Domain-Specific Effects of Men’s Parental Investment Cues on Women’s Mate Evaluations: Increased Long-Term but Decreased Short-Term Mate Attractiveness

Abstract Women’s obligatory parental investment may lead women to value men’s ability and willingness to invest in future offspring when evaluating long-term mates. Although men’s disposition toward parental investment has received less attention than their resource acquisition ability, several studies have shown that behavioral cues to men’s willingness to invest influence women’s evaluations. However, it remains unclear whether parental investment cues specifically influence long-term mate attractiveness or generally increase favorability. This study used text-based profiles to examine whether cues to men’s willingness to invest have domain-specific effects on women’s evaluations. Female nursing school students in Japan ( N = 254) were randomly assigned to read a male profile that either included or did not include parental investment cues and then evaluated the target man across long-term mating, short-term mating, and non-mating contexts. The results showed that men described as having positive attitudes toward parenting and children were evaluated as more attractive as long-term mates, but less attractive as short-term mates. No effects were observed for non-mating evaluations, namely friend attractiveness and general liking. These findings suggest that men’s attitudes toward parenting and children serve as cues to men’s willingness to invest in future offspring and influence women’s evaluations in a domain-specific manner. The study findings also suggest that parental investment cues may signal not only men’s suitability as long-term mates but also their lower suitability as short-term mates. This study provides evidence for the domain specificity of parental investment cues and highlights the importance of such cues in human mate choice.