Justin Garcia

We do know that there's a set of things that seem quite important.

in attraction and being attracted to a partner, some of them really innate biological like invoking the senses, smell, sight, sound.

But how they rate or maybe the hierarchy of how we think of them can depend a lot on where you are.

One way to think about that is if you're in a place that's nutrient rich or resource available,

This is true of humans, and it's true of a lot of sexually reproducing organisms.

You then don't have the same pressures.

You kind of have more luxury to choose, to be choosier.

If you're in an environment that you're really concerned about resources, well, then your courtship decisions are much more about survival.

You're much more focused on, are we going to get enough food?

Can we build a safe nest?

Can you raise offspring immediately?

So we really try to think about how we're balancing costs and benefit, how we're balancing different moments.

Now, there's another piece to that.

I'm talking about different environments.

This is why we see variation around the world.

But it can also vary throughout our life course.

So one of the things we found in our research is what you're looking for in a partner, what you're most attracted to when you're 18 versus 35 versus 85 looks different.

In our studies, we know that physical attraction is important, but 18-year-olds put a lot more focus on that than people who are over 65.

Whereas when we're older, we tend to focus even more on the issues of trust, of being able to be around someone for a whole host of reasons.

We have more experience, we're outside the reproductive window.