Interrelated psychological predictors of mate preferences among Iranian male and female emerging adults

Abstract

Various psychological predictors of mate preference have been identified in prior research that when accounted for simultaneously could reveal the unique contributions of each. This study aimed to explore the extent to which perceived attractiveness, personality characteristics, and attachment styles are associated with young Iranian adults' mate preferences, attending to group differences based on biological sex. A total of 644 Iranian young adults completed a questionnaire that included items related to one's perceived intelligence and physical attractiveness, HEXACO personality traits, and KASER mate preferences (kindness/dependability, attractiveness/sexuality, status/resources, education/intelligence, and religiosity/chastity). Several differences based on biological sex were apparent in the personality, attachment, and mate preferences measures, as well as with their intercorrelations. Analyses using multiple linear regression indicated that each of the KASER variables had some unique combinations of the three types of psychological characteristics, and some variance by biological sex. For example, kindness/dependability was predicted for males by the two perceived attractiveness variables and by two personality variables (emotionality and conscientiousness), but only by the agreeableness personality trait for females. Attachment styles were only relevant for education/intelligence and religiosity/chastity, with little evidence of sex‐based differences.