This study sought to identify the effects of culture and sex on mate preferences using samples drawn world-wide. Thirty-seven samples were obtained from 33 countries located on six continents and five islands (N = 9,474). Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed strong effects of both culture and sex, moderated by specific mate characteristics. Chastity proved to be the mate characteristic on which cultures varied the most. The preference ordering of each sample was contrasted with an international complement. Each culture displayed a unique preference ordering, but there were some similarities among all cultures as reflected in a positive manifold of the cross-country correlation matrix. Multidimensional scaling of the cultures yielded a five dimensional solution, the first two of which were interpreted. The first dimension was interpreted as Traditional versus Modern, with China, India, Iran, and Nigeria anchoring one end and the Netherlands, Great Britain, Finland, and Sweden anchoring the other. The second dimension involved valuation of education, intelligence, and refinement. Consistent sex differences in value attached to eaming potential and physical attractiveness supported evolution-based hypotheses about the importance of resources and reproductive value in mates. Discussion emphasizes the importance of psychological mate preferences for scientific disciplines ranging from evolutionary biology to sociology.

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Abstract— This article examines the implications that 4 decades of multimethod research in Zambia have for psychological assessment, parent–teacher communication, educational policy, and research methodology. Its primary focus is a cultural study of indigenous ideas in a rural Chewa community in eastern Zambia that concluded that, within this culture, children’s intelligence was construed as an amalgam of cognitive alacrity and social responsibility. But in Zambia, as elsewhere, the curriculum of institutionalized public basic schooling is almost exclusively addressed to the cultivation of knowledge and cognitive skills. The article outlines the approach to education taken by Child‐to‐Child, one that resonates with indigenous African values and practices. It also describes a case study of the application of this approach at a public primary school in northern Zambia that documented sustained increases in social responsibility alongside strong academic outcomes. Connections with research and policy in other societies are also discussed.

Pattern reproduction tasks were presented in four different media to samples of urban Zambian and urban British schoolchildren. When the patterns were reproduced as wire models, the Zambian children excelled the British. When the patterns were reproduced by drawing, the British children excelled the Zambian. No reliable cross-cultural differences were found when the patterns were reproduced as plasticine models or as configurations of hand positions. Both cultural groups were equally adversely affected when required to perform the modelling tasks or the hand positions task blind-folded. The results are interpreted as suggesting that cross-cultural differences in performance of pattern reproduction tasks reflect different sets of highly specific perceptual skills rather than differences on broader cognitive variables such as practical intelligence, field-dependency or sensotypes.

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