Striking discrepancies between what people want in a potential partner and what the opposite gender imagines they want in romantic relationships; in addition, women appear to be better at imagining men’s preferences

Jago, Carl P. 2019. “What Women Say They Want Versus What Men Imagine They Do: A Convenient Method for Characterizing and Comparing Self-reported and Perceived Preferences.” PsyArXiv. September 4. doi:10.31234/osf.io/dh9ub

Abstract: Previous research has shown that, in the context of romantic relationships, men preferentially advertise traits such as wealth, status, and ambition while women preferentially advertise physical attractiveness. This finding is somewhat surprising in light of other previous research showing that men and women report these traits to be less important than others such as trustworthiness, intelligence, and warmth. In the current study, we addressed one potential reason for the disconnect, which is that men and women’s beliefs about what the other gender prefers are misguided. To address this, we asked participants to both self-report the traits they prefer in a romantic partner and to indicate what they imagine the opposite gender prefers. The results reveal some striking discrepancies between what people want in a potential partner and what the opposite gender imagines they want. In addition, women appear to be better at imagining men’s preferences, and we discuss several reasons why this might be the case.