PSY 375 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: David Buss
Document Summary
Conventional wisdom holds that romantic love a recent, western phenomen, however, jankowiak (1995) has shown that there is evidence for it in 88% of cultures, and other studies report that roughly half of adults have experienced it. Sprecher et al, (1994) found that, in several cultures, most women say they would not marry a man who did not love them even if he as ideal in every way. Buss et. al. (1990) survey across 37 countries discovered that a preference for a loving partner was the highest rated mating preference for both men and women. If they were extremely kind, attractive, intelligent, wealthy and so on, wouldn"t that be good enough for a long term mate: love by a man signals the long-term commitment of resources to a woman and her children. Love by a woman signals long-term commitment of sexual fidelity: willingness to invest in children.
