Body-wise, women tend to prefer taller men with a high shoulder-to-hip ratio (V-shape), and who are muscular (but not too muscular).
Men’s preferences, on the other hand, are dominated by a strong predilection for slimness (though not ultra-thinness). Much has been made of men’s apparent attraction to low waist-to-hip ratios (hourglass figures), but more recent research suggests it is just a byproduct of slim women tending to have low waist-to-hip ratios.
Men … prefer feminine female faces. This typically means, for example, big eyes and a small chin – think Miranda Kerr.
But strangely, women don’t tend to prefer masculine male faces: on average they show no strong preference either way. If anything, they prefer more feminine male faces.
Since identical twins have similar partner preferences, we’d expect them to have similar partners as well, right? Well, they don’t – at least not in any meaningful way that my colleagues and I could detect among thousands of twins and their partners.
So what’s the deal with the mismatch? Well, this is an open scientific question, but it probably boils down to the fact we can’t all get what we want. For one thing, most of us don’t meet enough people to find someone who fulfils all of our preferences. So, right away, we’re dealing with the best of the available, rather than a perfect match.
From The Science of finding a partner, read on LifeHacker.
Brendan Zietsch, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland