A Cross-cultural Comparison of Mate Preferences among University Students; The United States Vs. The People’s Republic of China (PRC)

Abstract

In this study, college students from both North America (n = 648) and People’s Republic of China (n = 735) completed a questionnaire that asked about their preferences for characteristics in a mate. Drawing from both social and evolutionary theoretical perspectives, we predicted that traditional gender differences in mate preferences, such as men preferring physical attractiveness to a greater degree than women, would be found in both samples. We also explored other differences between the two cultures, including in the relative importance of the various traits. In both cultures, men emphasized physical attractiveness to a greater degree than women, whereas women emphasized characteristics associated with status (earning potential, social status, wealth) to a greater degree than men. Additional gender differences were found in the Chinese sample which may be associated with China’s more traditional emphasis on gender roles. Further analyses suggested that there was similarity between the two cultures in traits most and least desired but also differences in the relative importance of many of the traits. The greatest cross-cultural differences were found in preferences for “wants children” (desired more in the American sample than in the Chinese sample), “creative and artistic” and “good housekeeper” (both more important in the Chinese sample than in the American sample).