16 Apr Based on a recently collected large international sample of single (i
The Current Study
e., unpartnered) women, the main goal of our study was to conceptually replicate and extend the study by Schwarz and Hassebrauck (2012). Those researchers investigated sex and age effects on partner preferences in a sample of 21,245 single, heterosexual participants from Germany (18–65 years old) using 82 mate selection criteria evaluated in earlier studies. Their findings were clear: sex was a major explanatory factor in partner preferences, but age explained very little of the variability in reported partner preferences.
Our study included partner preferences conceptually similar to those investigated by Schwarz and Hassebrauck (2012). In addition, however, we assessed the strength of respondents' preference regarding parenting by asking Sveitsin naiset haluavat naimisiin them to rate (1) the importance of a partner sharing their preferred number of children and (2) the importance of a partner's parenting intentions.