Some of the most famous love stories ever written involve young and beautiful heroines struggling against the fear of poverty if they don’t marry. They then fall in love with men who are very rich and very powerful, which seems remarkably convenient in the circumstances. And it doesn’t seem that Elizabeth and Darcy’s, or Cinderella and Charming’s love stories are just a coincidence.
For years it has been argued that evolution has resulted in our choosing partners that will aid our success. For heterosexual men this means finding young healthy women that can produce and care for a family, and for heterosexual women finding a man that will protect and support her and her children physically and financially. But this could all be changing, according to recent research conducted by University of York’s own Psychologists Marcel Zentner and Klaudia Mitura. Focusing on heterosexual needs – although, obviously, not everyone is heterosexual – the professors have suggested that what had once been seen as natural instinct when looking for partners is merely a result of social conditioning. 
Zentner spoke to Vision about what the change in social roles between men and women could now mean for the changes in their relationships:
“Mate preferences are not random. They are dictated to a large extent by anticipated social roles.” Zentner and Mitura’s research, Stepping out of the Caveman’s Shadow, shows that this can be within a family or on a larger scale, as this is passed on through “mechanism of value transmission within families.” What a person will look for in a partner will therefore depend largely on how different the roles were between men and woman within the environment they were brought up.
Zentner sums up the implications with this example: “a woman earning a lot of money does not need a man with high earning potential – she will naturally look out for men with other qualities. In turn, in economically difficult times, and perhaps because sex is easily available today, men look for an intelligent woman partner who can be supportive both psychologically, and economically.”
This could mean that all the old stereotypes we know so well – that men look for young attractive women with good bodies who are good in the kitchen, and that women look for a wealthy men to keep them in nice shoes, and their children in nice schools – may be about to be flipped around. Yet on this point, Zenter was unsure; whilst he did say that the results suggest we are moving in this direction, no country in the world is close enough to total equality between the sexes for us to tell how far this pattern will continue. So whilst imminent role reversal may not be a reality, Zenter’s research stresses that the changes in mate preferences could signal “the intriguing possibility that gender differentiation may be bound to erode across a broad range of psychological attributes in societies where women and men are treated equally.”
So does this mean that we should ditch the makeup and the tight dresses in favour of some glasses and a book if we want to get some male attention? And should the boys care less about their career and more about their tan and their cooking skills? (From a totally unbiased perspective I am very supportive of the latter…) But perhaps not.
Societal roles between men and women do not change just between families and nations but also over age. Zentner explains: “We had a cohort of 20 to 30-year-olds, to compare our data with previous ones, but also because mate preferences are more easy and natural to express before you get married and committed to a long-term partner.” 
And it would appear our students are a very long way away from choosing marriage partners. Freya Sydney-Smith, a second-year History student, said that initially the most important thing in a man is “an instant physical attraction, mainly their smile and cheekbones. But I could never stay with someone based just on that they have to have a good personality I can get on with well.”
That could arguably be in line with research, with a lack of care about power and some focus on personality even if that is minimal… and yet our boys still seem to be as interested in personality as the cavemen were. Jamie Tobin, a third-year Economics student, said that the most important thing in a girl is “definitely looks. I think effort plays quite a big role in it as well, if a girl’s all dolled up and stuff I’d be more likely to notice her than if she was attractive but quite shy about it.”
So, York men may not have kept up with the research, but in the next few years we might see them picking media society girls over cheerleaders. You never know. But maybe I won’t chuck away the padded bras just yet. And as for the boys, they might have to find a way of getting attention without just flashing the cash at the bar.