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/
I can't help but think of Jack Nicholson's character from a few good men (Col Jessup). In particular, his comment praising high ranking women (so he could get a BJ from a superior officer).
I hear ya there bub.
"Domination is Sweeter than Fornication" --- Neopolitan Saying
Then the only thing that a successful attractive woman can do is to search for a male that is even more successful (and probably by a lot)?
LOL, I wasn't criticizing you. I was just pointing out that there was another thread with a lot of comments about the same subject. It's a different article from a different source, so there's no way you could have known.
Did they factor out that subordinates are probably prettier and younger?
Didn't think so...
Two words: NO NAGGING
Does anyone notice that this study is from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, that liberal haven that spawned the SDS, and has been for decades a Berkeley wannabe?
Not at all, a sharp mind is important to both sides in a relationship. If a woman happens to be more accomplished than the man in a relationship, he should be glad and celebrate her accomplishments. I'm only saying men have a need to be relevant, to be needed, and to be appreciated. I think a man's need to be needed is stronger than a woman's because of history. Men were always the providers and protectors. Those are distinctly masculine traits. To take a man's 'necessity' away would not leave him much, and I think would cause some level of resentment in the relationship.
"Hey, handsome."
Well, you ASKED for it!
You'll have no excuse after a few Freepers check out your homepage ;-)
the trait that men wish to avoid is pushy, bossy women. It is an inaccurate description to say that the desirable women are "sublordinate". It is this kind of definitional skewing that makes this study fairly useless.
There are other psychic conotations to the word "subordinate" which the "testers" and "designers" of this study and the reporting on it, wish to convey and those meanings are other than the meanings strictly entailed in their original use of the term "subordinate" ---simply that a person is not your boss or colleague at work.
This is why thsess kinds of studies are so pernicious.
And the rest of Miss Thomas' pick-up line:
"I've got a pool to be cleaned, and toenails to be painted"...."HOW MUCH, SONNY???"
Sooo.... Men fear infidelity in long-term relationships, therefore, they tend to prefer subordinate women. The same subordinate women that other men find attractive. Because women with lots of men attracted to them are less likely to be unfaithful. Sure, makes sense to me.
THANK YOU! This will probably nullify the statement that attractive women don't go to college. Some attractive women received their advanced degrees from Ivy League school. Now, how about this, ah? Now, who will wear the pants in the relationship? :-)
I think you are on to something there. After 4 years college, 4 years of grad school, 4 years of med school, 4 years of law school, and 4 years of establishing herself in her profession, her youthful glow may not be what it once was.
The thing to do is to get little girls into law school while little boys are still in little league.
Cool confident professional women have no time for nagging.
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