Cross-cultural data on romantic love and mate preferences from 117,293 participants across 175 countries

Marta Kowal¹, Piotr Sorokowski², Biljana Gjoneska³, Katarzyna Pisanski^{2

4

5}, Gerit Pfuhl⁶, Leonardo Aguilar⁷, Steve M J Janssen⁸, Benjamin Gelbart⁹, Patrícia Arriaga¹⁰, Jan Antfolk¹¹, Katarina Zvončáková^{12

13}, Linda H Lidborg¹⁴, Jorge Contreras-Garduño¹⁵, Mikhail V Kozlov¹⁶, Taciano L Milfont¹⁷, Marco A C Varella¹⁸, Valerija Križanić¹⁹, Mahmoud Boussena²⁰, Tina Kavčič^{21

22}, Diana Ribeiro da Silva²³, Brahim Hamdaoui²⁴, Fatima Zahra Sahli²⁵, Karlijn Massar²⁶, Eliane Deschrijver²⁷, Tatsunori Ishii²⁸, Hakan Cetinkaya²⁹, Oksana Senyk³⁰, Farida Guemaz³¹, Koen Ponnet³², Yahya Don³³, Dušana Šakan³⁴, Gyesook Yoo³⁵, Ravit Nussinson^{36

37}, Joaquín Ungaretti³⁸, Ali R Can³⁹, Izzet Duyar⁴⁰, Jiří Čeněk^{41

42}, Joao Carneiro⁴³, Norbert Meskó⁴⁴, Luca Kozma⁴⁵, Ellen K Nyhus⁴⁶, Mona Vintila⁴⁷, Oulmann Zerhouni^{48

49}, Farid Pazhoohi⁵⁰, Maja Zupančič²¹, Sinem Söylemez⁵¹, Austin H-E Wang⁵², Marietta Papadatou-Pastou⁵³, Irena Pavela Banai¹⁹, Pavol Prokop^{54

55}, Mohd Sofian Omar Fauzee⁵⁶, Reza Afhami⁵⁷, Jean C Natividade⁵⁸, Roberto Baiocco⁵⁹, Mara Morelli⁶⁰, Toivo Aavik⁶¹, Ezgi Toplu-Demirtaş⁶², Singha Tulyakul⁶³, Anna Wlodarczyk⁶⁴, Razieh Chegeni⁶⁵, Anabela C Santos⁶⁶, Dmitry Grigoryev⁶⁷, Dmitrii Dubrov⁶⁷, Dimitri Chubinidze⁶⁸, Gözde Ikizer⁶⁹, Nana Burduli⁷⁰, Johanna Czamanski-Cohen⁷¹, Rizwana Amin^{72

73}, Petros Roussos⁷⁴, Evgeniya Hristova⁷⁵, Rūta Sargautytė⁷⁶, Ekaterine Pirtskhalava⁷⁷, Tenuunjargal Avirmed⁷⁸, Arooj Najmussaqib⁷⁹, Abdelilah Charyate⁸⁰, Shagufta Batool⁸¹, Tatiana Volkodav⁸², Yoshihiko Kunisato⁸³, Yuki Yamada⁸⁴, Asako Toyama⁸⁵, Mariia Perun⁸⁶, Seda Dural⁸⁷, Tetyana Mandzyk⁸⁶, Anna Studzinska⁸⁸, Ognen Spasovski⁸⁹, Felipe E García⁹⁰, Caterina Grano⁹¹, Merve Boğa⁹², Mehmet Koyuncu⁹³, Sangeeta Singh⁹⁴, Ju Hee Park⁹⁵, Derya Atamtürk⁴⁰, Samuel Lins⁴³, Martin Pírko⁹⁶, David Lacko^{12

42}, Balazs Aczel⁹⁷, Ferenc Kocsor⁴⁴, Ádám Putz⁹⁸, Tobias Otterbring⁹⁹, Pavol Kačmár¹⁰⁰, Efisio Manunta^{101

102}, Théo Besson¹⁰³, Nasim Ghahraman Moharrampour¹⁰⁴, Çağlar Solak⁵¹, Bojana M Dinić¹⁰⁵, Ignacio Estevan¹⁰⁶, Merve Topcu Bulut¹⁰⁷, Nicolas Kervyn¹⁰⁸, Moises Mebarak¹⁰⁹, Jackson G Lu¹¹⁰, Nejc Plohl¹¹¹, Bojan Musil¹¹¹, Adil Samekin¹¹², Kirill G Miroshnik^{113

114}, Clément Cornec⁵, Isabella Giammusso¹¹⁵, Ulf-Dietrich Reips¹¹⁶, Maria Rosa Miccoli¹¹⁶, Miriam Parise¹¹⁷, Sabrina Stöckli^{118

119}, Tiago Marot¹²⁰, Sibele D Aquino⁵⁸, Amanda Londero-Santos¹²¹, Antonio Chirumbolo¹²², Aybegum Memisoglu-Sanli¹²³, Jaroslava V Valentova¹²⁴, Cemre Karaarslan¹²⁵, Ivana Hromatko¹²⁶, Kevin Sevag Kertechian¹²⁷, Ogeday Çoker¹²⁸, Matheus F Ribeiro¹²⁹, Carlota Batres¹³⁰, Ilker Dalgar¹²³, Stephanie J Eder¹³¹, Katarina Mišetić¹³², Marios Argyrides¹³³, Vita Mikuličiūtė⁷⁶, Silvia Mari¹³⁴, Elisabeth Oberzaucher^{135

136

137}, Kathrin Masuch^{135

137}, Alan D A Mattiassi¹³⁸, Salma S Omar¹³⁹, Elena Piccinelli¹⁴⁰, Eda Ermagan Caglar¹⁴¹, Diogo Lamela¹⁴², David A Frederick¹⁴³, Aleksander Kobylarek¹⁴⁴, Ma Criselda T Pacquing^{145

146}, Marc Eric S Reyes^{145

146}, Marcos Zumárraga-Espinosa¹⁴⁷, Feten Fekih-Romdhane^{148

149}, Talía Gómez Yepes^{150

151}, Edgardo Etchezahar^{150

152}, Katarzyna Galasinska¹⁵³, Jan P Röer¹⁵⁴, Ayşegül Şahin⁴⁰, Miguel Landa-Blanco¹⁵⁵, Izuchukwu L G Ndukaihe¹⁵⁶, Arkadiusz Urbanek¹⁴⁴, Chee-Seng Tan¹⁵⁷, Rita Castro⁴³, Ksenija Cunichina⁷⁶, Anna Krasnodębska¹⁵⁸, Daniel Conroy-Beam⁹, Franciszek Ostaszewski¹⁵³, Izabela Chałatkiewicz¹⁵³, Beatriz Abad-Villaverde¹⁵⁹, Bastien Trémolière¹⁶⁰, Alexios Arvanitis¹⁶¹, Gulmira T Topanova¹⁶², William J Chopik¹⁶³, Grace Akello¹⁶⁴, Ariela F Pagani¹⁶⁵, Silvia Donato¹¹⁷, Peter Fedor⁵⁴, Tomasz Frackowiak², Simon Ozer¹⁶⁶, Marlon Mayorga-Lascano¹⁶⁷, Farah Khan¹⁶⁸, Maryanne L Fisher¹⁶⁹, Princess Lovella G Maturan¹⁷⁰, Tatiana Semenovskikh¹⁷¹, Sanjana Dutt¹⁷², William Tamayo-Agudelo¹⁷³, Gulnara Ismukhanova¹⁷⁴, Laith Al-Shawaf^{175

176

177

178}, Luisa Angelucci^{179

180}, Adam Bode¹⁸¹, Sercan Balım¹⁸², Jovi C Dacanay¹⁸³, Chiemezie S Atama¹⁸⁴, Kai A D Morgan Campbell¹⁸⁵, Tchilissila A Simões¹⁸⁶, Barış Özener⁴⁰, Paula Błauciak¹⁸⁷, Filipe Prazeres¹⁸⁸

Affiliations

¹ IDN Being Human Lab - Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland. marta7kowal@gmail.com.
² Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland.
³ Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, North Macedonia.
⁴ CNRS French National Centre for Scientific Research, DDL Dynamics of Language Laboratory, University of Lyon 2, Lyon, France.
⁵ ENES Bioacoustics Research Lab, Jean Monnet University of Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France.
⁶ Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
⁷ School of Psychology, Central University of Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela.
⁸ School of Psychology, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, Malaysia.
⁹ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA.
¹⁰ Departament of Psychology & CIS-Iscte, ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
¹¹ Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.
¹² Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic.
¹³ Department of Psychology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
¹⁴ Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom.
¹⁵ Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, México.
¹⁶ Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
¹⁷ School of Psychological and Social Sciences, University of Waikato, Tauranga, New Zealand.
¹⁸ Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
¹⁹ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia.
²⁰ Department of Psychology, University Mohamed lamine Debaghine Setif2, Setif, Algeria.
²¹ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
²² Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
²³ CINEICC - Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Behavioral Intervention, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
²⁴ Departement of Sociology, Ibn Tofail University, Kénitra, Morocco.
²⁵ Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco.
²⁶ Department of Work & Social Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
²⁷ School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
²⁸ Department of Psychology, Japan Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.
²⁹ Department of Psychology, Yaşar University, Izmir, Turkey.
³⁰ Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, WSB Merito University in Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.
³¹ Department of Psychology and Eduactional sciences and Orthophony, Mohamed Lamine Debaghine University Setif2, Setif, Algeria.
³² Faculty of Social Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
³³ School of Education (SoE), Universiti Utara Malaysia, Alor Setar, Malaysia.
³⁴ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Legal and Business Studies dr Lazar Vrkatić, Novi Sad, Serbia.
³⁵ Department of Child & Family Studies, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
³⁶ Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University of Israel, Raanana, Israel.
³⁷ Institute for Information Processing and Decision Making, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
³⁸ Faculty of Education, Valencian Internacional University, Valencia, Spain.
³⁹ Department of Anthropology, Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Hatay, Turkey.
⁴⁰ Department of Anthropology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
⁴¹ Department of Social Studies, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czechia.
⁴² Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia.
⁴³ Department of Psychology, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
⁴⁴ Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
⁴⁵ Division of Psychology, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, United Kingdom.
⁴⁶ Department of management, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway.
⁴⁷ Psychology Department, West University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania.
⁴⁸ Centre de Recherche sur les Fonctionnements et Dysfonctionnements Psychologiques, Université de Rouen Normandie, Rouen, France.
⁴⁹ Laboratoire Parisien de Psychologie Sociale, Université Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France.
⁵⁰ School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom.
⁵¹ Department of Psychology, Manisa Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey.
⁵² Department of Political Science, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, USA.
⁵³ Department of Primary Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
⁵⁴ Department of Environmental Ecology, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁵⁵ Department of Animal Ecology, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁵⁶ Faculty of Education and Liberal Arts, INTI International University, Nilau, Malaysia.
⁵⁷ Department of Art Studies, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
⁵⁸ Department of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
⁵⁹ Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
⁶⁰ Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
⁶¹ Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
⁶² Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, MEF University, İstanbul, Turkey.
⁶³ Faculty of Education, Thaksin University, Songkhla, Thailand.
⁶⁴ Escuela de Psicología, Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile.
⁶⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁶⁶ CIS - Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social (CIS-ISCTE), ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
⁶⁷ Center for Sociocultural Research, HSE University, Moscow, Russia.
⁶⁸ Psychological Medicine, IoPPN, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
⁶⁹ Department of Psychology, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara, Turkey.
⁷⁰ Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia.
⁷¹ School of Creative Arts Therapies, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
⁷² Psychology Department, Effat university, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
⁷³ School of professional Psychology, Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
⁷⁴ Department of Psychology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
⁷⁵ Department of Cognitive Science and Psychology, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria.
⁷⁶ Institute of Psychology, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
⁷⁷ Department of Psychology, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State Univeristy, Tbilisi, Georgia.
⁷⁸ Department of Sociology and Social Work, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
⁷⁹ Independent Researcher, Independent Researcher, Islamabad, Pakistan.
⁸⁰ Département des Sciences de l'éducation, Ecole Supérieure de l'éducation et de la Formation, Université Ibn Tofail, Kenitra, Maroc.
⁸¹ Department of Psychology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China.
⁸² Department of Pedagogy and Psychology, Kuban State University, Krasnodar, Russia.
⁸³ Department of Psychology, Senshu University, Kawasaki, Japan.
⁸⁴ Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
⁸⁵ Graduate School of the Humanities, Senshu University, Kawasaki, Japan.
⁸⁶ Department of Psychology, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine.
⁸⁷ Department of Psychology, Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey.
⁸⁸ Humanities Department, Icam School of Engineering, Toulouse campus, Toulouse, France.
⁸⁹ Department of Psychology, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Skopje, North Macedonia.
⁹⁰ Departamento de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
⁹¹ Department of Psychology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
⁹² Department of Psychology, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey.
⁹³ Department of Psychology, Izmir Bakırçay University, Izmir, Turkey.
⁹⁴ Department of Strategy, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway.
⁹⁵ Department of Child and Family Studies, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁹⁶ Institute of Lifelong Learning, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic.
⁹⁷ Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
⁹⁸ Department of Cognitive and Evolutionary Psychology, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
⁹⁹ Department of Management, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway.
¹⁰⁰ Department of Psychology, University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Košice, Košice, Slovakia.
¹⁰¹ CLLE, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
¹⁰² Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
¹⁰³ Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale, Université Paris Cité, Boulogne-billancourt, France.
¹⁰⁴ School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
¹⁰⁵ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia.
¹⁰⁶ Instituto de Fundamentos y Métodos en Psicología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
¹⁰⁷ Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Atılım University, Ankara, Turkey.
¹⁰⁸ Louvain School of Management, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain La Neuve, Belgium.
¹⁰⁹ Department of psychology, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia.
¹¹⁰ MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
¹¹¹ Department of Psychology, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
¹¹² School of Liberal Arts, M. Narikbayev KAZGUU University, Astana, Kazakhstan.
¹¹³ Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.
¹¹⁴ Department of Psychology, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
¹¹⁵ Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
¹¹⁶ Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
¹¹⁷ Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy.
¹¹⁸ Chair of Marketing, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
¹¹⁹ Bern University of Applied Sciences, Bern, Switzerland.
¹²⁰ Department of Psychology, Federal Fluminense University, Campos Dos Goytacazes, Brazil.
¹²¹ Department of Psychometric - Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
¹²² Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
¹²³ Department of Psychology, Ankara Medipol University, Ankara, Turkey.
¹²⁴ Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
¹²⁵ Department of Psychology, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey.
¹²⁶ Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
¹²⁷ Department of Organization, Management, and Human Resource, ESSCA School of Management, Bouloge-Billancourt, France.
¹²⁸ Psychology, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey.
¹²⁹ Department of Psychology, University of Uberaba, Uberaba, Brazil.
¹³⁰ Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, USA.
¹³¹ Department of Neurosciences and Developmental Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
¹³² Department of Psychology, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
¹³³ Department of Psychology, Neapolis University Pafos, Paphos, Cyprus.
¹³⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy.
¹³⁵ Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
¹³⁶ Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
¹³⁷ Urban Human, Vienna, Austria.
¹³⁸ Department of Education, Literatures, Intercultural Studies, Languages and Psychology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
¹³⁹ Department of Dermatology & Andrology, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
¹⁴⁰ CIS-Iscte, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Iscte-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal.
¹⁴¹ Department of Psychology, Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey.
¹⁴² HEI-Lab, Lusófona University, Porto, Portugal.
¹⁴³ Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, Chapman University, Orange, USA.
¹⁴⁴ Department of Pedagogy, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland.
¹⁴⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines.
¹⁴⁶ Research Center for Social Sciences and Education, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines.
¹⁴⁷ Carrera de Psicología, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS), Quito, Ecuador.
¹⁴⁸ Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, Tunis El Manar University, Tunis, Tunisia.
¹⁴⁹ Department of Psychiatry Ibn Omrane, Razi Hospital, Manouba, Tunisia.
¹⁵⁰ Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
¹⁵¹ Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
¹⁵² Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones en Psicología Matemática y Experimental, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
¹⁵³ Department of Psychology, SWPS University, Warsaw, Poland.
¹⁵⁴ Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany.
¹⁵⁵ School of Psychological Sciences, National Autonomous University of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
¹⁵⁶ Department of Psychology, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-alike, Nigeria.
¹⁵⁷ School of Psychology, Wenzhou-Kean University, Wenzhou, China.
¹⁵⁸ Administracja i Bezpieczeństwo Wewnętrzne, Uniwersytet WSB Merito Opole, Opole, Polska.
¹⁵⁹ Faculty of Humanities and Education, Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
¹⁶⁰ Department of Psychology, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
¹⁶¹ Department of Psychology, University of Crete, Rethymno, Greece.
¹⁶² The Department of Theoretical and Practical Psychology, Информация Kazakh National Women's Teacher Training University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
¹⁶³ Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
¹⁶⁴ Department of Mental Health, Gulu University, Kampala, Uganda.
¹⁶⁵ Departement of Humanities, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy.
¹⁶⁶ Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
¹⁶⁷ Escuela de Pscicología, Pontificia Universidad del Ecuador- Ambato, Ambato, Ecuador.
¹⁶⁸ Department of Education, Women University Mardan KP, Pakistan, Mardan, KP, Pakistan.
¹⁶⁹ Department of Psychology, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Canada.
¹⁷⁰ Department of Psychology, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
¹⁷¹ School of Education, Tyumen State University, Tyumen, Russia.
¹⁷² Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland.
¹⁷³ Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, Medellín, Colombia.
¹⁷⁴ Department of Political Sciences and Political Technologies, al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
¹⁷⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA.
¹⁷⁶ Center for Cognitive Archaeology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA.
¹⁷⁷ Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST), Toulouse, France.
¹⁷⁸ Lyda Hill Institute or Human Resilience, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA.
¹⁷⁹ Psychology School, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas, Venezuela.
¹⁸⁰ Departament of Behavioral Science and Technology, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela.
¹⁸¹ School of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
¹⁸² Department of Psychology, Bursa Technical University, Bursa, Turkey.
¹⁸³ School of Economics, University of Asia and the Pacific, Pasig, Philippines.
¹⁸⁴ Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
¹⁸⁵ Kultivating and Healing, KAHLE Journey, Kingston, Jamaica.
¹⁸⁶ School of Psychology and Vision Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom.
¹⁸⁷ Institute of Psychology, University College of Professional Education, Wrocław, Poland.
¹⁸⁸ Departamento de Ciências Médicas, Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal.

PMID: 40593913
PMCID: PMC12219412
DOI: 10.1038/s41597-025-05365-2

Cross-cultural data on romantic love and mate preferences from 117,293 participants across 175 countries

Marta Kowal et al. Sci Data. 2025.

. 2025 Jul 1;12(1):1103.

doi: 10.1038/s41597-025-05365-2.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ IDN Being Human Lab - Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland. marta7kowal@gmail.com.
² Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland.
³ Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, North Macedonia.
⁴ CNRS French National Centre for Scientific Research, DDL Dynamics of Language Laboratory, University of Lyon 2, Lyon, France.
⁵ ENES Bioacoustics Research Lab, Jean Monnet University of Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France.
⁶ Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
⁷ School of Psychology, Central University of Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela.
⁸ School of Psychology, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, Malaysia.
⁹ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA.
¹⁰ Departament of Psychology & CIS-Iscte, ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
¹¹ Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.
¹² Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic.
¹³ Department of Psychology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
¹⁴ Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom.
¹⁵ Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, México.
¹⁶ Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
¹⁷ School of Psychological and Social Sciences, University of Waikato, Tauranga, New Zealand.
¹⁸ Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
¹⁹ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia.
²⁰ Department of Psychology, University Mohamed lamine Debaghine Setif2, Setif, Algeria.
²¹ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
²² Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
²³ CINEICC - Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Behavioral Intervention, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
²⁴ Departement of Sociology, Ibn Tofail University, Kénitra, Morocco.
²⁵ Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco.
²⁶ Department of Work & Social Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
²⁷ School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
²⁸ Department of Psychology, Japan Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.
²⁹ Department of Psychology, Yaşar University, Izmir, Turkey.
³⁰ Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, WSB Merito University in Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.
³¹ Department of Psychology and Eduactional sciences and Orthophony, Mohamed Lamine Debaghine University Setif2, Setif, Algeria.
³² Faculty of Social Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
³³ School of Education (SoE), Universiti Utara Malaysia, Alor Setar, Malaysia.
³⁴ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Legal and Business Studies dr Lazar Vrkatić, Novi Sad, Serbia.
³⁵ Department of Child & Family Studies, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
³⁶ Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University of Israel, Raanana, Israel.
³⁷ Institute for Information Processing and Decision Making, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
³⁸ Faculty of Education, Valencian Internacional University, Valencia, Spain.
³⁹ Department of Anthropology, Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Hatay, Turkey.
⁴⁰ Department of Anthropology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
⁴¹ Department of Social Studies, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czechia.
⁴² Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia.
⁴³ Department of Psychology, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
⁴⁴ Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
⁴⁵ Division of Psychology, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, United Kingdom.
⁴⁶ Department of management, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway.
⁴⁷ Psychology Department, West University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania.
⁴⁸ Centre de Recherche sur les Fonctionnements et Dysfonctionnements Psychologiques, Université de Rouen Normandie, Rouen, France.
⁴⁹ Laboratoire Parisien de Psychologie Sociale, Université Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France.
⁵⁰ School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom.
⁵¹ Department of Psychology, Manisa Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey.
⁵² Department of Political Science, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, USA.
⁵³ Department of Primary Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
⁵⁴ Department of Environmental Ecology, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁵⁵ Department of Animal Ecology, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁵⁶ Faculty of Education and Liberal Arts, INTI International University, Nilau, Malaysia.
⁵⁷ Department of Art Studies, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
⁵⁸ Department of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
⁵⁹ Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
⁶⁰ Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
⁶¹ Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
⁶² Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, MEF University, İstanbul, Turkey.
⁶³ Faculty of Education, Thaksin University, Songkhla, Thailand.
⁶⁴ Escuela de Psicología, Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile.
⁶⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁶⁶ CIS - Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social (CIS-ISCTE), ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
⁶⁷ Center for Sociocultural Research, HSE University, Moscow, Russia.
⁶⁸ Psychological Medicine, IoPPN, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
⁶⁹ Department of Psychology, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara, Turkey.
⁷⁰ Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia.
⁷¹ School of Creative Arts Therapies, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
⁷² Psychology Department, Effat university, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
⁷³ School of professional Psychology, Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
⁷⁴ Department of Psychology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
⁷⁵ Department of Cognitive Science and Psychology, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria.
⁷⁶ Institute of Psychology, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
⁷⁷ Department of Psychology, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State Univeristy, Tbilisi, Georgia.
⁷⁸ Department of Sociology and Social Work, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
⁷⁹ Independent Researcher, Independent Researcher, Islamabad, Pakistan.
⁸⁰ Département des Sciences de l'éducation, Ecole Supérieure de l'éducation et de la Formation, Université Ibn Tofail, Kenitra, Maroc.
⁸¹ Department of Psychology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China.
⁸² Department of Pedagogy and Psychology, Kuban State University, Krasnodar, Russia.
⁸³ Department of Psychology, Senshu University, Kawasaki, Japan.
⁸⁴ Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
⁸⁵ Graduate School of the Humanities, Senshu University, Kawasaki, Japan.
⁸⁶ Department of Psychology, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine.
⁸⁷ Department of Psychology, Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey.
⁸⁸ Humanities Department, Icam School of Engineering, Toulouse campus, Toulouse, France.
⁸⁹ Department of Psychology, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Skopje, North Macedonia.
⁹⁰ Departamento de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile.
⁹¹ Department of Psychology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
⁹² Department of Psychology, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey.
⁹³ Department of Psychology, Izmir Bakırçay University, Izmir, Turkey.
⁹⁴ Department of Strategy, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway.
⁹⁵ Department of Child and Family Studies, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁹⁶ Institute of Lifelong Learning, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic.
⁹⁷ Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
⁹⁸ Department of Cognitive and Evolutionary Psychology, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
⁹⁹ Department of Management, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway.
¹⁰⁰ Department of Psychology, University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Košice, Košice, Slovakia.
¹⁰¹ CLLE, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
¹⁰² Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
¹⁰³ Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale, Université Paris Cité, Boulogne-billancourt, France.
¹⁰⁴ School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
¹⁰⁵ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia.
¹⁰⁶ Instituto de Fundamentos y Métodos en Psicología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
¹⁰⁷ Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Atılım University, Ankara, Turkey.
¹⁰⁸ Louvain School of Management, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain La Neuve, Belgium.
¹⁰⁹ Department of psychology, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia.
¹¹⁰ MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
¹¹¹ Department of Psychology, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
¹¹² School of Liberal Arts, M. Narikbayev KAZGUU University, Astana, Kazakhstan.
¹¹³ Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.
¹¹⁴ Department of Psychology, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
¹¹⁵ Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
¹¹⁶ Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
¹¹⁷ Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy.
¹¹⁸ Chair of Marketing, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
¹¹⁹ Bern University of Applied Sciences, Bern, Switzerland.
¹²⁰ Department of Psychology, Federal Fluminense University, Campos Dos Goytacazes, Brazil.
¹²¹ Department of Psychometric - Institute of Psychology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
¹²² Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
¹²³ Department of Psychology, Ankara Medipol University, Ankara, Turkey.
¹²⁴ Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
¹²⁵ Department of Psychology, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey.
¹²⁶ Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
¹²⁷ Department of Organization, Management, and Human Resource, ESSCA School of Management, Bouloge-Billancourt, France.
¹²⁸ Psychology, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey.
¹²⁹ Department of Psychology, University of Uberaba, Uberaba, Brazil.
¹³⁰ Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, USA.
¹³¹ Department of Neurosciences and Developmental Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
¹³² Department of Psychology, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
¹³³ Department of Psychology, Neapolis University Pafos, Paphos, Cyprus.
¹³⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy.
¹³⁵ Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
¹³⁶ Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
¹³⁷ Urban Human, Vienna, Austria.
¹³⁸ Department of Education, Literatures, Intercultural Studies, Languages and Psychology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
¹³⁹ Department of Dermatology & Andrology, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
¹⁴⁰ CIS-Iscte, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Iscte-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal.
¹⁴¹ Department of Psychology, Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey.
¹⁴² HEI-Lab, Lusófona University, Porto, Portugal.
¹⁴³ Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, Chapman University, Orange, USA.
¹⁴⁴ Department of Pedagogy, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland.
¹⁴⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines.
¹⁴⁶ Research Center for Social Sciences and Education, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines.
¹⁴⁷ Carrera de Psicología, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS), Quito, Ecuador.
¹⁴⁸ Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, Tunis El Manar University, Tunis, Tunisia.
¹⁴⁹ Department of Psychiatry Ibn Omrane, Razi Hospital, Manouba, Tunisia.
¹⁵⁰ Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
¹⁵¹ Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
¹⁵² Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones en Psicología Matemática y Experimental, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
¹⁵³ Department of Psychology, SWPS University, Warsaw, Poland.
¹⁵⁴ Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany.
¹⁵⁵ School of Psychological Sciences, National Autonomous University of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
¹⁵⁶ Department of Psychology, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-alike, Nigeria.
¹⁵⁷ School of Psychology, Wenzhou-Kean University, Wenzhou, China.
¹⁵⁸ Administracja i Bezpieczeństwo Wewnętrzne, Uniwersytet WSB Merito Opole, Opole, Polska.
¹⁵⁹ Faculty of Humanities and Education, Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
¹⁶⁰ Department of Psychology, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
¹⁶¹ Department of Psychology, University of Crete, Rethymno, Greece.
¹⁶² The Department of Theoretical and Practical Psychology, Информация Kazakh National Women's Teacher Training University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
¹⁶³ Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
¹⁶⁴ Department of Mental Health, Gulu University, Kampala, Uganda.
¹⁶⁵ Departement of Humanities, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy.
¹⁶⁶ Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
¹⁶⁷ Escuela de Pscicología, Pontificia Universidad del Ecuador- Ambato, Ambato, Ecuador.
¹⁶⁸ Department of Education, Women University Mardan KP, Pakistan, Mardan, KP, Pakistan.
¹⁶⁹ Department of Psychology, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Canada.
¹⁷⁰ Department of Psychology, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
¹⁷¹ School of Education, Tyumen State University, Tyumen, Russia.
¹⁷² Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland.
¹⁷³ Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, Medellín, Colombia.
¹⁷⁴ Department of Political Sciences and Political Technologies, al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
¹⁷⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA.
¹⁷⁶ Center for Cognitive Archaeology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA.
¹⁷⁷ Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST), Toulouse, France.
¹⁷⁸ Lyda Hill Institute or Human Resilience, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA.
¹⁷⁹ Psychology School, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas, Venezuela.
¹⁸⁰ Departament of Behavioral Science and Technology, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela.
¹⁸¹ School of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
¹⁸² Department of Psychology, Bursa Technical University, Bursa, Turkey.
¹⁸³ School of Economics, University of Asia and the Pacific, Pasig, Philippines.
¹⁸⁴ Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
¹⁸⁵ Kultivating and Healing, KAHLE Journey, Kingston, Jamaica.
¹⁸⁶ School of Psychology and Vision Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom.
¹⁸⁷ Institute of Psychology, University College of Professional Education, Wrocław, Poland.
¹⁸⁸ Departamento de Ciências Médicas, Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal.

PMID: 40593913
PMCID: PMC12219412
DOI: 10.1038/s41597-025-05365-2

Abstract

Psychological studies on close relationships have often overlooked cultural diversity, dynamic processes, and potentially universal principles that shape intimate partnerships. To address the limited generalizability of previous research and advance our understanding of romantic love experiences, mate preferences, and physical attractiveness, we conducted a large-scale cross-cultural survey study on these topics. A total of 404 researchers collected data in 45 languages from April to August 2021, involving 117,293 participants from 175 countries. Aside from standard demographic questions, the survey included valuable information on variables relevant to romantic relationships: intimate, passionate, and committed love within romantic relationships, physical-attractiveness enhancing behaviors, gender equality endorsement, collectivistic attitudes, personal history of pathogenic diseases, relationship quality, jealousy, personal involvement in sexual and/or emotional infidelity, relational mobility, mate preferences, and acceptance of sugar relationships. The resulting dataset provides a rich resource for investigating patterns within, and associations across, a broad range of variables relevant to romantic relationships, with extensive opportunities to analyze individual experiences worldwide.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

**Fig. 1**
A schematic overview of the study flow.

**Fig. 2**
A visual overview of the study’s content (for detailed list of all variables, see Codebook).

**Fig. 3**
A world map visualizing the number of participants across countries, with the color scale representing the sample size (the darker, the larger). *Note*. Gray areas represent countries not covered by the data.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. Arnett, J. J. The Neglected 95%: Why American Psychology Needs to Become Less American. In Methodological Issues and Strategies in Clinical Research 4th edn (ed. Kazdin, A. E.) Ch.8, 10.1037/14805-008 (American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, US, 2016).
1. Henrich, J., Heine, S. J. & Norenzayan, A. Most people are not WEIRD. Nature466, 29–29, 10.1038/466029a (2010). - PubMed
1. Thalmayer, A. G., Toscanelli, C. & Arnett, J. J. The neglected 95% revisited: Is American psychology becoming less American? American Psychologist76, 116–129, 10.1037/amp0000622 (2021). - PubMed
1. Klein, V., Savaş, Ö. & Conley, T. D. How WEIRD and androcentric is sex research? Global inequities in study populations. The Journal of Sex Research59, 810–817, 10.1080/00224499.2021.1918050 (2022). - PubMed
1. Bode, A. & Kowal, M. Toward consistent reporting of sample characteristics in studies investigating the biological mechanisms of romantic love. Frontiers in Psychology14, 983419, 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.983419 (2023). - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Actions

MeSH terms

Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources
Miscellaneous
- NCI CPTAC Assay Portal

Save citation to file

Email citation

Add to Collections

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

Cross-cultural data on romantic love and mate preferences from 117,293 participants across 175 countries

Affiliations

Cross-cultural data on romantic love and mate preferences from 117,293 participants across 175 countries

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Miscellaneous