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 - supported

1 citing their own research

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.

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.

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