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Human mate choices are influenced by various sociodemographic, physical, and psychological characteristics of a prospective partner. Majority of research on absolute partner preferences focuses on what is considered attractive across various individuals (see e.g., Buss, 1989; Regan et al., 2000). This line of research yielded evidence on high agreement with respect to attractiveness both within and across cultures (r > 0.90) (see a meta-analysis, Langlois et al., 2000). Agreement in attractiveness assessment between individual raters is, however, much lower (r > 0.50) (see a meta-analysis, Feingold, 1992). It seems therefore that despite a strong general consensus in attractiveness assessments in general, there exists a substantial variability between individual preferences (Hönekopp, 2006). This interindividual variability may be due to relative partner preferences (e.g., based on own characteristics and experiences, Figueredo et al., 2006; see a review, Štěrbová and Valentová, 2012). It is also possible, moreover, that an individual’s partner preferences also change over time (Kościński, 2010).

In non-human animals, it has been found that individual consistency of female mate preferences is rather low and context-dependent, because it varies depending on females’ age, environment, and conditions (Cotton et al., 2006; Jennions and Petrie, 2007; Bell et al., 2009). In humans, ontogeny of mate preferences has been studied mostly cross-sectionally (Brumbaugh and Wood, 2013; Boothroyd and Vukovic, 2018). This approach revealed differences among various age groups which were due to changes in hormonal levels, personal development, and the like (Kościński, 2011), but it did not track intraindividual variation in preferences in a longitudinal fashion. Kościński (2010) tested individual consistency of facial attractiveness assessment and found that self-correlation of women’s assessment was approximately 0.78, which means that about 40% (1–0.78²) of individual variation in attractiveness rating varies over time. To sum up, existing evidence suggests that preferences can change over time with age and reproductive stage of life, and that they can change in reaction to current circumstances (Rosenthal, 2017).

In short, it has been established that over time, mate preferences are to some degree plastic, but research of intraindividual stability in real mate choice in humans is sparse. To the best of our knowledge, only three studies so far tested individual consistency of mate choice (Eastwick et al., 2017; Newman et al., 2018; Štěrbová et al., 2018). They found consistency in preferences for eye color (Štěrbová et al., 2018; but cf. Newman et al., 2018), hair color (Štěrbová et al., 2018), attractiveness, masculinity, vitality, depression, delinquency, religiosity, educational aspirations, self-esteem, and intelligence (Eastwick et al., 2017). It is important to note, however, that the effect sizes were rather low. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that mate choice is affected by a vast array of demographic, physical, and personality traits.

In the present study, we tested individual consistency of mate choice with respect to traits that play an important role in human mating context and could therefore have a substantial impact on reproduction (Little, 2015). To wit, it is possible that different characteristics are valued in non-reproductive as opposed to reproductive relationships, that is, that different characteristics result in direct versus indirect benefits to offspring (Boothroyd and Vukovic, 2018).

The following is a list of characteristics we followed with respect to stability of individual mate preference in women:

All procedures followed were in accordance with ethical standards of the relevant committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Charles University, Faculty of Sciences (Approval number 2016/23). All participants were informed about the goals of the study and approved their participation by clicking button ‘I agree’ below the informed consent. Written informed consent was not obtained because the study was conducted online.

The test was administered online using the Qualtrics platform. At the outset, respondents were asked to confirm their informed consent. In order to examine consistency of mate choice, respondents described their all (ex-)partners using image stimuli to assess their physical traits, indicated their demographic characteristics, and answered questions in a personality assessment questionnaire. They indicated only those characteristics they clearly remembered, otherwise they were asked to skip the question. A total of 206 (38.36%) out of 537 individuals involved in the analysis failed to indicate at least one of their partners’ characteristics. To make the process easier on the participants, they indicated the names or assigned nicknames to all (ex-)partners at the beginning of questionnaire. These (nick)names were then displayed with each question, meaning the respondent did not have to remember the order of (ex-)partners and we could be reasonably certain that for each partner, we know all the characteristics the participant remembers. This study was part of a wider research, which is why respondents also answered questions pertaining to their fathers. The whole procedure took approximately 80 min.

All analyses described below were conducted using the R 3.5.1 software. The code is available at: https://github.com/costlysignalling/Mate-choice-consistency-2.

Mate choice consistency was higher than expected in all assessed qualities except for facial masculinity and beardedness. Difference between observed and expected consistency was statistically significant in most qualities, but effect sizes differed substantially. While consistency of mate choice in residence or weight was substantial, it was only medium-sized or small with respect to hair or eye color. Complete results are summarized in Table 1 and Figure 1.

The average effect size was highest in demographic variables, but none of the pairwise comparisons between groups of variables (demographic, physical, and psychological) was statistically significant (p > 0.1). Permutation test results are visualized in Figure 1. All sample sizes and descriptive statistics of all variables are listed in the Appendix. The different estimates of effect size were highly correlated. The proportion of males who had to be relocated between respondents correlated with the variance accounted for by the respondent at 0.93, whereby a linear model of relationship between these two measures supports the idea that the latter is approximately double of the former. The slope in the model where respondent-attributable variance regressed on the proportion of partners to relocate was 2.08 (95% CI = 1.72–2.45) with minimal (not significantly different from 0) intercept of -0.18 (95% CI = -3.19–2.83). Results yielded by the simple Pearson correlation correlated at 0.91 with the percentage of partners to relocate and at 0.98 with respondent-attributable variance. All of these measures can be thus treated as functionally equivalent.

Links between pairs of partners’ qualities are summarized in Table 2. In total, 103 out of 210 correlations were significant even after Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple comparisons. Maximal cumulative effect size was 50.95% (expressed in the proportion of partners to switch between individuals). The first 10 variables ordered according to their unique contribution starting with the highest (residence, weight, relative height, age difference, attractiveness, hair color, openness, BMI, height, agreeableness, in this order) explained 48.30% of partner assignment. The other 11 variables contributed little (their unique contributions were less than 1%) or not at all (after the inclusion of all other variables, facial masculinity and beardedness failed to show any positive numbers). Full results are visualized in Figure 2.

Reaching maximal possible effect size suggests that adding yet other variables to a similar model of cumulative consistency would add little to our current sum. On the other hand, it is conceivable that one might select precisely those variables which are not intercorrelated and explain a majority of mate choice consistency in just a handful independent dimensions. In theory, complex interaction patterns may lead to an even higher cumulative effect size since 50% of partners to relocate as an effect size limit applies to a single variable with two levels and represents the difference between maximal and minimal consistency (i.e., not maximal and expected). The high proportion of significantly correlated pairs of variables (49%), does, however, fit well within the impression of a substantial redundancy in our model.

Permutation test of changes in mate choice consistency revealed that fathers are significantly exceptional amongst participants’ long-term partners in beardedness, muscularity, hirsuteness, extraversion, and openness. The average without these individuals was lower than the in permutation runs where an equivalent proportion of random partners (i.e., fathers and non-fathers) was excluded. Fathers were not significantly typical long-term partners in any of the assessed qualities. Complete results of these tests are summarized in Table 3 and visualization is provided in Figure 3.

In qualities where fathers were indicated as exceptional individuals (except for extraversion), mean trait values differed between fathers and non-fathers, while variances differed in beardedness, muscularity, and hirsuteness. Fathers were more bearded, hairier, more muscular, and showed a higher openness to experience. These differences might explain the overall exceptionality of fathers except for extraversion. It seems that fathers are outliers within partner sets even where the group means and variances of father and non-father sets do not differ. Moreover, fathers lived in larger cities, had higher education, were heavier and taller (although relatively, their height was closer to the height of respondents), more attractive and masculine, had lighter eyes, darker hair, more masculine faces, and were more agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable than non-fathers.

Group variances differed in several qualities. Fathers were significantly more variable than non-fathers with respect to age difference from the respondent and less variable in attractiveness, masculinity (general and facial), BMI, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. It seems that along these variables, either or both of the extremes are not the right for the ‘father material’. A graphic overview which compares densities that indicate differences between group means and variances is presented in Figure 4. Complete results in a textual form are listed in Table 4.

The aim of this study was to examine consistency of mate choice with respect to a variety of demographic, physical, and personality characteristics. We found that women choose long-term partners consistently across all types of characteristics (demographic, physical, and personality), but consistency was not observed in all tested traits. We also investigated potential differences in tested characteristics between long-term ex-partners and partner(s) with whom women had child(ren). Results revealed that fathers in general fit the women’s ‘type,’ although differences between them and other (ex-)partners are not large. Our findings are in line with earlier research (Eastwick et al., 2017; Štěrbová et al., 2018 but cf. Newman et al., 2018), which found that people consistently choose partners with certain traits, although reported effect sizes were rather small.

Is there any potential advantage to having a ‘type’? We could assume that preference for a particular ‘type’ may facilitate mate choice decisions. In theory, the pool of potential partners is immense and in the most extreme case covers almost one half of adult human population on Earth. This theoretical pool is, of course, unrealistic, but even so, people do have many potential partners to actually choose from. In order to navigate this vast amount of opportunities, it may be useful to follow a certain direction in this multidimensional trait space of human characteristics. Preference for a certain ‘type’ would constrain the spectrum of potential choices and reduce the dimensionality of trait space. A systematic, ‘type-directed’ exploration of this multidimensional trait space would facilitate better orientation on the ‘mating market.’ In short, having a ‘type’ means that women need not create new preferences always anew and based on random choices, i.e., it precludes them from jumping unsystematically across the vast dimensionality of trait space. A ‘type’ should not be viewed as a rigid attractor but rather as a polarizing filter which canalizes the selection of optimal partner. A ‘type’ is thus not a target in itself but rather the means by which a goal can be reached (and, e.g., an appropriate partner for reproduction, a father, found). This is why fathers do not fully correspond to a typical partner and show some, however, small, deviation from the type.

This setup of optimal partner preferences may be beneficial. Mate choice not guided by such relatively stable but to some degree flexible preferences would be much more cognitively demanding and time-consuming. What remains unclear, however, is when and how are these preferences established. One of such mechanisms could be the imprinting-like effect (parent–partner similarity) or homogamy (self-similarity) (see Štěrbová et al., 2018). Moreover, parent-partner similarity can be promoted by emotional closeness with a parent during childhood (Saxton, 2016). Some plasticity of preferences may be adaptive also because it helps individuals adjust their preferences according to the current situation (e.g., ecological circumstances, inner state, their own characteristics which vary over time, experiences). From an evolutionary perspective, variation in mate preferences is important for speciation and diversification (Rodríguez et al., 2013). Species can adapt to changing circumstances by adjusting their mate choice. One might assume that learning would decrease the consistency of mate choice, that one would, for instance, choose a partner with characteristics different from an earlier partner because of negative experiences. On the other hand, mate choice is a mostly non-conscious process, which implies that partner preferences are not easily modulated by experience. Our findings support these assumptions, because we found that women have a ‘type’ and choose partners who fit it.

One can only speculate whether mate choice when reproduction is in question differs from earlier preferences, i.e., preferences in a non-reproductive context. From an evolutionary perspective, the most important partner is the one with whom a woman will reproduce. This is why we tested whether fathers fit the women’s ‘type,’ or rather whether fathers’ characteristics differ from characteristics of the non-fathers.

Our results show that although consistency is found across all of woman’s long-term partners, there are some notable differences between non-fathers and fathers. In particular, fathers disrupted consistency in beardedness, hirsuteness, muscularity, extraversion, and openness. The means and variance differ significantly between fathers and non-fathers in many other characteristics as well. This could be due to several reasons. First of all, it is possible that men with whom women reproduce actually differ from those with whom they do not. It should be noted, however, that most characteristics vary over time. This finding may thus be a side effect of higher age of fathers compared to non-fathers, especially in those characteristics where fathers disrupt mate choice consistency. Secondly, differences between fathers and non-fathers might be due to time-dependent cultural shifts. For instance fashions concerning beardedness vary significantly over time, which may cause a higher mutual similarity among former partners (non-fathers) as opposed to fathers (the most recent partner). Moreover, from an evolutionary perspective, these slight differences among partners could be due to the fact that each partner could be a potential father of a woman’s children. It may be therefore beneficial for a woman not to experiment too much in her mate choice.

Nevertheless, some differences between fathers and non-fathers were observed. They could be due to individual relationship experience. In other words, it is possible that women adjust their mate choice depending on experiences gathered over lifetime and reproduce with a partner who fits their preferences better than earlier partners. Differences between fathers and non-fathers could also be due to memory bias or cognitive dissonance influenced by positive or negative experiences with particular partners. If so, the level of negative experiences with former partners should positively correlate with fathers’ non-typicality. Moreover, women might have a tendency to ascribe more positive characteristics to a current partner (usually the father of her child or children) than to their ex-partners. In other words, partnership status itself may have an impact on the assessment. Alternatively, former partners could be regarded on average more positively simply because women’s detailed memories of problems encountered in earlier relationships fade with time. There might be therefore some trade-offs between the principles of ‘my baby’s father is always better’ and ‘sweet recollections of past loves.’ We cannot address such possibilities in our analysis.

The fact that fathers lower the measured mate choice consistency and yet there is no meaningful systematic difference between fathers and non-fathers could be accounted for by either of two possible explanations. First of all, it is possible that women reproduce with men who have different characteristics than their ex-partners. This pattern was, however, found only for extroversion (whereby women who date extroverted men reproduced with more introverted individuals, while other women date introverts but reproduce with men who are more extroverted). Moreover, overall consistency of mate choice with respect to extroversion was high even when fathers were included in the partner sample and even in cases when fathers and non-fathers were excluded at random. It is then fair to assume that fathers do, after all, fit within the general type of women also in extraversion, although they tend to be on one of the extreme tails of this intrapersonal distribution. The second possible explanation is that variance in father and non-father group differs and fathers are a more variable group. We did not, however, encounter such a case in our dataset. If fathers had a higher variance than non-fathers, they would have to have also a higher average trait value. Where this was not the case (age difference), we found that father exclusion did significantly elevate mate choice consistency.

These findings are limited by including only women in reproductive age, because preferences and potentially also actual choices can change in connection with changes in hormonal levels (e.g., menopause) during women’s lives (Boothroyd and Vukovic, 2018). Female preferences are underpinned by a set of evolutionary adaptations (Kokko et al., 2003; Geary et al., 2004) and can change with age so as to reflect women’s different interests (Kościński, 2011). Similarly, the importance of particular physical and personality characteristics can vary during one’s life. To test intraindividual variability in mate choice, future studies should therefore investigate women’s preferences and actual choices during their lives from childhood to menopause. Another limitation of our study is given by the fact that only respondents but not their (ex-)partners participated in the study. Although it would be nearly impossible to recruit also all (ex-)partners, it ought to be taken into account that when a woman reports about all of her partners during one session, this may lead to bias in a direction of mutual similarity. Alternatively, assessment of partners’ characteristics could be biased by subsequent experiences, memories, or circumstances of a break-up of a relationship.

Our results support the hypothesis of consistency of mate choice with respect to a variety of characteristics, but further research is needed to confirm this effect through a longitudinal design. Secondly, consistency in mate choice should be investigated also in men and in a short-term mating context, where consistency of mate choice may be lower than in a long-term context (Štěrbová et al., 2018). Furthermore, future research should investigate interindividual differences in individual consistency (to find out which characteristics predict a consistent mate choice, the role of family members, etc.). In the light of all of the above, it would also be highly relevant to investigate to what degree are preferences inherited or learned. A twin study (Germine et al., 2015) has reported that face preferences seem to be mainly explained by environmental variation, but more research in this field is needed. And finally, research should focus not only on actual choices but also on partner preferences.

ZŠ developed the study concept and collected data. PT performed the data analysis. ZŠ, PT, and KK interpreted results. ZŠ, PT, and KK drafted the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.