Ecological conditions provide information about available resources for one’s environment. In humans, this has been shown to influence reproductive behavior, as individuals may engage in trade-offs between partner quality and investment. For instance, many women may trade-off preferences for men with physical features indicative of social dominance and health over physical features indicative of commitment and investment. The current study explored women’s preferences for formidable men under safe vs. harsh ecological conditions. Across three studies, U.S. university women (N = 1,098) were randomly assigned to a perceived harsh or safe ecological condition. They were asked to rate the attractiveness of men’s body types (i.e., muscular vs. less muscular). Findings revealed that in general, women rated stronger men as more attractive than weaker men irrespective of the ecological condition. Evidence for preference as a function of ecology appeared only when a two-alternative forced-choice task was used (Study 3), but not in rating tasks (Studies 1 and 2). Study 3 showed that women had a relatively stronger preference for stronger men for short-term relationships in a resource scarce ecological condition. This research provides some evidence that perceived ecological conditions can drive women’s preferences for men with enhanced secondary sex characteristics as a function of mating context. These findings are consistent with previous research indicating the importance of physical characteristics in men’s attractiveness, and it adds to the existing literature on ecological factors and mating preferences.

生态条件提供有关环境可用资源的信息。在人类中，这已被证明会影响生殖行为，因为个人可能会在伴侣质量和投资之间进行权衡。例如，许多女性可能会权衡对具有表明社会主导地位和健康的身体特征的男性的偏好，而不是对表明承诺和投资的身体特征的男性的偏好。目前的研究探讨了在安全和恶劣的生态条件下女性对强大男性的偏好。在三项研究中，美国大学女性 ( N = 1,098) 被随机分配到感知恶劣或安全的生态条件下。他们被要求评价男性体型的吸引力（即肌肉发达与肌肉较弱）。调查结果显示，总体而言，无论生态条件如何，女性都认为强壮的男性比弱小的男性更具吸引力。仅当使用两种选择的强制选择任务时（研究 3），偏好作为生态函数的证据才会出现，但在评级任务中则不会出现（研究 1 和 2）。研究3表明，在资源稀缺的生态条件下，女性对于短期关系更倾向于更强大的男性。这项研究提供了一些证据，表明感知的生态条件可以根据交配环境推动女性对第二性征增强的男性的偏好。这些发现与之前的研究一致，表明身体特征对男性吸引力的重要性，并且补充了有关生态因素和择偶偏好的现有文献。