What people say they want in a romantic partner differs sharply from what they actually pursue, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in September 2007.
Researchers observed a speed-dating event in Munich involving 21 women and 25 men. Before the session, participants reported wanting partners who matched them in looks, status, and commitment. Their real-time choices told a different story.
Men consistently gravitated toward the most physically attractive women. Women, by contrast, prioritized signs of financial security and long-term stability, and were considerably more selective: they expressed interest in roughly a third of the men they met, while men were open to pursuing about half the women.
Peter Todd, a cognitive scientist at Indiana University in Bloomington, found that women appeared to calibrate their choices against their own perceived attractiveness, ruling out men they felt were out of reach. Men showed no comparable self-filtering.
The researchers concluded the results support evolutionary psychology: women leverage their attractiveness to secure higher-quality partners, while men pursue any attractive woman willing to accept them, a pattern that historically produced more successful offspring.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in September 2007, in its own words.