In mate selection, what is predicted about male and female preferences?

• A. Men are attracted to healthy, childbearing women; women are attracted to men who provide resources.
• B. Men are attracted to younger women; women to taller men.
• C. Men are attracted to women with high status; women to physically strong men.
• D. Men are attracted to women with fashionable clothing; women to men with humor.

Answer: (A)

Understanding mate preferences through parental investment theory explains why men and women tend to look for different traits in long-term partners. Because women typically invest more in offspring (gestation, caregiving), they are selective for partners who can provide resources and support that will help offspring survive and thrive. Men, with a comparatively lower obligatory investment, benefit from cues of fertility in potential mates—traits that indicate the likelihood of successful reproduction such as health and childbearing potential.

So the predicted pattern is that men are attracted to healthy, fertile women, while women are attracted to men who can provide resources. This is a general, cross-cultural tendency observed in research, though individual preferences vary and other traits (like kindness, humor, or shared values) also matter.

Other options mix in traits like age, height, status, physical strength, fashion, or humor in ways that don’t align with the primary evolutionary prediction about fertility cues for men and resource provisioning for women, which is why the stated answer best fits the theory.