Ladies' Men: Great for Sex, But Not for Marriage
Ladies' Men: Great for Sex, But Not for Marriage
Mon Oct 27, 3:26 PM ET
By Alison McCook
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research confirms what romance novelists have known for years: for brief affairs, women tend to prefer a dominating, powerful and promiscuous man.
However, when considering a long-term relationship, women are more likely to turn to a compassionate, sensitive and monogamous man, the report indicates.
When given descriptions of these two male archetypes, described by the researchers as "cads" and "dads," women consistently preferred a dad as a long-term partner. However, as the relationship shortened, women became more likely to opt for being with a cad.
In a telling example, 60% of women said they would prefer to have sex with one cad-like character, but only 13% said they would want him engaged to their daughters.
Despite the apparent appeal of cads to women, study author Dr. Daniel J. Kruger of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor advised men against trying to adopt the "dark horse" persona.
Cads are often men in positions of power and leadership, such as the heads of companies or sports superstars, he said. Only a minority of men fall into that category, and being a dominant, highly successful and promiscuous man is hard to fake, he cautioned.
"Not every guy can be a successful cad," Kruger told Reuters Health. "You're not going to get a lot of matings by acting like a jerk."
During the study, reported in the journal Human Nature, Kruger and his colleagues asked 257 female undergraduate students to read passages from 17th and 18th century British literature describing characters that matched one of the two personality types. Around 70% of participants said they came from a non-Western European background.
In the passages, dad characters appeared domestic, peaceable, bookish, gentle and compassionate. In contrast, cads were portrayed as arrogant, moody, rebellious, strong and successful with beautiful women.
Women then answered a series of questions about which characters they would prefer in different situations, for instance, a sexual affair, a road trip, marriage, or a future son-in-law.
The researchers found that women tended to prefer accompanying dad characters on a three-week road trip, and more often chose dads to be spouses or son-in-laws. However, more women said they would want to have a sexual affair with a cad character than a dad.
In an interview, Kruger noted that women likely prefer to settle down with dad types because they will stick around and help them raise a family. "You can think of these guys as dads because they'll be around to be fathers and father figures," he said.
So why choose to have sex with a cad character, which could also produce a child? That trend may be explained by the "sexy son hypothesis," Kruger said, which proposes that, deep down, women may sometimes believe a son produced by the union with a cad will exhibit the same behaviors, eventually having sex with many women and producing many grandchildren.
The fact that 21st century women reacted this way to stereotypes established many years before suggests that the response to cads and dads has existed for a long time, Kruger noted.
"This shows us that this is something that is ingrained in us," he said.
SOURCE: Human Nature, 2003.
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Originally Posted by Sigrun Christianson
Monogamy is acceptable...but compassion and sensitivity can be really disgusting in a man at a certain point. I stress at a certain point for all you nice guys here! 
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