The Evolution of Desire

by David M Buss

In the 1980s, David M Buss, one of the deans of modern evolutionary psychology, conducted a worldwide survey of more than 10,000 people from 37 different cultures. He and his collaborators simply asked what qualities they sought in their ideal mate. They discovered that, regardless of race, religion, history, culture, and geographic location, men and women everywhere sought very similar qualities in their mates. Men sought youth and physical attractiveness in their mates, whereas women sought resources and status in theirs.