Word Count: 6724 Possible Selves and Mate Preferences ─ 2

In two experiments, female and male participants envisioned themselves as a married person with children who is either a homemaker or a provider. Participants who envisioned themselves as a future homemaker regarded a potential mate’s provider qualities as more important and homemaker qualities as less important, compared with participants who envisioned themselves as a future provider. Envisioning oneself as a homemaker also shifted preferences toward an older spouse, compared with envisioning oneself as a provider. In the control conditions of the experiments, in which participants freely envisioned their own future marriage, the greater the provider responsibility anticipated for the wife, the less traditional were mate preferences. These experiments support the social role theory view that the roles anticipated by men and women influence their choice of mates