A critical test of the assumption that men prefer conformist women and women prefer nonconformist men.http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/9036/ Article LJMU has developed LJMU Research Online for users to access the research output of the University more effectively. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LJMU Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain.The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the record. Please see the repository URL above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.
AbstractFive studies tested the common assumption that women prefer nonconformist men as romantic partners, whereas men prefer conformist women. Studies 1 and 2 showed that both men and women preferred nonconformist romantic partners, but women over-estimated the extent to which men prefer conformist partners. In Study 3 participants ostensibly in a small group interaction showed preferences for nonconformist opposite-sex targets, a pattern that was particularly evident when men evaluated women. Dating success was greater the more nonconformist the sample (Study 4), and perceptions of nonconformity in an ex-partner were associated with greater love and attraction toward that partner (Study 5). On the minority of occasions in which effects were moderated by gender it was in the reverse direction to the traditional wisdom: conformity was more associated with dating success among men. The studies contradict the notion that men disproportionately prefer conformist women.KEY WORDS: conformity; nonconformity; social role theory; gender; interpersonal attraction CONFORMITY AND ATTRACTION 3
A critical test of the assumption that men prefer conformist women and women prefer nonconformist menIt is frequently presumed that women are attracted to nonconformist men, and that men are attracted to conformist women. But is this true, or is it an anachronistic myth? If one were to draw exclusively on the psychological literature, one might presume the former. For example, studies have found that women conform more when their mating drives are primed (Griskevicius, Goldstein, Mortensen, Cialdini, & Kenrick, 2006), that attractive women report higher levels of conformity (see Segal-Caspi, Roccas, & Sagiv, 2012), and that (unlike men) women do not try to separate themselves from the crowd in the presence of an attractive, opposite sex audience (Van Vugt & Iredale, 2013). Furthermore, men become more nonconformist after a mating prime (Griskevicius et al., 2006) and men low in agreeableness report having more casual sex (Urbaniak & Kilmann, 2006). Interestingly, though, the assumption that traits of (non)conformity have different effects on men and wo...
