Sex differences in mate preferences are ubiquitous, having been evidenced across generations and cultures.
Their prevalence and persistence have compellingly placed them in the evolutionarily adaptive context of
sexual selection. However, the psycho-biological mechanisms contributing to their generation and main-
tenance remain poorly understood. As such a mechanism, sexual attraction is assumed to guide interest,
desire, and the affinity toward specific partner features. However, whether sexual attraction can indeed
explain sex differences in partner preferences has not been explicitly tested. To better understand how sex
and sexual attraction shape mate preferences in humans we assessed how partner preferences differed
across the spectrum of sexual attraction in a sample of 479 individuals that identified as asexual, gray-sexual,
demisexual or allosexual. We further tested whether romantic attraction predicted preference profiles
better than sexual attraction. Our results show that sexual attraction accounts for highly replicable sex
differences in mate preferences for high social status and financial prospects, conscientiousness, and
intelligence; however, it does not account for the enhanced preference for physical attractiveness expressed
by men, which persists even in individuals with low sexual attraction. Instead, sex differences in physical
attractiveness preference are better explained by the degree of romantic attraction. Furthermore, effects of
sexual attraction on sex differences in partner preferences were grounded in current rather than previous
experiences of sexual attraction. Taken together, the results support the idea that contemporary sex
differences in partner preferences are maintained by several psycho-biological mechanisms that evolved
in conjunction, including not only sexual but also romantic attraction