In comparison to biological sex differences and mate preferences, differences in sexual orientation and mate preferences have received limited attention in the literature. The aim of the current experiment was to explore the relationship between biological sex and sexual orientation on the necessity of a long-term and short-term mate's physical attractiveness and social level. Three hundred and seven participants recruited from an Australian university and the wider community completed an online questionnaire assessing necessities of mate characteristics. Results of independent-measures ANOVAS showed that heterosexual men considered a long-term mate's physical attractiveness significantly more of a necessity than heterosexual women. Additionally, individuals of a homosexual sexual orientation considered the social level of a long-term mate significantly more of a necessity than individuals with a heterosexual sexual orientation, but not individuals of a bisexual sexual orientation. Finally, results showed that individuals of a heterosexual sexual orientation considered the physical attractiveness of a short-term mate significantly more of a necessity than did individuals of a homosexual sexual orientation and individuals of a bisexual sexual orientation. Results of the current study suggest research should not just assume equivalence of mate preferences between individuals of differing sexual orientations.

A number of studies have described different preference patterns typically found for women and men when selecting a long-term partner. Despite the number of investigations on the topic, one must be careful not to generalise because most studies use samples of North American undergraduates. In this study, heterosexual participants from Brazil and Portugal rated the desirability characteristics in a possible long-term partner. The sample was composed of 402 participants, of whom 187 were Brazilian (92 women and 95 men) from Brasília University, Brazil; and 215 were Portuguese (121 women and 94 men) from Porto University, Portugal. Participants of each culture responded to the same 18 items, measuring four factors: personality, physical attractiveness, resources, and abilities. As predicted, women rated indicators of personality, resources, and abilities significantly higher than men, who rated physical attractiveness higher. Brazilian students rated resources higher than did Portuguese students. The findings are discussed in the context of some evolutionary and sociocultural notions posited in explanations of mating behaviour. Limitations of this methodology are discussed.

Extensive research on sex differences in mate preferences has found that men desire the physical attractiveness of a potential partner more than do women, and women desire the status and resources potential partner more than do men. The aim of the current study was to explore these sex differences in mate preferences specifically in the Australian culture, a culture that has not yet received attention in mate preferences literature. The current study predicted Australian men and women would exhibit traditional sex differences in mate preferences. The current study also aimed to explore the effect of variation in Australian women's socio-economic status (SES) and their corresponding ratings of characteristics in a potential partner. One hundred and forty-four Australian participants completed a mate selection questionnaire and results supported traditional sex differences in mate preferences. Results also found that women's SES had no effect on desirability of status and resources, but positively related to desirability of physical attractiveness in a potential partner. Results are discussed in terms of evolutionary and social-economic theories.

Contemporary mate preferences can provide important clues to human reproductive history. Little is known about which characteristics people value in potential mates. Five predictions were made about sex differences in human mate preferences based on evolutionary conceptions of parental investment, sexual selection, human reproductive capacity, and sexual asymmetries regarding certainty of paternity versus maternity. The predictions centered on how each sex valued earning capacity, ambition— industriousness, youth, physical attractiveness, and chastity. Predictions were tested in data from 37 samples drawn from 33 countries located on six continents and five islands (total N = 10,047). For 27 countries, demographic data on actual age at marriage provided a validity check on questionnaire data. Females were found to value cues to resource acquisition in potential mates more highly than males. Characteristics signaling reproductive capacity were valued more by males than by females. These sex differences may reflect different evolutionary selection pressures on human males and females; they provide powerful cross-cultural evidence of current sex differences in reproductive strategies. Discussion focuses on proximate mechanisms underlying mate preferences, consequences for human intrasexual competition, and the limitations of this study.

An increasing number of studies find females to base their mate choice on several cues. Why this occurs is debated and many different hypotheses have been proposed. Here I review the hypotheses and the evidence in favour of them. At the same time I provide a new categorisation based on the adaptiveness of the preferences and the information content of the cues. A few comparative and empirical studies suggest that most multiple cues are Fisherian attractiveness cues or uninformative cues that occur alongside a viability indicator and facilitate detection, improve signal reception, or are remnants from past selection pressures. However, much evidence exists for multiple cues providing additional information and serving as multiple messages that either indicate general mate quality or enable females that differ in mate preferences to choose the most suitable male. Less evidence exists for multiple cues serving as back-up signals. The importance of receiver psychology, multiple sensory environments and signal interaction in the evolution of multiple cues and preferences has received surprisingly little attention but may be of crucial importance. Similarly, sexual conflict has been proposed to result in maladaptive preferences for manipulative cues, and in neutral preferences for threshold cues, but no reliable evidence exists so far. An important factor in the evolution of multiple preferences is the cost of using additional cues. Most theoretical work assumes that the cost of choice increases with the number of cues used, which restricts the conditions under which preferences for multiple cues are expected to evolve. I suggest that in contrast to this expectation, the use of multiple cues can reduce mate choice costs by decreasing the number of mates inspected more closely or the time and energy spent inspecting a set of mates. This may be one explanation for why multiple cues are more common than usually expected. Finally I discuss the consequences that the use of multiple cues may have for the process of sexual selection, the maintenance of genetic variation, and speciation.

The aim of this review is to consider variation in mating preferences among females. We define mating preferences as the sensory and behavioural properties that influence the propensity of individuals to mate with certain phenotypes. Two properties of mating preferences can be distinguished: (1) ‘preference functions’ – the order with which an individual ranks prospective mates and (2) ‘choosiness’ – the effort an individual is prepared to invest in mate assessment. Patterns of mate choices can be altered by changing the costs of choosiness without altering the preference function. We discuss why it is important to study variation in female mating behaviour and identify five main areas of interest: Variation in mating preferences and costs of choosiness could (1) influence the rate and direction of evolution by sexual selection, (2) provide information about the evolutionary history of female preferences, (3) help explain inter-specific differences in the evolution of secondary sexual characteristics, (4) provide information about the level of benefits gained from mate choice, (5) provide information about the underlying mechanisms of mate choice. Variation in mate choice could be due to variability in preference functions, degree of choosiness, or both, and may arise due to genetic differences, developmental trajectories or proximate environmental factors. We review the evidence for genetic variation from genetic studies of heritability and also from data on the repeatability of mate-choice decisions (which can provide information about the upper limits to heritability). There can be problems in interpreting patterns of mate choice in terms of variation in mating preferences and we illustrate two main points. First, some factors can lead to mate choice patterns that mimic heritable variation in preferences and secondly other factors may obscure heritable preferences. These factors are divided into three overlapping classes, environmental, social and the effect of the female phenotype. The environmental factors discussed include predation risk and the costs of sampling; the social factors discussed include the effect of male–male interactions as well as female competition. We review the literature which presents data on how females sample males and discuss the number of cues females use. We conclude that sexual-selection studies have paid far less attention to variation among females than to variation among males, and that there is still much to learn about how females choose males and why different females make different choices. We suggest a number of possible lines for future research.