A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attention has been directed towards the relationship between sex ratio and mate preferences, despite the importance of mate preferences in the human mating literature. To address this gap, we examined sex ratio's relationship to the variation in preferences for attractiveness, resources, kindness, intelligence and health in a long-term mate across 45 countries (n = 14 487). We predicted that mate preferences would vary according to relative power of choice on the mating market, with increased power derived from having relatively few competitors and numerous potential mates. We found that each sex tended to report more demanding preferences for attractiveness and resources where the opposite sex was abundant, compared to where the opposite sex was scarce. This pattern dovetails with those found for mating strategies in humans and mate preferences across species, highlighting the importance of sex ratio for understanding variation in human mate preferences.

Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision Making Department of Economics University of Amsterdam Amsterdam 1081 The Netherlands

Center for Social and Psychological Sciences Institute of Experimental Psychology SAS Bratislava 84104 Slovakia

Center for Social Anthropology Russian State University for the Humanities Moscow 119991 Russia

Center of Social Studies University of Coimbra 3004 Coimba Portugal

CNRS National Center for Scientific Research Dynamic Language Laboratory University Lyon 2 Lyon France

Deparment of Anthropology Istanbul University Istanbul 34452 Turkey

Department of Animal and Human Biology Faculty of Biology University of Havana Havana Cuba

Department of Applied Psychology NUR International University Lahore Pakistan

Department of Applied Psychology Vivekananda College University of Delhi Delhi 110095 India

Department of Child and Family Studies Kyung Hee University Seoul 024 47 Republic of Korea

Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur 50603 Malaysia

Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management Faculty of Natural Sciences Comenius University Bratislava 84215 Slovakia

Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Amsterdam 1081 The Netherlands

Department of Experimental Psychology Institute of Psychology University of São Paulo São Paulo 05508 030 Brazil

Department of Management Sciences DHA Suffa University Karachi 75500 Pakistan

Department of Mental Health Faculty of Medicine Gulu University Gulu 166 Uganda

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences University of California Santa Barbara CA 93106 USA

Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences University of Sétif2 Sétif 16000 Algeria

Department of Psychology Ankara University Ankara 6560 Turkey

Department of Psychology Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong People's Republic of China

Department of Psychology Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences University of Zagreb Zagreb 10000 Croatia

Department of Psychology Faculty of Arts University of Ljubljana Ljubljana 1000 Slovenia

Department of Psychology Franklin and Marshall College Lancaster 17603 USA

Department of Psychology Institute of Philosophy and Psychology C Rădulescu Motru of Romanian Academy UNATC Bucharest Bucharest Romania

Department of Psychology Islamabad Model College for Boys F 10 4 Islamabad 44000 Pakistan

Department of Psychology Izmir University of Economics Izmir 35300 Turkey

Department of Psychology Norwegian University of Science and Technology 7491 Trondheim Norway

Department of Psychology Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro 22451 000 Brazil

Department of Psychology South West University 'Neofit Rilski' Blagoevgrad 2700 Bulgaria

Department of Psychology Stockholm University Stockholm 10691 Sweden

Department of Psychology Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Milan 20123 Italy

Department of Psychology University of British Columbia Vancouver Canada V6T 1Z4

Department of Psychology University of Delhi Delhi 110021 India

Department of Psychology University of Haripur 22620 Pakistan

Department of Psychology University of Nigeria Nsukka 410002 Nigeria

Department of Psychology University of Social Sciences and Humanities Vietnam National University Hanoi 100000 Vietnam

Department of Psychology University of Texas at Austin Austin TX 78712 USA

Department of Psychology Westminster College Salt Lake City UT 84105 USA

Department of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine TU Dresden Dresden 1069 Germany

Department of Social Psychology University of Granada Grenada 18010 Spain

Department of Social Sciences Free University of Tbilisi Tbilisi 2 Georgia

Department of Sociology and Anthropology and

English Language Department Middle East University Amman 11181 Jordan

Equipe de Neuro Ethologie Sensorielle Jean Monnet University Saint Etienne France

Escuela de Psicología Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Santiago 8331150 Chile

Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia UNAM Morelia 58190 Mexico

Facultad de Psicología Universidad de la República Motevideo 11200 Uruguay

Faculty of Arts Department of Psychology University of Maribor Maribor 2000 Slovenia

Faculty of Health Sciences and

Faculty of Life Sciences University of Vienna Vienna 1090 Austria

Faculty of Social Sciences and Health Care Department of Psychological Sciences Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra Nitra 94974 Slovakia

Fakultas Ilmu Komunikasi Universitas Prof Dr Moestopo Jakarta 10270 Indonesia

Grupo de Psicología Política y Social Departamento de Psicología Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú Lima 15088 Perú

Institute of Applied Psychology University of the Punjab Lahore 54590 Pakistan

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow 119991 Russia

Institute of Psychology University of Pécs Pécs 7624 Hungary

Institute of Psychology University of Tartu Tartu 50090 Estonia

Institute of Psychology University of the State of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro 21941 901 Brazil

Institute of Psychology University of Wroclaw Wroclaw 50137 Poland

Institute of Psychology Vilnius University Vilnius 1513 Lithuania

Institute of Zoology Slovak Academy of Sciences Bratislava 84506 Slovakia

Instituto Universitário de Lisboa CIS IUL Lisboa 1649 026 Portugal

Laboratory Education Formation Travail Department of Sociology and

Laboratory EFORT Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences University of Algiers 2 Algiers 16000 Algeria

Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organisations Université Catholique de Louvain Louvain la Neuve 1348 Belgium

North Star Alliance Kampala Uganda

Organization and Human Resource Management Central University of Finance and Economics Beijing 102202 People's Republic of China

Psychology Department Universidad Latina de Costa Rica San José 11501 Costa Rica

Psychology Faculty and

Research School of Psychology Australian National University Canberra 2601 Australia

School of Education Universiti Utara Malaysia Sintok 6010 Malaysia

School of Fine Arts Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece and Katedra Psychologie Palacký University Olomouc Czech Republic

School of Psychology Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile Santiago 8331150 Chile

Smell and Taste Clinic Department of Otorhinolaryngology TU Dresden Dresden 01307 Germany

Social Behavior Research Center Faculty in Wroclaw SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities Wroclaw 53238 Poland

Universidade Católica Portuguesa Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics Católica Lisbon Research Unit in Business and Economics Portugal

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Exploring Attitudes Toward "Sugar Relationships" Across 87 Countries: A Global Perspective on Exchanges of Resources for Sex and Companionship

Individual Differences in How Desirable People Think They Are as a Mate

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