A matter of priority: on the necessity of necessities and luxuries in mate preferences

Bryan K. C. Choy and Norman P. Li

Chapter 22 in Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, 2026, pp 390-403 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Evolutionary perspectives emphasize the importance of physical attractiveness and status and resource-related traits to men's and women's long-term mate preferences, but extant evidence (before the target article) revealed surprisingly weak support for such a contention. Li and colleagues (2002) addressed this disconnect by demonstrating that people's priorities would only be revealed when choices are constrained and tradeoffs must be made. In three studies that used two novel methods—including the budget allocation paradigm—the target article affirmed differences in what men and women considered a necessity or luxury in long-term mates. In the current retrospective chapter, we review the impact of this now-classic article: we consider the state of research before its publication, its core arguments and findings, and its impact on mate preferences research and beyond.

Keywords: Mate Preferences; Sex Differences; Budget Allocation Paradigm; Mate Screening Paradigm; Necessities And Luxuries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035332496
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035332502.00033 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:23314_23

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().