Are You an Artist? Well We Hope You’re Rich or Beautiful, Otherwise People Might Not Want to Date You, a New Study Says

For all you geeks out there
thinking your “artistic talent” might make up for your lack of good
looks, money, or dull sense of humor, we have some bad
news. 

It turns out that creativity is
actually among the least desirable traits in a partner for both
males and females, at
least according to a new
study from researchers
at the University of Swansea in the UK. The study, the largest test
of its kind ever conducted, concluded that, on average, people are
far more interested in kindness, beauty, and financial security in
their potential mates. 

The researchers behind the
report polled 2,700 college students from five countries in Europe
and Asia, comparing the results of participants hailing from
“Eastern” countries (Singapore and Malaysia) with those from
“Western” nations (Australia, Norway, and the UK). The students
were asked to gauge which of eight attributes they prioritized in a
potential partner: kindness, humor, chastity, religiosity, physical
attractiveness, financial prospects, a desire for children, and
creativity.

Each subject was also given a
set amount of “mate dollars”—currency to spend on eight traits of
their hypothetical other half. Each dollar amounted to 1 percent of
a trait, meaning that if you wanted your mate to be 30 percent more
religious, you’d have to spend 30 mate dollars.

But they had to choose
carefully—each dollar spent was one that couldn’t be put toward
another trait. For instance, you could drop $80 locking down a date
that’s both kind and funny, but good luck affording your kid’s
college. On the other hand, you could go for someone that has as
much money as, say, Warren Buffett. But that also might mean that
they could look like… well, Warren Buffett. (And perhaps have the
personality of Jimmy
Buffett.)

For both Eastern and Westerners
alike, creativity was among the three least desirable traits. (The
other two were chastity and religiosity.) Across the board,
kindness was by far the most commonly picked option of the bunch.
Men more highly favored physical attractiveness, while woman prized
financial security. Humor was a much more popular choice for
Westerners, as was the desire for children, while religiosity saw a
higher number in the East.

“It always surprises me with
this task that creativity takes a back seat to most other traits,
and this pattern was repeated in our large cross-cultural
comparison,” the lead researcher, Andrew G. Thomas, said in
an interview with
TIME. “Highly successful
creative individuals, such as musicians and artists, are often
highly desirable mates, but maybe what’s actually being valued here
is not creativity as such but the social status that accompanies
it. It makes me wonder what groupies really like about the bands
they follow.”

The post Are You an Artist? Well We Hope You’re Rich or
Beautiful, Otherwise People Might Not Want to Date You, a New Study
Says appeared first on artnet News.