Why Women Want Wealthy, High-Status Men
No, not because they are gold diggers. Evolutionary psychology provides exciting explanations.
Do women really prefer wealthy men with status? My gut feeling tells me yes. I mean, just have to look at the groupies of famous musicians.
But don’t take my opinion, let’s look at what science says.
In order to better navigate my own dating life, as well as to better understand human behavior in general, I’ve been studying evolutionary psychology a lot lately.
At a time when on the one hand Red Pill gurus are spreading radical, almost misogynistic views, often emotionally charged. On the other hand, social scientists seem almost completely to deny differences between the sexes. Evolutionary psychology, in my opinion, offers rational, logical explanations for the differences between men and women.
Evidence That Women Tend To Want Wealthy Men With Status
Let’s turn now to sex differences in the importance of a partner’s wealth and status. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you which direction these differences go in, but in case you’ve been asleep all your life, the finding is that, on average, women have a stronger preference for both of these traits than men.
This is how Steve Stewart-Williams begins the chapter on this topic in his book “The Ape That Understood The Universe”.
The following facts suggest that this is true.
- In surveys, women state that the wealth and status of a partner is more important to them than men do.
- Men who claim to have a good job are more successful at online dating.
- Women are more likely to end a relationship because of a poor financial situation or lack of ambition on the part of the man.
- Women find characteristics that predict wealth and status more attractive in men than men do in women. These are characteristics such as ambition, self-confidence, and competence.
- Moreover, it can be observed that women prefer partners who earn more than they do. I have shed more light on this in the following article.
The Evolutionary Explanations For This
1. Pair-bonding/ biparental care
Evolutionary psychology assumes that we unconsciously select our partners on the basis of evolution in such a way that we have the best possible chance of producing healthy offspring, which in turn have a good chance of reproducing. Because our biological goal, which is virtually anchored in our DNA, is to pass on our genes.
The most attractive physical features, for example, the hourglass shape in women or the v-shaped torso in men, are indications of health and good genes, which is why we have evolved to find them particularly attractive.
Since men usually invest in their offspring, it would make evolutionary sense for women to find not only healthy genes but also a certain wealth and status attractive. Since these things make the survival of offspring more likely, women may have evolved to find these traits attractive.
Stewart-Williams describes it like this:
Ancestral women who preferred men who were more willing and more able to invest in them and their offspring had more surviving offspring, and thus the preference inevitably spread.
2. Wealth and status as signs of good genes
But there is a second theory, which has nothing to do with the investment of the man in the offspring, according to the author.
Ancestral Men who succeeded in monopolizing resources and clawing their way to the top of the social ladder tended to be genetically fitter men, and that’s why women evolved their sexual fetish for them.
This Preference Seems To Be Really Anchored In The Genes
As David Buss noted, women everywhere rated their partner’s financial situation as more important than men. On average, twice as important. It did not matter whether monogamous or polygamous, capitalist or communist societies were studied. This preference was also found across religions and ethnicities. Even during the feminist movement in the 60s and 70s, this did not change.
As A Man, What To Do With This Information?
I think the first thing you can learn from this as a man is that you should accept that this preference of women for wealth and stauts exists. That it is natural, formed by evolution, and not a character flaw or anything.
Therefore, one should not condemn women for it. That would be just like condemning other men for their preference for women with curvy bodies.
Besides, you can take this as an incentive to try to improve your financial position if you want to become more attractive as a man.
Thanks for reading!
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