Young adults' partner preferences and parents' in-law preferences across generations, genders, and nations

To examine cultural, gender, and parent-child differences in partner preferences, in eight countries undergraduates (n=2,071) and their parents (n=1,851) ranked the desirability of qualities in someone the student might marry. Despite sizable cultural differences-especially between Southeast Asian and Western countries-participants generally ranked kind/understanding (reflecting interpersonal communion) highest, and intelligent and healthy (reflecting mental/physical agency) among the top four. Students valued exciting, attractive partners more and healthy, religious partners less than parents did; comparisons with rankings by youth in 1984 (i.e., from the parents' generation) suggested cohort effects cannot explain most parent-child disagreements. As evolutionary psychology predicts, participants prioritized wives' attractiveness and homemaker skills and husbands' education and breadwinner skills; but as sociocultural theory predicts, variations across countries/decades in gendered spousal/in-law preferences mirrored socioeconomic gender differences. Collectively, the results suggest individuals consider their social roles/circumstances when envisioning their ideal spouse/in-law, which has implications for how human's partner-appraisal capabilities evolved.