Men driving flashy cars, or otherwise blatantly showing off their wealth, are perceived to be sending a clear message to women that they are more interested in short-term relationships, a new study suggests.

The researchers — University of Michigan research assistant professor Daniel Kruger and University at Buffalo clinical assistant professor Jessica Kruger — conducted an online survey in which they asked undergraduate students to read and evaluate descriptions of two men purchasing different types of cars.

The paper is published in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science.

The study

To conduct the study, the researchers recruited 233 undergraduate students — both male and female — from the U.S. Midwest for an online survey.

The participants were asked to read through the descriptions of two men purchasing a car with each man being allocated a budget of $20,000.

One man’s priorities were efficiency and reliability, while the other man’s concern was to buy a car he would feel proud to drive.

The former chose a new car within his price range and under a warranty to ensure maximum reliability. The latter chose a less reliable, used car and opted to spend the rest of his budget on new paint, bigger wheels and a more powerful sound system.

The participants were told to imagine that both men were a part of their social world and to rate them based on life history characteristics, relationship interests and relationship attractiveness.

Among other things, each man was rated on: whether he would “knowingly hit on someone else’s partner”; “how attractive would women think this man is for … A long-term, romantic committed relationship, A two-month romantic relationship, A brief sexual affair”; and “how interested each man would be in … A long-term, romantic committed relationship, A two-month romantic relationship, A brief sexual affair.”

Participants were asked to rank the men on a scale of 0-100 percent.

The findings

Both male and female participants rated the man who invested in a flashier purchase higher on mating effort, but lower on interest in long-term committed romantic relationships. They also rated him lower on parental investment and higher on interest in brief sexual affairs, as well as higher in attractiveness to women interested in brief sexual affairs.

Oppositely, the man who made a more frugal decision received high ratings as a potential life partner, parent and provider.

The study is premised on the idea that men compete with other men to both attract and retain mates, and since men typically have more knowledge and interest in automobiles, the choice of a car is a mating strategy.

However, the study shows that women tend to have different criteria for evaluating potential romantic partners, depending on the relationship they are seeking.

“For long-term relationships, women are more interested in a reliable provider. For short-term relationships, phenotypic indicators of ‘high quality’ genes are more important, though women are probably not consciously aware of the ultimate, evolutionary, explanation for why these men are more attractive,” said Daniel Kruger. “They are more likely to give proximate explanations, for example that these men are hot or would be more fun to be with.”

Implications

Overall, the research provides useful information on the way people view consumption in regard to relationships.

“A common interpretation is that conspicuous wealth displays are attractive to women because they signal expected economic investment in partners and mutual offspring. Paternal investment is important for offspring to succeed in life,” said Daniel Kruger. “This relationship is true in many cases, but some of men’s conspicuous consumption could be investment in mating competition, rather than resources available for future paternal investments.”

However, since people’s economic behaviors are not always the same, he believes in educating and steering them towards better financial judgments.

“Providing more education about basic economic principles such as compound interest, and basic financial strategies including how to open a bank or credit union account to deposit paychecks, would be very helpful for individuals and society,” he said. “Still, there is an implicit assumption among many academics any policy makers that everyone has the same priorities and values (which of course match their own). The fact is that people will behave differently even when they have the same information, though some of these differences are related to developmental experiences. People who live in more stable environments will have more long-term, future oriented strategies, across many areas of life.”