commitment, and less so by physical attractiveness (e.g.,

In the literature on nonhuman animals, however, there is much research on male attractiveness and far less on female attractiveness (e.g., Alcock, 2005; Andersson, 1994). Indeed, across species, females tend to be the sex that invests more in offspring and therefore they are more selective in choosing mates (Trivers, 1972). Females appear to value male attractiveness because it is a cue of genes that confer fitness benefits to offspring through increased viability or reproductive success (e.g., Kokko, Brooks, Jennions, & Morley, 2003; Moller, 1997). If spe-cific cues index heritable quality, females should come to value them in mates, and they should exercise this prefer-ence in mate selection. Might male attractiveness also play heavily in the mat-ing decisions of human females? Recent studies suggest that women discriminate between men on the basis of hypothesized fitness cues, including facial masculinity Authors ’ Note: The authors are grateful to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Graduate Division; the FPR-UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development; and the Departments of Psychology and Communication Studies for providing financial sup-port to the first author. For additional papers on body image and body type preferences, please refer to the Web site of the first autho