Women More than Men Attend to Indicators of Good Character: Two Experimental Demonstrations

Abstract

Past research implicates adaptations in women to assess men's willingness to invest in offspring ( La Cerra, 1995 ). In two new studies, women's evaluations of an opposite-sex target as a long-term partner and short-term sex partner were negatively impacted by viewing that target ignore a baby in distress; this effect occurred for men in Study 1 only. Men's short-term sexual attraction to a female target was not affected by context. In Study 2, women responded similarly to a man vacuuming and to a man interacting with a happy baby. Neither sociosexual orientation nor sex-role beliefs moderated participants' sensitivity to targets' behavior. Women more than men appear to display a general sensitivity to an opposite-sex target's good character.