting into the school of preference and later at the school so that she looks more attractive to a male. Women aspire to go to top universities to be taught by the most renowned faculty in the county and sometimes in the world, to make acquaintances of peers that have similarly high aspirations, and undoubtedly, for professional advancement.
Women in managerial positions are not normal? :-)
Talking from experience? :-) Successful women would not ordinarily have time to get into the petty battles of the wills.
Man, you are COLD. (I know, and I'm BLUNT.) Where is the LOVE in any of your comments about relationships and marriage?
Congrats! ;^)
The only thing that is annoying at times is that a lot of males (not all) are intimidated by strong, confident, and successful women.
Come on! You know -- "boobala." Or Bubby. You've heard of that pet name before, right? (Maybe I'm not spellin' it right)
Hmmm...what did you ever do to deserve me?? You mean besides your kooky playfulness in a sexy-kinda-wayness, your intellectual prowess demonstrated on this thread, and heart of gold? (stroke, stroke ;-)
Oh...and the lobotomy? Good -- then I will be passin'. Helen Thomas mask?? Passin' again -- Halloween's over anyway, so go ahead and put on the pearls....But I'm having the darndest time fixing your shoe with the remote in one hand, and quart of Colt 45 in the other. You'll just have to resort to teetering around on your practically flat 4 inchers...:-D
P.S. -- do NOT run this post through FR's spell check...
Now there's a strong woman who knows what she wants!
Men that are intimidated by strong women is definitely not one of those things.
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