The Importance of Partner’s Status and Physical Attractiveness. A Cross-National Study of Gay Men and Lesbian Online Daters

Identifying the aspects that individuals value in a romantic partner has been the focus of extensive multidisciplinary research during the last decades. Numerous studies address the differences between men and women in terms of the criteria employed when searching for a suitable partner. The most cited theoretical viewpoint in this respect is evolutionary psychology, which proposes that there are certain differences between men and women in their choice for a good match. While men focus on physical appeal, women tend to be more concerned with partner’s social status and resources. However, the evolutionary approach is problematic to extend to homosexuals’ mating choices as same-sex couples more than often deviate from traditional models of marriage and childbearing. Moreover, the mate selection criteria of gays and lesbians have rarely been studied across different cultural and societal contexts. The aim of this study is to extend existing research on mating preferences of gay and lesbian daters while taking into account cross-national variations in gender role ideology, legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, and social disapproval of homosexuality, across 11 countries in Europe.