Jak dobieramy się w pary? Płeć biologiczna i płeć społeczno-kulturowa a preferowane cechy partnera

How we mate and who we find attractive is not accidental. This is subject to the rules based mostly on the principle saying that ‘similarities attract’. The rules concern primarily the candidates we choose for long-term relationships. One of the rules, homogamy, means looking for a partner with a similar socio-economic status. Today, however, rather than socio-economic conditions, cultural similarity is becoming more important in choice making: the importance of similar education and joint interests is growing. The aim of the presented studies was to analyze the influence of socio-cultural gender on choosing a partner. The following questions were asked: What is the gender type of Poles? Is there any connection between Poles’ gender and being in a stable relationship or being single? Does gender diversify women’s and men’s expectations of their partners? What expectations have women and men representing the same gender of men and women respectively? The studies presented in this article were carried out in 2010 on the representative sample of 2306 adult Poles. Their results show diversity and diversification of expectations of women and men representing different gender types. The analysis revealed that psychological traits, social competence, and appearance are more important than economic status in assessing a partner’s attractiveness. The results show also that qualities expected of a partner depend not only on sex, but also on gender. Sex remains a factor diversifying almost all the analyzed qualities contributing to a person’s social attractiveness, but including gender in the analysis revealed even bigger diversification of expectations of partners among representatives of the same sex.