Racial differences in mate selection criteriaamong Malaysian undergraduates

The purpose of this study was to examine whether racial differences existed in the mate selection criteria of undergraduate students in a public university. The participants recruited in this study were 132 undergraduate students between the ages of 20 to 28 years comprising different races, religions and cultures from the various faculties. The participants were given identification numbers which were purposively, randomly sampled. The test instrument used was a mate selection inventory made up of Sternberg's love components, Mc Crae's personality traits, David Buss's physical traits and mate selection traits from the work of Sprecher. The Cronbach's alpha value for this 62-items inventory was.79. The results showed significant racial differences in mate selection preferences. Chinese and Malays were found to value symmetrical bone structure, small waist size, physical looks and were more willing to accept divorcees and unemployed people as mates. For the Indians, looks were not important, preferred a more agreeable mate, youthfulness, same religion, disliked marrying other races, divorcees and unemployed people.