Multimodal mate choice: Exploring the effects of sight, sound, and scent on partner choice in a speed-date paradigm

Tom S. Roth; Iliana Samara; Mariska E. Kret

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.04.004

Multimodal mate choice: Exploring the effects of sight, sound, and scent on partner choice in a speed-date paradigm

Tom S. Roth^*, Iliana Samara, Mariska E. Kret

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

When people meet a potential partner for the first time, they are confronted with multiple sources of information, encompassing different modalities, that they can use to determine whether this partner is suitable for them or not. While visual attractiveness has widely been studied with regard to partner choice, olfactory and auditory cues have received less attention, even though they might influence the attitudes that people have towards their partner. Therefore, in this study, we employed a combination of pre-date multimodal rating tasks followed by speed-date sessions. This offered a naturalistic setup to study partner choice and disentangle the relative effects of a priori attractiveness ratings of sight, scent and sound on date success. Visual attractiveness ratings showed a strong positive correlation with propensity to meet the partner again, while the effects of olfactory and auditory attractiveness were negligible or not robust. Furthermore, we found no robust sex differences in the importance of the three modalities. Our findings underscore the relative importance of visual attractiveness in initial mate choice, but do not corroborate the idea that static pre-date measures of auditory and olfactory attractiveness can predict first date outcomes.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	461-468
Number of pages	8
Journal	Evolution and Human Behavior
Volume	42
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.04.004
Publication status	Published - Sept 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
M.E. Kret was funded by a Dutch Research Council grant (#016.VIDI.185.036), ERC 2020 (H2020 European Research Council) Program for Research and Innovation Grant (#804582), and Templeton World Charity Foundation (the Diverse Intelligences Possibilities Fund; #TWCF0267) grants.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors

Funding

M.E. Kret was funded by a Dutch Research Council grant (#016.VIDI.185.036), ERC 2020 (H2020 European Research Council) Program for Research and Innovation Grant (#804582), and Templeton World Charity Foundation (the Diverse Intelligences Possibilities Fund; #TWCF0267) grants.

Keywords

Auditory cues
Mate choice
Multimodal perception
Olfactory cues
Romantic love

Access to Document

10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.04.004Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

1-s2.0-S1090513821000313-mainFinal published version, 796 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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abstract = "When people meet a potential partner for the first time, they are confronted with multiple sources of information, encompassing different modalities, that they can use to determine whether this partner is suitable for them or not. While visual attractiveness has widely been studied with regard to partner choice, olfactory and auditory cues have received less attention, even though they might influence the attitudes that people have towards their partner. Therefore, in this study, we employed a combination of pre-date multimodal rating tasks followed by speed-date sessions. This offered a naturalistic setup to study partner choice and disentangle the relative effects of a priori attractiveness ratings of sight, scent and sound on date success. Visual attractiveness ratings showed a strong positive correlation with propensity to meet the partner again, while the effects of olfactory and auditory attractiveness were negligible or not robust. Furthermore, we found no robust sex differences in the importance of the three modalities. Our findings underscore the relative importance of visual attractiveness in initial mate choice, but do not corroborate the idea that static pre-date measures of auditory and olfactory attractiveness can predict first date outcomes.",

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Multimodal mate choice: Exploring the effects of sight, sound, and scent on partner choice in a speed-date paradigm

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Keywords

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