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Men and women have distinct preferences for certain traits in their romantic partners, which can
be elegantly explained by evolutionary theories of sexual selection. Specifically, men and
women highly value the mate characteristics of warmth, attractiveness, and resources in a
relationship partner, which all enhance their reproductive fitness. By manipulating different
combinations of these attributes, the current research aimed to examine thresholds of acceptance
and desirability in different temporal relationship contexts. It also explored the effect of a
previously unexplored cue to health, a physical disability, on mating preferences. In Study One,
568 participants were shown a photograph of a stimulus person, either with or without a
physical disability, paired with manipulated descriptions of economic status and warmth. They
were asked to indicate their willingness to engage in both a short-term and long-term
relationship with the individual in the vignette, as well as complete questionnaires on
sociosexuality and social desirability. The results showed the importance of warmth in the longterm
for both men and women, the value of economic status for women in the long-term, the
significance of health on short-term relationships, and predicted individual variations according
to sociosexual orientation. However, when the effects of social desirability were taken into
consideration, health was not found to have an effect on the reported desirability of short-term
relationships. Study Two used a slightly different methodology to replicate the findings from
Study One with a different sample of 566 participants, and explored the impact of heritability on
both short-term and long-term relationship preferences. The results from Study Two generally
replicated the results from Study One, with the exception of health. The impact of a physical
disability, whether inherited or not, was not found to be significant in Study Two, nor did social
desirability. By exploring the evolutionary logic behind disability-based prejudice in
relationships, the current studies aimed to contribute to the existing knowledge on mate
preferences and deepen our understanding about the contemporary negative attitudes towards
relationships with individuals with disabilities.
