Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social Psychology

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Doctoral Dissertations

Attraction

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Do Bad Boys Finish First? An Investigation Of A Lay Theory Of Heterosexual Women's Mate Preferences, Casey J. Debuse Jul 2016

Do Bad Boys Finish First? An Investigation Of A Lay Theory Of Heterosexual Women's Mate Preferences, Casey J. Debuse

Doctoral Dissertations

The notion that heterosexual women are romantically interested in “bad boys” is a pervasive lay theory of close relationships in U.S. culture. The current research investigated women’s perceptions of bad boys and individual differences in their romantic interest in bad boys. Three studies recruited heterosexual female participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website. Study 1 asked participants to rate their associations of a list of trait adjectives with the bad boy and other prototypes (the “hero,” “nice guy,” and “loser”). Paired comparisons indicated that supportiveness and social dominance traits discriminated among prototypes. Study 2 asked participants to rate their romantic interest …