HoldsUp

Steve Stewart-Williams

Steve Stewart-Williams is an evolutionary psychologist, professor, and author. His published research focuses on human mating dynamics, including mate preferences, partner evaluation, and sociosexuality. He has also conducted extensive research on social reactions to sex-difference findings and the motives underlying scientific censorship.

9 claims checked on air: 2 context 4 supported 3 unverified

What they said on air

1 citing their own research

0:13:21unverifiedvery lowThe New Science Of Female Attraction - Psychology Roundtable

Scientific evidence demonstrates that women are more prone to experiencing 'the ick' than men.

"She's predicting that, 'cause women on average are choosier, women are more prone to the ick, which is I don't think anyone would disagree with that intuition, and we've now got good evidence that that's the case." (said at 0:13:21)

No published record matching the claim that scientific evidence demonstrates women are more prone to experiencing 'the ick' than men was located; this does not prove the claim false.

0:30:36unverifiedvery lowThe New Science Of Female Attraction - Psychology Roundtable

Among hunter-gatherer societies, approximately 5% of first marriages last for life.

"in those kind of societies, though, often like a small number, small but like non-trivial number, 5% or so of first marriages do last for life." (said at 0:30:36)

No published record matching the claim that approximately 5% of first marriages last for life among hunter-gatherer societies was located; this does not prove the claim false. While ethnographic studies of foraging populations document high rates of early marital instability and serial monogamy, no empirical dataset or cross-cultural review quantifying that approximately 5% of first marriages endure for a lifetime was identified in the anthropological literature.

1:07:54supportedmoderateThe New Science Of Female Attraction - Psychology Roundtable

Women are more likely than men to leave a romantic partner who becomes unemployed or fails to earn a living.

"women are more likely than men to leave a guy who is unemployed who becomes unemployed or uh fails to earn a decent living." (said at 1:07:54)

Sociological and demographic research examining marital dissolution and divorce initiation finds that a husband's non-employment, lower work hours, or inability to contribute full-time earnings significantly increases the risk of marital breakdown, whereas a wife's non-employment does not show a comparable destabilizing effect. Furthermore, analyses of divorce initiation indicate that economic and financial strain has a stronger effect on female-initiated divorce than on male-initiated divorce.

1:16:53supportedhighThe New Science Of Female Attraction - Psychology Roundtable

Men's wealth strongly predicts their likelihood of getting married, staying married, having children, and remarrying, whereas women's physical attractiveness is a stronger predictor of marriage and partner wealth than men's attractiveness.

"guys who are wealthier more likely to get married more likely to stay married more likely to have kids more likely to um get remarried if they divorce, um whereas it doesn't predict that anywhere near as well uh for women. Women's wages don't, um and women's looks are a better predictor of whether they get married uh and the uh the wealth of their marital partner um than is the case for men." (said at 1:16:53)

Empirical and review literature supports the claim that wealth strongly increases men's rates of marriage, marital stability, and fertility—effects not found for women's wealth—and that physical attractiveness is a significantly stronger predictor of marriage and partner resources for women than for men. Causal evidence from large lottery winner cohorts shows that positive wealth shocks for men significantly increase marriage formation, lower divorce risk (increasing marital stability), and increase fertility, whereas female wealth shocks show no such positive effects on marriage or fertility and temporarily increase divorce risk. Additionally, extensive literature on human mate preferences documents evolutionary and behavioral sex differences where female physical attractiveness plays a primary role in securing marital partners and partners with economic resources.

1:20:39supportedmoderateThe New Science Of Female Attraction - Psychology Roundtable

Norman Li's mate budget research demonstrated that when given a small mate budget, sex differences become pronounced: men allocate more resources toward physical attractiveness, whereas women prioritize resources and social status.

"So yeah, Norman Li he uh did a did a study where he gave people a budget of mate dollars and then asked them, "Create create the um ideal mate that you can with this budget."... but if they had a smaller mate budget, which I think is probably more like most people's situation in life, no offense, um if they had that, they um sex differences became more pronounced. And so people uh men would spend more to get an attractive partner uh whereas women would would spend more to get a um a partner with resources and status." (said at 1:20:39)

Norman Li and colleagues (2002) examined mate selection trade-offs by having participants design an ideal long-term mate using a budget-allocation paradigm with three different budget sizes. The study demonstrated that under low/constrained mate budgets, sex differences in trait prioritization are pronounced: men treat physical attractiveness as a necessity, allocating a greater proportion of limited budget to it, whereas women treat social status and resources as necessities. Traits like kindness and intelligence were prioritized as necessities by both sexes.

1:21:49needs contextmoderatetheir own paperThe New Science Of Female Attraction - Psychology Roundtable

In mate allocation research where individuals design their own profiles using a budget, men allocate more budget toward increasing their wealth and status relative to women, whereas women allocate more toward increasing their physical attractiveness relative to men.

"He also did a study where he had people allocate for themselves if I'm not mistaken. And it it mirrored the uh it mirrored that that same pattern where it's like when men were kind of RPG style building their own character... basically men tried to make themselves richer relative to women and women tried to make themselves prettier relative to men." (said at 1:21:49)

The mate budget allocation paradigm developed by Norman Li and colleagues investigates how individuals prioritize traits under constrained budgets when designing ideal romantic partners, rather than self-profiles. In these experiments, when allocating limited "mate dollars," men consistently allocate more budget toward a prospective partner's physical attractiveness, treating it as an economic necessity, whereas women allocate more budget toward a partner's social status and resources (PMID: 12051582, PMID: 31494937). While the speaker characterizes this sex-differentiated allocation pattern as individuals designing their own "RPG style" characters or self-profiles, the published mate-budget experiments demonstrate this trade-off in the selection and construction of prospective mates.

1:38:48needs contexthighThe New Science Of Female Attraction - Psychology Roundtable

During heart attacks, chest and arm pain are less common in women than in men, while shortness of breath is more common in women.

"So the pain in the sort of chest and down the arms is quite well known. Um that's much less common in women. Uh shortness of breath is a much more common uh symptom in women." (said at 1:38:48)

The claim is partially accurate but requires important qualification. Chest pain remains the cardinal and most common symptom of acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) in both women and men, experienced by the vast majority of female patients (over 80%). While meta-analyses and large registry studies (such as Canto et al., 2012, examining >1.1 million patients) demonstrate that women present without chest pain slightly more often than men (42.0% vs 30.7%), describing chest and arm pain as 'much less common in women' is misleading because chest pain is still by far their most frequent symptom. Additionally, studies report that arm pain occurs at similar or even slightly higher rates in women than in men. Conversely, the assertion that shortness of breath (dyspnea) is more common in women during a heart attack is well supported by observational registry data (e.g., OR 1.45).

2:00:45supportedmoderateThe New Science Of Female Attraction - Psychology Roundtable

Among the Wodaabe of the Sahel region, men wear makeup and participate in beauty pageants where women select partners heavily based on physical appearance.

"among the Wodaabe of the Sahel region, it's men who are, you know, wearing tons of makeup and looking incredibly glamorous and they actually stand side by side in male beauty pageants, and the the females actually pick um a partner based solely on on the physical appearance, or not not solely, but, you know, quite a lot." (said at 2:00:45)

Ethnographic research documents that among the nomadic Wodaabe (a subgroup of the Fulani in the Sahel region of West Africa), men participate in annual courtship and beauty rituals such as the Geerewol and Yaake festivals. During these gatherings, young men apply intricate facial makeup, elaborate dress, and perform ritualized dances to emphasize physical traits (such as tall stature, facial symmetry, white teeth, and expressive eyes), where women act as judges to evaluate male beauty and charm and select prospective partners.

2:02:40unverifiedvery lowThe New Science Of Female Attraction - Psychology Roundtable

Analyses of folk tales and fairy stories across different world regions consistently show greater emphasis placed on women's physical appearance and on men's resources and status.

"if you look at um uh folk tales and fairy stories from right across the world, different world regions, you do find that very consistently that people put more importance on women's appearance than they do on men's and more importance on men's resources and status than they do on women's." (said at 2:02:40)

No published record matching the claim that analyses of folk tales across different world regions consistently show greater emphasis placed on women's physical appearance and on men's resources and status was located; this does not prove the claim false.

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