Marie analyses the profiles of people using online dating apps Tinder, Hinge and Bumble. She finds that on average, women tend to upload photos to their profile that advertise their physical looks, while men upload photos that advertise resources and weal

Question continued - wealth.Using your knowledge of evolutionary perspectives on mate preference, explain why these different strategies may have been adopted (4)The evolutionary explanation argues that the anisogamy (differences) between gametes (sex cells) affects mate selection. Male gametes are small, mobile, created continuously in vast numbers and don’t require great expenditure of energy to produce. Female gametes are large, static, produced at intervals and require a huge investment of energy. This means that there is no shortage of fertile males but a fertile woman is a fairly rare resource, leading to two different mating strategies in terms of partner selection. When Marie finds that men tend to upload photos that advertise their 'resources and wealth', this is evidencing the idea that women make a greater investment in terms of mate selection and child rearing (Trivers 1972) and therefore are more likely to look for mates who have a reliable level of income and resources to support a child. When Marie finds that women 'advertise their physical looks', evolutionary theory would argue that this is because men typically look for indicators of youth and fertility in female partners, which physical looks are an indicator of.