Zuzana Štěrbová

• PhD
• Researcher at Charles University in Prague

Body constitution plays an important role in human mate choice. Cross-cultural research reports that women on average prefer men with muscular physique. It is still unclear, however, what mechanisms influence the inter-individual variation in mate preferences and choices of partner's physique. In this study, we tested the mechanisms of an imprintin...

Couples often resemble each other in characteristics like depression, but the reasons for this homogamy (i.e., similarity) remain unclear. We investigated two potential mechanisms: preference for a self-similar partner and convergence (i.e., increasing similarity) over time. In a nationally representative sample of 2,793 Czech individuals who we su...

A prospective partner’s sexual history provides important information that can be used to minimise mating-related risks. Such information includes the number of past sexual partners, which has an inverse relationship with positive suitor evaluation. However, sexual encounters with new partners vary in frequency over time, providing an additional di...

While there is substantial research on what people want in their romantic and sexual partners, much of this work focuses on WEIRD, youthful samples, fails to consider the role of undesirable characteristics (i.e., things people do not want in partners) at all, or in conjunction with desirable characteristics (i.e., things people do want in partners...

In a multinational project (N = 3707), we factor analyzed a commonly used self-report measure of intrasexual competition and found a three-dimensional system. We called these factors envy (i.e., wanting what others have), jealousy (i.e., protecting what one has), and competitiveness (i.e., beliefs that one is better). To better understand these fac...

Mate value is an important concept in mate choice research although its operationalization and understanding are limited. Here, we reviewed and evaluated previously established conceptual and methodological approaches measuring mate value and presented original research using individual differences in how people view themselves as a face-valid prox...

Women tend to choose partners who resemble their father in certain characteristics. In non-human mammals, similar parental imprinting-like effects are often odour-mediated1,2, which requires not only learning of parental odour but also similarity between parents and prospective mates in the microbial communities responsible for production of the cr...

Since Darwin proposed that human musicality evolved through sexual selection, empirical evidence has supported intersexual selection as one of the adaptive functions of artistic propensities. However, intrasexual competition has been overlooked. We tested their relative importance by investigating the relationship between the self-perceived talent/...

The occurrence of depression is influenced by social relationships, however, most studies focus on individuals, not couples. We aimed to study how depressive symptoms of couples evolve over time and determine, which characteristics are associated with their distinct trajectories. A multi-centric cohort sample of 11,136 heterosexual couples (mean ag...

Namesaking (naming a child after a parent or other relative) can be viewed as a mechanism to increase perceived parent-child similarity and, consequently, parental investment. Male and, to a lesser extent, firstborn children are more frequently namesakes than female and later-born children, respectively. However, a direct link between namesaking an...

Vyhýbání se sexu s příbuznými neboli incestu je považováno za univerzální jev. Jednotlivé obory se však liší vysvětlením vzniku zábrany incestu. Cílem této přehledové studie je představit teorie vyhýbání se incestu z perspektivy kulturní a evoluční antropologie, a přispět tak k pochopení komplexity celé problematiky. Důvodem nízkého výskytu incestu...

Namesaking (naming a child after a parent or other relative) can be viewed as a mechanism to increase perceived parent-child similarity and, consequently, parental investment. Male and, to a lesser extent, firstborn children are more frequently namesakes than female and later-born children, respectively. However, a direct link between namesaking an...

Odhady výskytu incestu se značně rozcházejí. Výsledky mohou být ovlivněny zdrojem, ze kterého jsou data čerpána (např. soudní záznamy), ale také rozdílným chápáním pojmu incest. Zároveň není zřejmé, které faktory jsou pro výskyt incestu specifické. Cílem této přehledové studie je představit výskyt incestního chování a okolnosti, které ho obvykle do...

Evidence suggests that personality may influence romantic relationship quality in several ways. Quality of relationship can be affected by an individual's personality (actor effect), partner's personality (partner effect), by discrepancy between ideal and actual partners' personalities (discrepancy effect), or by similarity between partners' person...

A mating strategy can be defined as a set of behavioral and cognitive adaptations which drive reproductive efforts of individuals. The ultimate aim of mating strategies is to maximize reproductive success. These strategies also affect individual investment in mating and parenting. Each consists of specific mating tactics in the form of individual b...

Sociosexuality, i.e. individual's willingness to engage in uncommitted sex, is systematically higher in men than in women, and can be considered a male typical trait. However, intrasexual variation in sociosexuality is considerable , with individual femininity/masculinity being one of the factors influencing sociosexuality. The aim of our study was...

Life History Theory has been proposed as a trade-off between allocation of resources into growth or reproduction. Within the reproductive domain, individuals are theorized to mostly invest either in mating or parenting. We tested effects of sociosexuality and Dark Triad traits on both mating and parenting efforts. In total, 1,110 heterosexual Middl...

Postpartum depression (PPD) affects up to 19% of all mothers, with detrimental effects on both mother and child. The antidepressant and anxiolytic effects of plasma oxytocin are well-documented, but it is still disputable whether synthetic oxytocin (synOT) may protect women against postpartum mood alterations. The current study examined the associa...

In mate choice, individuals consider a wide pool of potential partners. It has been found that people have certain preferences, but intraindividual stability of mate choice over time remains little explored. We tested individual consistency of mate choice with respect to a number of demographic, physical, and personality characteristics. Only mothe...

Facial perception plays a key role in various social interactions, including formidability assessments. People make relatively accurate inferences about men's physical strength, aggressiveness, and success in physical confrontations based on facial cues. The physical factors related to the perception of fighting ability and their relative contribut...

Dataset for Athletes measurements.

Dataset for formidability rating.

Sample of 360° head rotation.

Factor analysis; Exploratory correlation matrix.

Studies in social perception traditionally use as stimuli frontal portrait photographs. It turns out, however, that 2D frontal depiction may not fully capture the entire morphological diversity of facial features. Recently, 3D images started to become increasingly popular, but whether their perception differs from the perception of 2D has not been...

Partner preferences are formed by several mechanisms, including an imprinting-like effect (parent-similarity) and homogamy (self-similarity). It is still unknown, however, whether these preferences remain stable throughout an individual's lifetime. We have therefore tested the consistency of mate choice in eye and hair colour both in a shortand lon...

The main aims of this study were to test the similarity of masculinity-femininity in long-term, male, same-sex couples from the Czech Republic and to examine whether this similarity predicts higher relationship satisfaction. In study 1, participants (N = 30) and their partners completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) and the Childhood gender non...

Studies of homogamy in personality in heterosexual couples have arrived at inconsistent results and research of this issue in same-sex couples is almost non-existent. Moreover, homogamy in actual couples can differ from preferred homogamy in ideal partners. In Study 1, preferences for personality homogamy and perceived homogamy in actual relationsh...

Secondary sexual characteristics that are consistently noticed by individuals of the opposite sex (e.g., female breasts) have been shown to be linked to individual qualities, such as health and/or fertility. However, it is not clear whether homosexual individuals seek similar traits in their potential partners as their heterosexual counterparts. He...

Recent research has reported that male body and facial hair influence women's mate preferences. However, it is not clear whether such preferences are typical for women or for individuals who prefer males as sexual partners. Here we explored body and facial hair in preferred and actual partners among men and women who prefer men as sexual partners....

The morphology of human female breasts typical for their permanent fat deposits appears to be unique among primates. It has been previously suggested that female breast morphology arose as a result of sexual selection. This is supported by evidence showing that women with larger breasts tend to have higher estrogen levels; breast size may therefore...

Personality is important for social and romantic life, but little is known about personality preferences in non-heterosexual individuals. Here we investigated individual differences in personality (Five Factor Model) of an ideal and actual partner, and in self-reported personality among heterosexual and non-heterosexual men and women in two populat...

Height and dominance influence mate preferences and choices. We explored preferred relative height (PRH) among ideal partners and actual relative height (ARH) among long-term partners in heterosexual and non-heterosexual men and women from Brazil and the Czech Republic. Furthermore, we tested whether PRH and ARH are influenced by own height, and su...

Male sexual orientation is commonly associated with gender non-conformity, in other words homosexual men show, on average, more feminine characteristics compared to heterosexual men. This article reviews the development of tools for measuring masculinity-femininity, and summarizes the research on the association between gender non-conformity and ma...

There are two basic theories explaining possible principles on which people are attracted to each other and how individuals create sexual and romantic relationships. The theory of homogamy states that in their potential or actual partners individuals prefer characteristics that are similar to themselves ("birds of a feather flock together"). One of...