Cross-Cultural Variation in Mate Preferences for Averageness, Symmetry, Body Size, and Masculinity

Sexual selection has greatly influenced the evolved biology, psychology, and culture of humans and favors individuals who choose healthy and fertile mates. Physical traits that cue quality are generally preferred and perceived as attractive. However, because such traits often involve cost-benefit trade-offs, mate preferences are expected to vary among cultures as a function of local ecology and social environment and among individuals as a …