Why Women Date Assholes!

BY JAMIE CONDLIFFE

It's well known that women find sexy, rebellious rogues attractive. Duh. But 
until now it's not really been clear why women choose to turn that attraction 
into long-term relationships, when they know they stand a high chance of 
getting burned. New research, however, reveals that the secret lies in the 
hormones.

Sure, a woman might choose to mate with an attractive male because
evolutionarily it means attractive kids. But that doesn't entirely explain things,
as there's more to life than good-looking offspring. Now, research conducted
at the University of Texas at San Antonio and published in the Journal of 
Personality and Social Psychology suggests that during ovulation hormones 
affect judgment of parenting potential. Kristina Durante, one of the 
researchers, explains to Live Science:

"Under the hormonal influence of ovulation, women delude themselves 

into thinking that the sexy bad boys will become devoted partners and 

better dads. When looking at the sexy cad through ovulation goggles, 

Mr. Wrong looked exactly like Mr. Right."

Essentially, during ovulation women are more likely to believe that rogues
would make better potential fathers—so they specifically pick sexier men
over obviously more dependable men—even if they're jerks.

To establish that, female participants were asked to view online dating
profiles of either sexy or reliable men during periods of both high and low 
fertility. When asked to predict likely paternal contribution from the 
prospective partners close to ovulation, the women thought the sexy men 
would contribute most. In other words, that long-term, they'd make 
better dads.

The researchers backed that up with a second study, where actors played
the role ofsexy cad or reliable dad, and the result turned out just the same. 
So, if a woman startsdating an asshole, she will—at least once a 
month—be under the impression that he'll make a good long-term mate. 
One interesting aside is the fact that the effects only seem to apply to the 
individual. Durante explains:

"When asked about what kind of father the sexy bad boy would make if 

he were to have children with another woman, women were quick to 

point out the bad boy's shortcomings. But when it came to their own 

child, ovulating women believed that the charismatic and adventurous 

cad would be a great father to their kids."

The take-home message from the research? Timing, my friend.
Timing is everything. [Journal of Personality and Social 
Psychology via Live Science]

Posted in: Why Women Date Assholes