伴侶選擇：男女標準各不同

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，個人在選擇伴侶時往往基於潛在另一半的個人特徵及其上升潛力或下行空間。

研究人員稱，男性和女性通常運用框架思維，從積極和消極兩個方面去評估追求者。

儘管如此，正如雜誌《進化與人類行爲》所講，不同性別做決定時的標準與觀點有所不同。

例如，來自肯高迪亞大學的研究者發現，當外表吸引力被發現時，男性對於“框架效應”往往會做出更強烈的反應。

並且，我們驚訝地發現，當我們選擇伴侶時，框架效應在女性身上的體現甚至比男性更強烈。

“當我們選擇伴侶時，女性更傾向於選擇消極的框架信息，這應該歸因於一個被稱爲‘親本投資理論’的進化現象，”薩德-加德博士說。

“選擇那些貧窮的養家者或者缺乏愛心的父親將會給一個女人和她的後代帶來嚴重的影響。因此我們推測女性在衡量未來的另一半時，對消極信息更加敏感。”

爲了證明這個理論，薩德及其同事崔帕德·吉爾博士，邀請了上百個年輕的男性和女性參與調查。

參與者都被給予潛在伴侶的積極和消極的框架說明。例如，“認識這個人的10人中有7人認爲這個人是好人”（積極的框架）以及“認識這個人的10人中有3人認爲他不友善”（消極的框架）。

研究者用6個關鍵性控制程序測試框架效應，其中的兩個分別對男性和女性更重要一些，並且這兩個被看做是兩性必需品：

有吸引力的身體（對男性來說更重要）

有吸引力的面孔（對男性來說更重要）

收入潛力（對女性來說更重要）

雄心壯志（對女性來說更重要）

仁慈善良（對兩性都很重要）

聰明智慧（對兩性都很重要）

參與者通過這些特徵，在一個短期戀情或者長期關係的情境下來衡量高品質的（10人中的7人認爲他是好人）和低品質的（10人中的三人認爲他是好人）未來伴侶。

通常，女性稱她們不太可能與消極框架下的潛在伴侶約會，儘管在每個例子中，她們被提供的信息和積極框架下的信息幾乎完全相同。

同時，研究也證明女性會對框架效應更加敏感，尤其像抱負、收入潛力等特徵，而男性則更看重外表。