Mate preferences
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The generous man may share his meat from the hunt, aiding her survival. He may sacrifice his time, energy, and resources for the enefit of the children, aiding the woman’s reproductive success. In these respects the generous man has higher value than the stingy man as a mate. If, over evolutionary time, generosity in men provided these benefits repeatedly and the cues to a man’s generosity were observable and reliable, selection would have favored the evolution of a preference for generosity in a mate. …
Evolution has favored women who prefer men possessing those attributes that confer benefits and who dislike men possessing those attriutes that impose costs. Each separate attribute constitues one component of a man’s value to a woman as a mate. Each of her preferences tracks one critical component.
Preferences that give priority to particular components, however, do not completely solve the problem of choosing a mate. In selecting a mate, a women must deal with the problem of identifying and correctly evaluating the cues that signal whether a man indeed possess a particular resource. The assessment problem becomes especially acute in areas in which men are apt to deceive women, such as pretending greater status than they actually possess or feigning greater commitment than they are truly willing to give.
Finally, women face the problem of integrating their knowledge about a prospective mate. … Selecting a mate requires psychological mechanisms that make it possible to add up the relevant attributes and give each its appropriate weight in the whole. —p108-109, Evolutionary psychology