Lonely hearts advertisements reflect sexually dimorphic mating strategies

Abstract Lonely hearts personal advertisements (LHPA) became popular during the 1980s and now appear in nearly every major newspaper. They appear to reflect common male and female reproductive themes. Our analyses of 49 advertisements written by males and 49 advertisements written by females indicate that males offer resources to females and ask for youth and attractiveness, and that females offer youth and attractiveness and ask for resources. When subjects judge these advertisements on a 5-point scale, advertisements are easily grouped into three levels of attractiveness. The attributes of preferred advertisements are defined by those things offered not those things sought . Words or phrases extracted from these advertisements are readily categorized by subjects along a 5-point dimension of desirability. Males and females generally agree on the degree of preference for these 105 words or phrases (r = 0.94), yet differ in degree of preference on 39. Words or phrases preferred by females focus on commitment (e.g., "loving," "monogamous," "unattached"). Those preferred by males focus on sexual qualities (e.g., "good figure," "sexy," "young"). Individuals of both sexes who indicate a high level of self-confidence prefer words or phrases indicating adventuresome and outgoing qualities. Lack of self-confidence is related to preference for inward-directed qualities. When advertisements are artificially constructed from these words or short phrases, the rating of the advertisements corresponds to the desirability of the individual words. A factor analysis of the words reveals three major factors: (1) words that males prefer; (2) words that females prefer; (3) words that neither males nor females prefer. More highly rated words appear in Factors 1 and 2 than in Factor 3. A survey of 91 lonely hearts advertisement writers demonstrate the same sex differences in what individuals seek and what they offer. Males seek attractivity and offer resources; females seek resources and offer attractivity. After the numerous responses are categorized, only about eight categories for solicitations and eight categories of offers are evident. Interests in resources and attractivity prevail and show sexual dimorphism. Interests in the six remaining categories are nearly identical for the two sexes. Males receive fewer responses to their advertisements than do females. Lengthy advertisements do better for males and shorter ones do better for females. LHPA appear to reflect sexual differences in reproductive concerns. They offer an obvious entry into the motivational systems underlying sexual interactions.