Giving Guys Get the Girls: Men Appear More Desirable to the Opposite Sex When Displaying Costly Donations to the Homeless

Abstract

One of the evolutionary adaptive benefits of altruism may be that it acts as an honest (reliable) signal of men’s mate quality. In this study, 285 female participants were shown one of three video scenarios in which a male target took £30 out of a cash machine (ATM) and gave either a lot (£30), a little (£1), or nothing to a homeless man. The participants rated the male target on his attractiveness, their short- and long-term mate preferences towards him, and the degree to which they thought he was likely to possess various parenting qualities. The results showed that, regardless of whether the man was described as rich or poor, participants rated him as being more attractive when he donated money, but only when the donation was costly (£30). In addition, altruism was shown to be important in long-term, but not short-term mate choice, and displays of altruism were associated with positive parenting qualities. It is argued that displays of altruism act as a reliable (honest) mate signal for a potential long-term parental partner.

Examining the interaction between altruism and resource potential in heterosexual women's mate preferences.

“…This is a similar pattern of results to Farrelly et al (2016), by showing that when altruism is compared to a trait indicating another quality, it is clear that altruism is more valued, particularly for long-term relationships. Overall, these findings offer further evidence that altruistic behaviors are important in relationships as they can signal an individual as possessing desired psychological traits (e.g., warmth, agreeableness) that will make them good long-term partners and potential parents (Bhogal et al, 2020;Farrelly, 2011;Farrelly & King, 2019;Iredale et al, 2020). On a related note, the finding that relationship length had no significant effect on how desirable resource potential was for women supports the view of Buss and Schmitt (1993) that resource potential can be important for both short-term (signaling immediate resources) and long-term (signaling potential to acquire future resources) relationships.…”

Evidence of the active participation of women in the intergroup conflict based on the use of aggression and cooperation

“…Consequently, it is conceivable that mating motives for men may overshadow the effects of the intergroup competition context, resulting in high levels of cooperation in both control and intergroup conflict scenarios. The concept of competitive altruism among women has been discussed in the literature, but studies predominantly focus on men 59,[61][62][63] but this factor may contribute as well to the pattern found. However, further studies would be required to better explain and understand why groups composed by men and women seem not to be sensitive to the presence of an intergroup conflict scenario.…”