Why men are attracted to subordinate women

[Dover]

Why men are attracted to subordinate women

10 Dec 2004

Men are more likely to want to marry women who are their assistants at work rather than their colleagues or bosses, a University of Michigan study finds.

The study, published in the current issue of Evolution and Human Behavior, highlights the importance of relational dominance in mate selection and discusses the evolutionary utility of male concerns about mating with dominant females.

"These findings provide empirical support for the widespread belief that powerful women are at a disadvantage in the marriage market because men may prefer to marry less accomplished women," said Stephanie Brown, lead author of the study and a social psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR).

For the study, supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, Brown and co-author Brian Lewis from UCLA tested 120 male and 208 female undergraduates by asking them to rate their attraction and desire to affiliate with a man and a woman they were said to know from work.

"Imagine that you have just taken a job and that Jennifer (or John) is your immediate supervisor (or your peer, or your assistant)," study participants were told as they were shown a photo of a male or a female....cont'd

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=17589

[autorank]

1. Those men who are have questions about their masculinity!!!

Speaking as an expert, (i.e., a man), this is soooooo true. Some men see women of equal or greater intelligence, drive, success as threats to their tired little notion that they have to be #1. Then some of them get bored with their choice and go out and find a new, yet subordinate woman to mack on. It is so boring to see this. What a bunch of dweebs.

[JPace]

2. While nothing is true for everyone or "all" people there are some

generalities that are "mostly" true. This is one of them.

Women (females) mostly seek to feel loved, while men (males) mostly seek to feel admired. Men are most likely to be admired by females who are socially on a lower plane then them while socially superior women are less likely to admire a male on a socially lower level.

We are attracted to people less because of who they are than how we "feel" in their presence.

[autorank]

3. Men are from Pluto; Women are from Jupiter!

[Digit]

4. This is also why I amired Kerry and Edwards so much....

They both married strong women and had no problem with it.

[DireStrike]

5. I disagree with the findings.

"Our results demonstrate that male preference for subordinate women increases as the investment in the relationship increases," Brown said. "This pattern is consistent with the possibility that there were reproductive advantages for males who preferred to form long-term relationships with relatively subordinate partners.

"Given that female infidelity is a severe reproductive threat to males only when investment is high, a preference for subordinate partners may provide adaptive benefits to males in the context of only long-term, investing relationships---not one-night stands."


That's all well and good, but it's only a correlation. I agree with the first paragraph, and I agree with the second paragraph. I do not think this study links the two very strongly. There are many more factors at work than basic evolutionary concerns, among them the nature of our social structure. It is possible that the men prefer subordinate women not out of nature, but out of other factors.