Talk:Mate Value

Peer Review

 * Overall, a good start, under all sections there is some depth and detail which can further be improved with more information/research.
 * You may want to consider placing a table of contents onto your Wikipedia Page. (See: table of contents)
 * Throughout the page, please consider linking specialist terms more, such as traits, reproduction, mating and survival (linked to survival skills).

Introduction
 * Its not extremely clear that mate value is the extent to which a person holds certain "preferred" traits, therefore influencing on how desirable they are as a mate. This may be because some of your wording may seem too "technical" for a reader not aware of this topic, so you may want to edit such sentences in more simplistic terms. By doing so you may also want to consider explaining briefly the concept of what a "mate/mate desirability/mate selection is.
 * Please provide references for: "Based upon mate desirability and preferences, it underpins mate selection and the formation of romantic relationships"
 * How do we know that: "mate value is the sum of certain traits perceived as desirable of which represent genetic quality and/or fitness". There is no evidence to show that desirable traits represent genetic quality and fitness. Please reference.

Evolution of mate value
 * Evolutionary theory has been able to show that individuals aim for the highest mate value possible, not only of others but of themselves - What is "highest mate value" ? Please detail on this.
 * Please consider rather than putting "et al" it may be better to put "Buss and researchers in 2001..."
 * You may want to divide your paragraph into two paragraphs. I.e. discussing about contraception can be placed into a new paragraph and expand into further detail

Suggestions for evolution of mate value, you may want to consider: I have copy edited and changed a few things, see history for the exact changes. Hope this helps!
 * Explaining why "...individuals differences of mate value have great evolutionary importance for survival, mating and reproduction success"
 * Explaining past history on mate value and how its changed over time in order to expand on evolutionary principles - e.g. you mentioned "some mate values have increased and decreased in preference over time", perhaps developing this sentence further and stating what kind of mate values have decreased/increased over time may help to do this
 * Explaining current mate value preferences
 * Expanding on types of mate value traits e.g. see "Are Human Faces and Voices Ornaments Signaling Common Underlying Cues to Mate Value? by Feinberg (2008)
 * "The Mate Value Scale" by Edlund and Sagarin (2014) may be interesting to discuss (under a suitable heading).
 * "The Mate Value Scale" by Edlund and Sagarin (2014) may be interesting to discuss (under a suitable heading).

Peer Review 2 for Human Sexuality
This is a really good start to this topic.

I have copy edited a few things - just reworded some sentences, suggested where citations are needed, and added some links.

Some suggestions for improvement:

1) The lead section has a good amount of information but needs some cleaning up: I think it would be good to explain what you mean by a 'determining factor in mate choice' and also the second and third paragraphs are a bit confusing to read - it would be good to explain more clearly and succinctly what is meant by the sentences 'It has been shown that preferences dictate an individual's mate value, leading to the prioritising of certain characteristics by some and not others. This results in potential mates having various mate values dependent on the mate-seekers's preferences'

2)The section 'sex differences in mate value' needs a few more citations for some of the statements.

3) Try not to interpret research - just report what has been found, don't infer what this could mean - for example you might want to remove sentences which start with 'this suggests' as this is stating your own interpretation of research.

Other than that, the page looks really good, well done! RosieKate13 (talk) 20:17, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Peer Review PS364
Overall a good start. A few things to consider:
 * The introduction doesn't immediately state/define what Mate Value is. The opening sentences don't give the reader an immediate indication at a glance what mate value is and thus what the article will be about. The defining sentence "Primarily, it is the sum of certain traits that are perceived as desirable" gets lost in the paragraph a little. Consider opening with this or something similar so the reader is able to clearly straight away what the article is talking about. Then proceed to indicate how this relates to theory of evolution etc.
 * "These individual differences of mate value have great evolutionary importance for survival, mating and reproduction success" - why? Consider if a layperson/average reader would be able to decipher why mate value is important in these respects. Clarification would be beneficial here.
 * As mentioned by other reviewers avoid "these findings suggest" or "suggesting" as this appears as interpretation of the source used. If these are things suggested by the authors themselves, present them as such, otherwise it comes across as an argument rather than encyclopedic content.

I have copy-edited, adding some missing punctuation and changing some wording (Odd wording: "The" before "evolutionary theory" in the evolution of mate value section. Could be 'The theory of evolution' OR 'evolutionary theory'. Just think it flows better. Someone feel free to correct me!)

Hope this helps!

Tesjh27 (talk) 21:13, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Peer review
I think this article is great and looks like it will definitely be a great contribution to our knowledge as it continues to develop.

Introduction I would like to propose a slight change to the structure of your content for improvements. The introduction starts of with proving readers with some background information on where the term has developed from(by who) However, I think it may be useful to start off with a brief description/definition of the term followed by related information such as the origins, the context it is normally used in (evolution psychology), the theories that the term forms a core part of. It would be great to ensure the lay person can quickly grasp the concept before bombarding them with other information. Eg: simply proving a clear brief statement to explain what the term mate value means at which point other related information can follow accordingly.

A more clear distinction between references to one's own MV and MV perceived in another I would also suggest that you try and provide a clear distinction between “one’s own mate value” and “ the mate value that is perceived in another” in the introduction and also throughout your article when using the term. For many people (especially lay persons) the word mate value sounds like the sum of desirable qualities in a potential mate whom you are considering, so essentially, how valuable this potential mate is to you. It may be important to explicitly mention that mate value is a term used describe your own value as well as the value of a potential mate (so essentially, the mate value of the mate seekers themselves as well as the mate value perceived by the mate-seeker of another).There are times when you do not make this clear distinction in your writing and it makes it hard to follow and understand what was meant. For example, in the sentence about preferences influencing mate value, I’m sure you meant to say that the mating preferences that are held by individuals influence the mate value they then perceive in another. I can confirm that indeed, this is what you intended to communicate by the sentence that followed. However, the sentence that states:

“It has been shown that preferences dictate an individual's mate value, leading to the prioritising of certain characteristics by some and not others”

can appear quite misleading and may cause readers to assume that you meant that one’s own mating preferences determine one’s own mate value, which I am sure you did not mean. Perhaps you may want to consider re-writing this just to make readers aware of the times when you are referring to one’s own mate value and the mate value one perceives in another. It may be confusing and lead to an interpretation that completely differs from the one you intended readers to make. OluGW (talk) 23:27, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Peer Review
1. A recommendation for the second paragraph: ‘..often leading to a perceived higher preference of those who hold corresponding mate values.’

2. Evolution of mate value: has evolutionary theory been able to ‘show’? Maybe reword this, as the evolutionary theory just provides explanations rather than concrete causes.

3. Why have these mate values been continuously preferred? Explain in terms of evolutionary theory. Why do we value such traits?

4. ‘However, all individuals are different and therefore value characteristics in different ways’ .. change to ‘Individual differences in the extent to which certain characteristics are valued leads to..’. This sounds less like an essay. Just make sure you cite it.

5. Why do these individual differences in the extent to which characteristics are valued have great evolutionary importance for survival? Expand on this maybe.. 6. Interesting study cited (Buss et al. 2001). Good addition.

7. ‘Various studies have been conducted to establish what these are’... and the extent to which they exist. Maybe just add this on to the end of the sentence so it sounds less static. Remember to add a citation.

8. Try to avoid the word ‘researchers’, it sounds like an essay. Instead, ‘males place a much bigger emphasis on the reproductive capacity of a mate.... as found in XYZ study.

9. ‘The same study’.. sounds static; instead, females were also found to place greater importance...

10. Ben Hamida, Mineka and Bailey (1998) [20] have also looked into sex differences in - be careful of the way you have references here. Also, get rid of how you have introduced this paragraph. It sounds like an essay. Instead, While males tend to show a preference for uncontrollable qualities such as thinness ect.. females prefer controllable qualities (and then give citation).

Overall, a very good start on a tough topic. Just be sure that sections don't resemble the structure if an essay. Avoid 'Researchers did XYZ' or ' XY & Z found that..'

Hope this helps Charleywoltynski (talk) 10:36, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

Peer Review (in progress)
Really good start to a topic, with a good breadth of information.

Copy Editing: Just made a few small edits to the grammar and phrasing of a couple of the sentences.

Potential edits, additions, as issues → Buss, D. M., Shackelford, T. K., Kirkpatrick, L. A., & Larsen, R. J. (2001). A half century of mate preferences: The cultural evolution of values. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63(2), 491-503. → Goodwin, R., Marshall, T., Fülöp, M., Adonu, J., Spiewak, S., Neto, F., & Plaza, S. H. (2012). Mate value and self-esteem: Evidence from eight cultural groups. PLoS One, 7(4), e36106. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Psumeb (talk • contribs) 13:56, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
 * 1) In parts it is quite a large amount of overlap and repetition with regards to the factors effecting male mate value, such as status and wealth.
 * 2) Potential expansion upon the point made in the final sentence of the top section regarding cultural effects as both sex differences and evolutionary are explained later in the article.

Peer Review
I have copy-edited the article which simply involved rewording a few phrases and adding a missed reference which I found in the references section. I do think more references are needed as a lot of statements are not cited. In terms of feedback, I think much of what I have to say has already been mentioned by others.

1. A contents table would really help the page as readers would instantly be able to see what the page includes without having to scroll all the way down. It would also help you with the flow of the page.

2. You have not defined the term 'mate value' in your introductory paragraph.

3. Your 'evolution of mate value' section almost seems to be an extension of the paragraph above it. Can this be made one paragraph? Also, you may be planning to do this already, but rather than simply explaining which different traits have become more important over time, you should explain why.

4. The first two paragraphs of the final section (sex differences) again almost say the same thing. Could this also be made into one paragraph? You could also go on to say why the different sexes focus on these different mate values. You have begun to do this for women where you mention parental investment but what about men? My group are focusing on the 'Physical Attractiveness' wiki page and I am actually focusing on youthfulness which you have mentioned and may go on to discuss further. It may therefore be nice to link our page in at some point so that you are no longer an 'orphan.' I'm sure many other pages could also be linked.

Other than these small points, I really like the page and it was an interesting read. There is a lot to say about the two sections you have chosen to discuss so far and you have included interesting and relevant research. Despite there being three different writers, the style of writing remains consistent and so the page flows well. Good luck! Psuneh (talk) 18:39, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

Peer Review - Human Sexuality Assignment
Overall this topic is very interesting, however I have a few criticisms to make:

1) Throughout the article there are many areas which aren't expanded in enough depth, for example an the cultural effects. The cultural effect on mate value is briefly mentioned in the introduction, however the article would be improved if examples of these cultural effects were detailed, along with reasons why there are present.

2) Secondly, there are many sentences throughout the article that require citations, as they make claims that are not backed up by any evidence. In particular, in the 'Sex Differences in Mate Value' area.

3) In general I believe this article could be improved if there was more detail involved. For example, it would be interesting to create a whole two separate sections on how 'attractiveness' and 'intelligence' both influence mate value.

In terms of editing, I expanded on a few points made in the 'Sex Differences in Mate Value' section, in order to try and give a better explanation of some claims, as well as correcting a few grammatical errors in sentences.

Belieber1995 (talk) 21:25, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Copy edit
I have looked thoroughly and I cannot find anything to copy edit/correct so far. OluGW (talk) 16:42, 17 March 2016 (UTC)