Well, if you turn the study IlliniDave linked around and view it from other perspective, it also could be used to prove that men care about almost nothing besides physical appearance (which is held invariant in photos) when dating/mating. IOW, a superficial study of general population is bound to produce superficial general population results. That said, I do agree that females, because just a bit more sensible or security-oriented, are more likely to shop for "life-style" factors earlier on in the process, especially if shopping for the long run.classical_Liberal wrote:What this does mean is that losing the option of expensive signaling (ie turning off a one way cash spigot) is more important to men than it is to women in mating prospects. IOW, maintaining enough money for signaling is much less important to 7WB5 than it is to 23 yr old male ERE adherent. Again, know the price you are paying.
Anyways, I would note for the record that my current BF who makes at least 3X more money than me on a bad day and covers all of my basic living expenses, doesn't think I am particularly good-looking. In fact, we both agree that he is better looking than me, and he says terrible things like "That garden center job doesn't even pay enough to make it worth the hassle, but I think you should keep it because you need the work-out." (True ) So, probably the reason why he hasn't dumped me yet is that it is more difficult to replace a female above the 99.9th percentile for intelligence and 65th percentile for attractiveness than it is to replace a man who is in the 93rd percentile for earnings and 85th percentile for attractiveness. Also, because his net worth is not at risk, because we are not married and would never be married without a pre-nup and/or because the word "marriage" immediately summons up "buried alive" feelings within me.
I would also note that due to a strong strand of perversity in human nature, it seems like it may be the case that men who are affluent enough to own yachts, may have preference for the sort of female who exhibit a form of behavior that is colloquially referred to as "f8ck and run." IOW, or more generally, humans who honestly don't expect much of anything from other humans are generally regarded as attractive by members of both genders.