He sees, she smells? Male and female reports of sensory reliance in mate choice and non-mate choice contexts
2008
Abstract
Men and women differ in the importance that they ascribe to the characters of a potential mate. Previous work has shown that women rate olfactory cues as more important than men in mate choice.
We investigated whether this sex difference (a) is specific to the mate choice context; (b) is reliant upon sexual experience; and (c) exhibits cross-cultural differences between the US (previous study) and the Czech Republic (current study). A questionnaire on the importance of particular senses in different situations was administered to 717 Czech high school students.
We replicated existing findings of greater reliance on olfactory cues by women, and of visual cues by men, both for partner choice and during sexual arousal.