Men's Long Term Mating Preferences

Overview of the lecture focused on men's long-term mating preferences, specifically body characteristics, following prior discussions on facial features.

Feminization of the Face: Changes occur during puberty but significant changes happen elsewhere in the body affecting:
- Age: Signals related to a woman's age.
- Fertility Status: Indicators of a woman's fertility and suitability as a mate.
Evolutionary Prediction: Female body characteristics may have evolved due to:
- Selective pressures favoring traits associated with reproductive success.

Reproductive Demands: Females face significant demands during reproduction, including:
- Implantation, gestation, and delivery of the baby.
- Postpartum care, including breastfeeding.

Research Study: A video from MythBusters examines the relationship between breast size and tips received by women in a service setting.
- Experiment showed that women with augmented breasts received 30% more tips.
- Suggests a possible societal assumption regarding breast size and attractiveness.
Cultural Variations: While North American society shows a preference for larger breasts, there is inconsistent global data indicating that preferences may vary significantly.

Permanent Enlargement of Breasts: Unlike other mammals (e.g., chimpanzees), human females have permanently enlarged breasts without a direct functional requirement for lactation. laction requires mammary glands and the enlarged breasts are fat.
Conundrum in Attraction: Larger breasts are often perceived as signs of reduced fertility in the animal kingdom! presenting an evolutionary puzzle. in animals, very large breasts are not normal. for example, seal mothers have no breats at all as they need to be toned for swimming.

Butt Imitation Hypothesis: Proposes that human breast size may mimic that of the female baboon's buttocks, which attracts males as they become red when they are ready to mate.
- Questions the empirical support for this theory due to variability in primate mating behaviors for example, humans mate face-to-face.
Oxytocin Bonding Hypothesis: Implies that larger breasts could promote stronger bonding through increased interactions:
- Breastfeeding releases oxytocin, enhancing maternal bonding, and may encourage males to pay attention to the mother during breastfeeding interactions.
- by having larger breasts, males are attracted more and would interact with breasts more in intimate ways which would also follow the pattern of more oxytocin released and which would result in loyalty, love, commitment.
- other species that pair bond and mate for life like wolves have larger breasts.
- size matters- intersexual competition between females. larger sizes are more attractive.
- extra fat- healthy signalling. better to store fat there than anywhere else.
- preference is context sensitive. a study done in malasia.. men’s social economic background … preference of breas size. the result was that lower background preferred larger breasts which was speculated so because it meant healthier for offspring as mom can feed baby even with stored fat.
- british study- men in hunger going into the pub were more attracted to larger breasts.

Resource Signaling: Larger breasts may indicate health and resource availability: (Malaysian study)
- Some studies suggest that larger breasts are more attractive among men lacking resources, signaling better survival and reproductive potential.
Contextual Sensitivity: Men's preferences for breast size change based on immediate factors, such as:
- Hunger, where hungry men rate larger breasts as more attractive compared to satiated men. (british study)

Breast Preferences: Studies indicate different preferences for breast size based on whether men are seeking long-term or short-term relationships:
- Short-term mating preferences tend to emphasize larger breasts more than in long-term considerations.
- hypothesis for this would be that in short term mating, her signalling that she has bountiful access to resources is a good sign for man

Unique Ovulation Patterns: Unlike other mammals, human females do not display overt signs of ovulation, which leads to a strategy to keep males' focus year-round:
breasts are there regardless if she is breastfeeding, or pregnant. he pays attention all the time.
- Permanent breast enlargement may serve to obscure signs of fertility, fostering sustained male interest.

Peculiar Evolutionary Trait: The presence of permanently enlarged breasts in human females is not typical in the mammal kingdom and lacks clear empirical grounding.
Open questions remain regarding the evolutionary benefits and attraction mechanisms behind female breast size, indicating a need for further research in the field.

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