Attraction

Variables of Attraction
A Study of Characteristics That Attract the Opposite Sex
Orlando Garcia
University of Texas Pan American

Author Note
The author note is used to provide information about the author’s departmental affiliation, acknowledgments of assistance or financial support, and a mailing address for correspondence. An example follows:
Orlando F. Garcia, University of Texas PanAmerican
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Orlando F. Garcia, 801 Kendlewood Avenue, McAllen, TX 78501.
E-mail: ofgarcia627@gmail.com

Abstract
This study attempts to determine what characteristics men and women deem most important when looking for a long-term, romantic relationship. The information was gathered via a survey, which allowed respondents to rate on ascale from one to five how important they considered certain physical and non-physical characteristics were when searching for a partner. We administered ten questions not including those determining demographic information. 5 of the questions were physical and the other five non-physical. The study concluded that women were slightly more concerned with non-physical attributes in a man(specifically economic status), whereas men were more concerned with physical attributes in women. However, commensurate to our hypothesis, the one physical attribute that women were more concerned with was height. Overall, our study proved to be consistent with prior research on the subject.
Variables of Attraction
A Study of Characteristics That Attract the Opposite Sex
The study of how humans selecttheir desired mates is still quite vague and inconclusive. One of the most notable studies invokes the research of Charles Darwin and his revisions to “natural selection” and how it may transcend from the animal kingdom to the human race. Within this approach, characteristics of both the participant(s) and the prospective mate(s) must be assessed in order to determine whether they arecharacter-specific assortments or cross-character assortments (Buss and Barnes, 1986). In the study herein, however, there is no specific characteristic assessment taken of the participants other than their gender, age, ethnicity and marital status. Thus, this study is more generally documenting what characteristics (both physical and non-physical) are deemed to be of more importance when considering along-term relationship (i.e. cohabitation, marriage, procreation) and does not claim to determine why these various characteristics are priorities implemented by each participant respectively. Other studies such as in (Regan, Levin, Sprecher, Christopher, Cate, 2000) document how characteristics may vary in importance depending on whether the person is looking for a short-term relationship (i.e.one-night-stand, sexual affair) or a long-term, romantic relationship. In contrast, our study is gauging only one type of relationship, that being long-term or romantic in nature. The variables we were measuring were equally distributed to both sexes. They are characteristics we felt are most pertinent to mate selection and reflect what is most prevalent in contemporary dating. We subdivided thecharacteristics/variables into physical and non-physical categories. However, when we administered our survey we randomly assigned the physical and non-physical type questions mixed amongst each other in the questionnaire so that neither category would receive preferential treatment due to some extraneous interaction (e.g. if the survey taker had little time to take the survey, he or she may not answer thelast section honestly). The main purpose of this study was to get a contemporary perspective on what characteristics of males and females are determined to be key factors in prospective long-term relationships. We hypothesized that between the two sexes more importance would be placed on non-physical attributes rather than physical. Also, for each sex respectively, we hypothesized that women...