Interpersonal trust and market value moderates the bias in women’s preferences away from attractive high-status men

Chu, S.; Farr, D.; Munoz, L.C.; Lycett, J.

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.03.033

Interpersonal trust and market value moderates the bias in women’s preferences away from attractive high-status men

Chu, S.; Farr, D.; Munoz, L.C.; Lycett, J.

Authors

S. Chu

D. Farr

L.C. Munoz

J. Lycett

Contributors

LC Centifanti fmnv66@durham.ac.uk
Other

Abstract

Women appear to exhibit a subtle reluctance to engage in long-term relationships with physically attractive, high-status men. We propose that this bias away from men of very high market value is based on fear that these males may desert a relationship and also on the comparative self-perceived market value of the women. Therefore, interpersonal trust and perceived market value should moderate the extent of this counterintuitive bias. To test this proposal, we asked women with varying levels of interpersonal trust and self-perceived desirability to consider physically-attractive and physically-average men of high, medium and low socioeconomic status and rate each in terms of attractiveness as a long-term partner. Results showed that women’s perceptions of their own desirability and their level of trust predicted their ratings of men with high-value in the mating market, and that women with high levels of both desirability and trust were less likely to show a bias away from high-value men. Interpersonal trust and desirability moderate the degree to which women find physically attractive men attractive as potential partners.

Citation

Chu, S., Farr, D., Munoz, L., & Lycett, J. (2011). Interpersonal trust and market value moderates the bias in women’s preferences away from attractive high-status men. Personality and Individual Differences, 51(2), 143-147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.03.033

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Jul 1, 2011
Deposit Date	Aug 11, 2011
Publicly Available Date	Apr 24, 2014
Journal	Personality and Individual Differences
Print ISSN	0191-8869
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	51
Issue	2
Pages	143-147
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.03.033
Keywords	Mate-choice preferences, Interpersonal trust, Market value, Attractiveness, Socioeconomic status.

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Copyright Statement
this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Personality and Individual Differences. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Simon Chu, Danielle Farr, Luna C. Muñoz, John E. Lycett, Interpersonal trust and market value moderates the bias in women’s preferences away from attractive high-status men, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 51, Issue 2, July 2011, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.03.033.