Finding the One: Human Mate
Selection Applied to Persons Who are
Visually Impaired
Gaylen Kapperman
(gkapperman@niu.edu), Kathryn Page
(vanmalk14@gmail.com), and Stacy Kelly
(skelly@niu.edu)
Northern Illinois University
Preferences in Human Mate Selection
Humans, like all primates, are visual crea-
tures (Fedigan, 1992). Vision plays an essential
role in the search for "the one" and securing of a
suitable mate. Every culture has its own idiosyn-
cratic set of criteria which determines the charac-
teristics of suitable potential mates, but there are
some cross-cultural, innate characteristics that
are operative in all humans. The defining underly-
ing fundamental rationale is focused on securing
a mate with the greatest probability for becoming
a high quality parent with the potential for produc-
ing genetically superior offspring. The basis of
any mate selection is the inevitability and neces-
sity to procreate (Riley, 1993).
Before proceeding, we must note that the
majority of research on human mate selection ap-
plies to heterosexual couples and that more re-
search is needed as this topic pertains to homo-
sexual couples. It has been found, however, that
the factors that influence mate selection in het-
erosexual couples generally applies to same-sex
couples, too (Felmlee, Orzechowicz, & Fortest,
2010).
In the case of Homo sapiens, the selection
of a mate is made by females (Fedigan, 1992).
There are five basic criteria that human females
desire in a mate. The first is that the male be
physically larger than she (Cashdan, 1997). This
is a longstanding desire that is evident in higher
38
