Parenting and Provisioning on Female Mating Strategic Response to Male Voice Quality

Sexual selection and parental investment theory predict female mate choice for "good genes", "good providers," and "good fathers." Sexual selection drives intrasexual competition among males to result in weapon-like sexual dimorphic traits that, in modern day human living, are best represented by a man's ability to provide including wealth and status. Sexual selection also drives intersexual competition to result in ornament-like sexual dimorphic traits that aim to advertise good genes. One indicator of good genes among many animals including humans is lower-pitched male voice. Especially among humans, female mate choice also drives feminization of the male brain espousing such feminine traits as gentleness, kindness, and warm-heartedness that are refer to as "good fathers" characteristics. In this dissertation, I examine these three female mate choices among Hong Kong women in relation to their long- and short-term mating goals.;In both implicit and explicit experimental procedures, 48 Cantonese speaking Hong Kong women listened to pitch manipulated "good genes"; and semantically persuading "good fathers", "good providers" or "neutral" male voices. Implicit results show women respond to "mating" related words significantly faster than control words when primed by lower pitched neutral voices simulating "good genes". Results also support "good fathers" and "good providers" preference when not mixed with "good genes". Women also rated attractiveness for long- and short-term mating based on the pitch manipulated "good genes" and "good fathers" or "good providers" contents. "Good fathers" content received significantly higher attractiveness ratings for both long- and short-term mating than "good providers." The later also rated significantly higher than neutral content for either short- or long-term mating. These results support the parental investment theory that women are choosy in mating selection due to high parental investment and reproductive costs. Limitations on better to increase the total amount of subjects, to include non-mating female subjects, and adding manipulation check on memory of the primes etc are discussed. Future research could examine specific situations under which different female mate choices have more advantages over others.