伴侣选择：男女标准各不同

A new study suggests individuals choose a partner based upon their perception of a potential mate’s attributes and upside or downside potential.

Researchers determined men and women often use a framing process evaluating suitors from both positive and negative perspectives.

Still, as described in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, decision-making varies as each gender uses different criteria and viewpoints to make their choice.

For example, researchers from Concordia University discovered men responded more strongly to the “framing effect” when physical attractiveness was described.

Also, it may come as a surprise to learn that when we choose a partner, the framing effect is even stronger in women than it is for men.

“When it comes to mate selection, women are more attuned to negatively framed information due to an evolutionary phenomenon called ‘parental investment theory,’” said Gad Saad, Ph.D.

“Choosing someone who might be a poor provider or an unloving father would have serious consequences for a woman and for her offspring. So we hypothesized that women would naturally be more leery of negatively framed information when evaluating a prospective mate.”

To prove this, Saad and fellow researcher Tripat Gill, Ph.D., called on hundreds of young men and women to take part in their study.

Participants were given positively and negatively framed descriptions of potential partners. For example, “Seven out of 10 people who know this person think that this person is kind” (positive frame) versus “Three out of 10 people who know this person think that this person is not kind” (negative frame).

The researchers tested the framing effect using six key attributes, two of which are more important to men and women respectively, and two that are considered as necessities by both sexes:

attractive body (more important to men);

attractive face (more important to men);

earning potential (more important to women);

ambition (more important to women);

kindness (equally important to both);

intelligence (equally important to both).

Participants evaluated both high-quality (e.g. seven out of 10 people think this person is kind) and low-quality (e.g. three out of 10 people think this person is kind) prospective mates for these attributes, in the context of a short-term fling or a long-term relationship.

More often than not, women said they were far less likely to date the potential mates described in the negatively framed descriptions —even though in each instance, they were being presented with exactly the same information as in the positively framed descriptions.

Women also proved more susceptible to framing effects in attributes like ambition and earning potential, while men responded more strongly to framing when physical attractiveness was described.

新研究表明，个人在选择伴侣时往往基于潜在另一半的个人特征及其上升潜力或下行空间。

研究人员称，男性和女性通常运用框架思维，从积极和消极两个方面去评估追求者。

尽管如此，正如杂志《进化与人类行为》所讲，不同性别做决定时的标准与观点有所不同。

例如，来自肯高迪亚大学的研究者发现，当外表吸引力被发现时，男性对于“框架效应”往往会做出更强烈的反应。

并且，我们惊讶地发现，当我们选择伴侣时，框架效应在女性身上的体现甚至比男性更强烈。

“当我们选择伴侣时，女性更倾向于选择消极的框架信息，这应该归因于一个被称为‘亲本投资理论’的进化现象，”萨德-加德博士说。

“选择那些贫穷的养家者或者缺乏爱心的父亲将会给一个女人和她的后代带来严重的影响。因此我们推测女性在衡量未来的另一半时，对消极信息更加敏感。”

为了证明这个理论，萨德及其同事崔帕德·吉尔博士，邀请了上百个年轻的男性和女性参与调查。

参与者都被给予潜在伴侣的积极和消极的框架说明。例如，“认识这个人的10人中有7人认为这个人是好人”（积极的框架）以及“认识这个人的10人中有3人认为他不友善”（消极的框架）。

研究者用6个关键性控制程序测试框架效应，其中的两个分别对男性和女性更重要一些，并且这两个被看做是两性必需品：

有吸引力的身体（对男性来说更重要）

有吸引力的面孔（对男性来说更重要）

收入潜力（对女性来说更重要）

雄心壮志（对女性来说更重要）

仁慈善良（对两性都很重要）

聪明智慧（对两性都很重要）

参与者通过这些特征，在一个短期恋情或者长期关系的情境下来衡量高品质的（10人中的7人认为他是好人）和低品质的（10人中的三人认为他是好人）未来伴侣。

通常，女性称她们不太可能与消极框架下的潜在伴侣约会，尽管在每个例子中，她们被提供的信息和积极框架下的信息几乎完全相同。

同时，研究也证明女性会对框架效应更加敏感，尤其像抱负、收入潜力等特征，而男性则更看重外表。