Handsome Wants as Handsome Does: Physical Attractiveness and Gender Differences in Revealed Sexual Preferences

Abstract

In this article I evaluate the effect of physical attractiveness on young adults' sexual and romantic outcomes to reveal gender differences in acted preferences. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a probability sample of young adults (n = 14,276), I investigate gender differences in desired sexual partner accumulation, relationship status, and timing of sexual intercourse. I find gender differences in sexual and romantic strategies consistent with those predicted by the double standard of sexuality and evolutionary theory. Specifically, compared to men, women pursue more committed relationships, fewer sexual partners, and delayed sexual intercourse.

Acknowledgments

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris and funded by Grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 ([email protected]). Thanks are due to Paula England and Michael Rosenfeld and to two anonymous Biodemography and Social Biology reviewers for their helpful comments on this article. A previous version was presented at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting (2010).

Notes

¹Studies of romantic and sexual relationships often draw on social exchange and equity theory from social psychology (e.g., Sprecher 1998; Udry 1981; Van de Rijt and Macy 2006): This provides an alternative to the market model. Social exchange theory (like the market model) addresses how individuals' relative endowments of desired traits influence partner formation, negotiation within relationships, and relationship dissolution. Which traits are desired in romantic and sexual partners is exogenous to social exchange theory (and to the market model): In the context of this paper, the social structural and evolutionary perspectives address what individuals want in relationships and the market or social exchange model explain how these desires are translated into actual (often compromised) outcomes. Although market and social exchange theories are fundamentally different, in this paper both theories yield the same hypotheses. Therefore, for simplicity, I address only the market model in the main text.