Many factors influence the mate choice

Partner choice influenced by hormones, odor and stress

23/08/2012

Mate choice is influenced by a variety of factors, with subconscious behaviors playing a far greater role than most newly-adored ones. Scientific studies have shown that stress or pill intake is related to the beauty and choice of partner.

Scientists at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Westminster in London recently published a study in the journal "PLoS ONE" that stressed men favor bulky women. Again and again, physicians and psychologists state that relatively minor factors appear to have a significant influence on mate choice. On the whole, there is a suspicion that the willful decision plays only a minor role in love happiness.

Stress makes fat women attractive to men
The results of the British researchers around viruses Swami from Westminster University in London have been surprising, especially as slim female bodies today are regarded as a general ideal of beauty and a connection between the stress and the sense of beauty seemed rather absurd. As part of their study, Swami and colleagues had presented eighty European men with ten standardized photographs of women's bodies, from which they had to select the ideal figure and indicate which thick and thin bodies they still consider attractive. In the photos, women's bodies from obese (obese) to severely underweight were seen by the objective measure of body mass index (BMI). Before the evaluation, half of the subjects underwent a stress test in which they had to speak for twenty minutes in front of a committee and solve a math problem. Afterwards they had a 20-minute break before evaluating the pictures of the women. The subjects of the control group did not undergo a corresponding stress test in contrast to the experimental group.

Filled women signal security to stressed men
The research team at Westminster University found that stressed men on average enjoyed significantly thicker women better than subjects in the control group. The scientists explain the tendency of stressed men to women with wide hips and feminine curves with the sense of security that convey this. From an evolutionary point of view, the rounder female forms signal sufficient access to food, better health, and a more stable female cycle than thinner women, the British scientists reported in the article "The Influence of Mental Stress on Men's Judgments on the Female Body." Indirectly, their study has confirmed the hypothesis of biologists, neurologists and other experts that people and animals in stressful situations have an increased need for safety, Swami and colleagues continue.

The intake of the pill influences the choice of mate
Apart from these psychological factors, the physical attributes also play a decisive role in mate choice, whereby not only the body of potential partners is important, but also their own body weight. Scottish scientists have found out that fat people are more likely to opt for a partner who is also overweight. Also, the pill or the associated changes in the hormone balance are directly related to the mate choice, because the pill influences the preferences of women for the body odor in men, so the finding from studies of Italian and British scientists.

Subconscious factors determine the partnership
Furthermore, the pill has not only effects on the partner choice but also on the mating behavior. Impairments of libido are well known to many women who have been taking the pill for several years. Also, women who took the pill at the beginning of a partnership feel that their sex lives are on average less fortunate than women who have otherwise or not prevented them from getting to know each other. Overall, however, women's relationships last longer when they've been taking the pill with the pill, British researchers led by Craig Roberts of the University of Stirling reported last year in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. In addition, women under the influence of the pill apparently select men who are genetically more similar to them. How the sense of smell, the hormones and other unobtrusive factors influence the choice of a partner and which part of the choice of a partner actually makes a conscious decision, has not yet been conclusively clarified. However, many point out that much of the decision is subconscious. (Fp)

Read about:
Pill changes the mate choice and relationship
Loyalty in partnerships is very important
Brain activity proves lifelong love