Physical Cues of Partner Quality

The dominant evolutionary theory of sexual attraction posits that attraction serves as a psychological mechanism for identifying healthy, fertile, and appropriate mates. According to this theory, humans and animals display cues that reflect their mate quality and are perceived as attractive by potential mates. There is evidence for such valid cues in human faces, bodies, and in non-bodily traits, which include adornments and items that signal provisioning ability, creativity, artistic skills, or conspicuous consumption. In this chapter, we discuss the evidence for the existence of these facial, bodily, and non-bodily cues, and for their role in communicating aspects of partner quality, including health, fertility, developmental stability, genetic quality, and potential for parental investment. We further discuss sex differences in the kinds of physical cues that men and women rely on in mate choice. We conclude by noting how central and evolutionarily important physical cues are even in contemporary sexual selection, and how the importance of physical cues of partner quality manifests in evolutionarily novel inventions such as physical self-enhancements, social media, and online dating.