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THE sweet smell of success may be the kiss of death for men hoping to get hitched, psychologists say.
When it comes to marriage material, women are wary of good-looking high-flyers, and are drawn to less successful men instead, they claim.
The subtle shift in women's preferences emerged during psychological tests at the University of Central Lancashire in Britain. The researchers believe women may steer clear of attractive, high-status men because they fear they are either more likely to be unfaithful or will devote too little time to the relationship and future family.
To test the influence of a man's status on his marriage potential, Simon Chu and his colleagues created fictional personal ads, accompanied by pictures of men and information about their careers, assigning them jobs of high (company directors), medium (teachers) or low status (waiters).
The adverts were shown to women who were asked to rank the men according to their appeal as a long-term partner. While better looking men fared better than uglier ones, the most successful and handsome men did not come out tops. Instead, women ranked them as low as the poorest men, preferring instead men with more modest jobs. The psychologists believe the women may see good-looking, successful men as too good to be true.
"Given a choice between the attractive males, there does appear to be a rather subtle preference on the part of the females for males of a lesser status and likelihood of infidelity or desertion," the researchers write in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
An alternative explanation, they add, is "having a partner who is able to spend time raising children is clearly an advantage".
Guardian News & Media
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