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10 December 2004
Men Attracted To Subordinate Women 
A study, appearing in Evolution and Human Behavior, says men are more likely to want to marry women who are their assistants at work rather than their colleagues or bosses. The researchers say the study highlights the importance of relational dominance in mate selection. "These findings provide empirical support for the widespread belief that powerful women are at a disadvantage in the marriage market because men may prefer to marry less accomplished women," said Stephanie Brown, of the U-M Institute for Social Research. For the study, Brown tested 120 male and 208 female undergraduates by asking them to rate their attraction and desire to affiliate with a man and a woman they were said to know from work. "Imagine that you have just taken a job and that Jennifer (or John) is your immediate supervisor (or your peer, or your assistant)," study participants were told as they were shown a photo of a male or a female. After seeing the photo and hearing the description of the person's role at work in relation to their own, participants were asked to rate the extent to which they would enjoy going to a party with Jennifer or John, exercising with the person, dating the person and marrying the person. Brown and co-researcher Brian Lewis found that males, but not females, were most strongly attracted to subordinate partners for high-investment activities such as marriage and dating. "Our results demonstrate that male preference for subordinate women increases as the investment in the relationship increases," Brown said. "This pattern is consistent with the possibility that there were reproductive advantages for males who preferred to form long-term relationships with relatively subordinate partners. Given that female infidelity is a severe reproductive threat to males only when investment is high, a preference for subordinate partners may provide adaptive benefits to males in the context of only long-term, investing relationships - not one-night stands."
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