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qspeechc
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I was rather less than surprised to find that over the decades both men and women have placed increasing importance on attractiveness when looking for a mate. You can download the report I read here:
http://www.akst.com/Writings/Looks%20DO%20Matter.pdf
Just another thing to be sad about. Or maybe you think there's nothing wrong with that. Oh, I don't know! If you marry someone you'll eventually both be old and ugly so I suppose you'd like a little more than good looks for a good marriage; then again, if you want fit kids, marry a stunner, wait till the kids grow up then divorce each other. Hm.
What do you think?
http://www.akst.com/Writings/Looks%20DO%20Matter.pdf
In a fascinating cross-generational study of mating preferences, every 10 years different groups of men and women were asked to rank 18 characteristics they might want enhanced in a mate. The importance of good looks rose “dramatically” for both men and women from 1939 to 1989, the period of the study, according to David M. Buss, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Texas. On a scale of 1 to 3, the importance men gave to good looks rose from 1.50 to 2.11. But for women, the importance of good looks in men rose from 0.94 to 1.67. In other words, women in 1989 considered a man’s looks even more important than men considered women’s looks 50 years earlier. Since the 1930s, Buss writes, “physical appearance has gone up in importance for men and women about equally, corresponding with the rise in television, fashion magazines, advertising, and other media depictions of attractive models.”
In all likelihood this trend will continue, driven by social and technological changes that are unlikely to be reversed anytime soon—changes such as the new ubiquity of media images, the growing financial independence of women, and the worldwide weakening of the institution of marriage. For better or worse, we live now in an age of appearances. It looks like looks are here to stay.
Just another thing to be sad about. Or maybe you think there's nothing wrong with that. Oh, I don't know! If you marry someone you'll eventually both be old and ugly so I suppose you'd like a little more than good looks for a good marriage; then again, if you want fit kids, marry a stunner, wait till the kids grow up then divorce each other. Hm.
What do you think?
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