Female mate selection - how and why

[Rollo Tomassi]

No we covered that with the computer program. Each archetype was presented in a random order.

 

[iveyleeger]

Cool. It's a really interesting experiment. Did you flat out ask anyone why they chose M? It would be interesting to hear their explanations.

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

No, because that would bias the correlation. I have no doubt that our subjects later discussed their choices amongst each other and compared notes, but that's nothing we could add to our conclusions.

BTW I am working on a couple of new studies this summer that I think this forum would appreciate. I wont go into details now since that would predispose people, but they are very insightful.

 

[THE3RDGENERAL]

Originally posted by Rollo Tomassi
Below I have posted descriptions of 4 men from a case study I was involved with as part of my post-graduate thesis for personality psychology. These descriptions are excerpts from a case study comparing female mate selection. They were presented individually to 101 university women between the ages of 18 and 36. All were single/unmarried and none were aware of the intent of the experiment. I'll present more details of the experiment after you have chance to respond so as not to spoil your genuine responses. Here are the descriptions:


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M is an art student. M has always had a passion for painting and plans to pursue a career in art. He creates paintings of people and complex landscapes. His paintings are so lifelike that they are often mistaken for photographs. The consensus amongst his art professors is that he is, by far, the most talented student they have seen. One professor, an expert on lifelike paintings, says he believes M is one of the most talented artists ever to produce these paintings. To make extra money to support his schooling, M has sold a few of his best paintings. They have sold for between 100 and 200 dollars. One professor lamented that M's paintings are worth far more, but like so many other artists, he will probably never make very much money selling them.

L is an art student. He paints abstract paintings. L came into art by chance. He took an art class as an elective because it fit well in his schedule. For his midterm project, he produced an abstract painting after an hour of "fooling around" with the paint and canvas. The majority of the painting actually consisted of paint he accidentally spilled onto the canvas. A very wealthy man who was looking for art for his home discovered L's painting in the student art studio. He paid L $5000 dollars for the painting. Some of the man's other wealthy friends liked L's painting and commissioned a total of $100,000 in paintings from him. L and his art professors were shocked at the success of L's paintings, because, in the words of one professor, "he has no real talent, just some good luck." L continues to capitalize on his success by selling his abstract art.

L and M are considered highly desirable by other women on campus and very attractive. Friends of L and M say that they are dependable, kind, and generous friends.

J is an entrepreneur who had great success in his first business venture. He started a small software business in a friend's garage. His product was a new kind of software for improving factory designs to radically increase the profitability of manufacturing. Within his first year, J secured contracts with Ford, General Electric, and Boeing. In the next three years, J sold his software to most of the top manufacturing companies in the United States and several of the top companies in Asia. After 5 years in business, J's company was valued at 120 million dollars and had 250 employees. The Wall Street Journal credited the success of J's company to the "brilliance and novelty" of J's product and to J's "sheer genius as a businessman." However, J's company fell victim to misfortune the next year. After J rejected a take-over bid from Microsoft, Microsoft filed a lawsuit claiming that J's software infringed on some of their patents. Although most experts agreed that the suit had no merit, the cost of defending himself against the lawsuit created huge cash flow problems for J, which drove the company into bankruptcy. Although J has very little money left, he has recently begun a new business venture to sell another of the software products he has invented.

R recently inherited 20 million dollars from the couple who had adopted him when he was a year old. They died in a car crash, having made their fortune in commercial real estate. Before they died, R worked as a sales person at a computer company. Although R worked at the company for several years, he had not advanced past his starting salary or rank within the company. He went to a community college, but after graduation he didn't feel sure what to do with his life. A friend who was working at the computer company suggested that R join him and work there. In R's words, "I guess I'm just not very good at this job. At least now I won't have to worry about money any more." R and his adoptive parents were very close, and he was deeply saddened by their deaths.

J and R are both in the mid-twenties. They were recently nominated as two of the most eligible bachelors in Los Angeles.
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Of these 4 men, which do you suppose was rated the highest in desirability with which to have a short-term sexual affair with by these women? And which man was rated the highest in desirability to enter into a long-term relationship with?

Is there a way to find out the answer with out reading the entire thread???

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

Always happy to cater to impatience,..

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77436&perpage=20&pagenumber=2

 

[iveyleeger]

Rollo,

How does it bias the correllation? I mean, if you asked them afterwards to explain their choice?

I'm just curious how this stuff works. This is a great field of study.

 

[frivolousz21]

where are the sports guys??????


geez!

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

IVEY: It's just proper methodology. Any correlations we make as a study group need to have the least amount of outside influence, otherwise it appears that we are finding what 'we wanted to' rather than being objective about the results. We weren't testing for personal opinion, nor was this ever stated as criteria for the theory statement - individual interpretation is simply too broad to outline and then you get into real foggy areas for psychology when you attempt to base correlations on self-reports. I suppose we could've asked them post synopsis and conclusion, but even doing this would bring the experiment's validity into question for later review if we were to site it for further theory or study and people knew we'd done post experiment evaluations.

FRIVOLOUS: The test was designed to evaluate Creative Intelligence vs. Provisioning Ability and the legitimacy of talent vs. means of earning provisioning. By introducing a 'Jock' to the descriptions you bias the results and the archetypes needed to be generic in defining physical attractiveness. All of the guys had to be at least of the same physical attractiveness and describing one as an athlete would bias results based on physical conditioning.