Research On Long-term/short-term Spouse Preference Of Undergraduate Students And Its Relationship With The Amount Of Resources

In the process of exploring the mate preferences of contemporary college students and the impact of resources on them,this paper takes undergraduates and master students in Nanjing as the research object,and makes use of two different layers of research methods: a questionnaire and a allocating-mate dollars experiment.Study 1 compiled a mate preference questionnaire and investigated the mate preferences in the short-term and long-term mate selection situations,so as to know the status and characteristics of short-term and long-term mate preference of undergraduates and master students.Through the allocating-mate dollars paradigm,Li et al.introduced the concept of "necessities" and " luxuries" in Economics when studying the preferences of mate selection.They called the characteristics as "necessities" that people consider firstly even under low resource conditions.The characteristics that are only considered under high resource conditions are called "luxuries." Study 2 referring to the allocatingmate dollars paradigm created by Li et al.,adopted a three-factor mixed experimental design to further explore the mate preferences of undergraduates and master students and analyze which characteristics were necessities and which were luxuries.The results show that:1.In the short-term and long-term mate selection situations,there are significant differences in the scores of the four dimensions of "good quality","good resources","good potential",and "good looks" of mate selection preferences.2.In both mate selection scenarios,women scored significantly better than men in the “good resources” and “good potential” dimensions of mate preferences.3.In both mate selection scenarios,master students scored significantly better than undergraduates in the “good resources” and “good potential” dimensions of mate preferences.4.In the short-term mate selection scenario,undergraduates and master students have significant differences in mate dollars allocated in the “attractive appearance” and “good resources” under the condition of low and high resources;In the long-term mate selection scenario,there are significant differences between mate dollars allocated in the "good quality" and "good looks" dimensions under low and high resource conditions.Conclusion:1.Compared with short-term mate selection,undergraduates and master students have higher standards for resource conditions,development potential,and quality,while their standards for appearance are lower.2.women have higher standards of mate selection than men,and women value resources and development potential more than men,while men value looks more than women.3.Master students pay more attention to resources and development potential than undergraduates.4.In the short-term mate selection scenario,"attractive appearance" is a necessity for mate selection,and the "good resources" dimension features are luxuries;in the long-term mate selection scenario,the "good quality" dimension features are necessities;the "good looks" dimension features are luxuries.