Research on sexual selection has argued that males' and females' mate choice strategies differ due to different biological reproductive pressures demanded of each. Hill and Buss (2008) argue that due to these differing pressures and the subsequent difference in mate choice strategies used by males and females, the two sexes additionally differ in their use of social information when deciding upon a mate. Hill and Buss (2008) propose that when a male target is in the presence of opposite sex others, female subjects will desire him more than if the same male target were presented with same sex others or alone (desirability enhancing effect); alternatively, a female target presented with opposite sex others is desired more by male subjects than the same female target presented with same sex others or alone (desirability diminishing effect). Additionally, Hill and Buss (2008) provide testable reasons for why the desirability effects exert a sex difference, but do not actually test such propositions. The present paper utilized a 2 X 2 X 3 (target sex, attractiveness, presence of others) design in order to replicate Hill & Buss' (2008) findings. Furthermore, the present paper proposed an alternative explanation for their findings (attractiveness effect) and examined this proposed alternative explanation. Finally, the present paper developed testable models derived from the desirability and attractiveness effects. The pattern of means obtained in this study is inconsistent with Hill and Buss' (2008) previous findings and the models derived from their work. The data were also inconsistent with the hypothesized attractiveness effect and model, however, upon closer examination a post-hoc revised attractiveness model was proposed, and the data were consistent with it. Finally, this paper argues for a reconceptualization of desirability and mate choice.
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