The sexual market value (SMV), also known as ‘mate value’ in academia, is an individual’s measure of sexual attractiveness.

High SMV men are the sexual marketplace equivalent of high-value men in social exchanges. They have many partners to choose from, and can date other high-value women or men.

This article explains how sexual market value functions, helps you assess your sexual market value, and helps you boost your sexual market value.

People subconsciously assess others’ SMV while showcasing their best selves to elevate their own

So let’s start:

Sexual Market Value Theory

We define sexual market value as:

Sexual Market Value (SMV) refers to an individual’s overall desirability as a mate, determined by a combination of factors determines their perceived value in the mating market.

In simpler terms, sexual market value is an individual’s level of attractiveness.

Sexual Market Value Dynamics

The concept of sexual market value is rooted in the negotiative dynamics of human relationships.
While some find this framework unpalatable, it is supported by substantial academic evidence.

For example, the latest APA Handbook of relationships says:

Both sexes would be most happy with a partner who is high on all desirable dimensions (…). However, most people (…) must compromise and make trade-offs.

Since nobody wants to settle for less, people usually end up with someone who’s on their level (assortative mating).
Indeed, your SMV predicts your dating options and quality. Thus, the higher the mate value, the more and better dating options you tend to have.

Sexual Market Value Is Power

In simple terms:

⚖️ Your dating power is proportional to your perceived SMV

The reason is simple: since people prefer high SMV mates, high SMV individuals enjoy high leverage.
Quoting from the Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology:

humans have evolved (…) to evaluate and prefer mates who possess greater, as opposed to lesser, reproductive value

So, are you doomed at birth by your SMV?

No.

Luckily, your SMV is malleable, often highly malleable.
And you can almost always increase it with smart marketing and good old personal self-development.
You can even increase your SMV by simply changing how you think of your SMV. We call that ‘confidence’.

Sexual Market Value Assessments

Please be aware of this:

Attraction is highly contextual and subjective. Any SVM calculator or chart is inherently simplistic and cannot faithfully predict your dating experience.

Sexual Market Value Calculator

⚠️ Note: This SMV calculator is based on empirical research, but the final number is not destiny!

🙋🏼‍♂️ Lucio’s note: SMV isn’t destiny. Even as a short, low-status, low-income trainee at my old company’s party, I was with the most attractive woman. Smart men can always find a way!

For the charts, we’ll use a few simplified ones, while addressing the biggest flaw of most: ignoring the distinction between short-term and long-term dynamics.

Male Sexual Market Value (Short Term)

In “short-term mode”, women become more like men, so looks matter comparatively more.

If looks are the equivalent of standing naked, game is the marketing (or manipulation) of that package.

We refer to ‘game’ in the largest sense, including conversation, personal style, nonverbal language, bonding and vibing, etc.

Games work best in short-term dating, just as marketing and sales work best in selling the product.
Once the sale has been done, the intrinsic qualities of the product come to the fore.
This is why honest self-development is one of the best forms of “game”. Self-development improves your SMV for both the short-term and long-term.

Male Sexual Market Value (Long-Term)

Now imagine you want to settle down.

And you would ask yourself the ancestral male question: What do women want?

The simple answer is: the more the better.

For simplicity, we keep the same traits for each chart.
But a more realistic chart would add more traits, including those that facilitate long-term pair bonding, such as kindness, maturity, secure attachment style, emotional availability, etc.

And of course, all traits are at least somewhat connected and overlapping.
For example, high-status men are perceived as more attractive, and even taller. And vice versa.
And high-status men tend to have more resources. And vice versa.

Female Sexual Market Value (Short-Term)

This one was not difficult:

Female Long Sexual Market Value (Long-Term)

In long-term mating, men are nearly as selective as women.

Men looking for ‘wife material’ care about her character, faithfulness, intelligence, and sometimes even economic prospects.

Traits of SMV

These traits tend to boost, correlate, or signal high mate value:

#1. Male Physical Traits

The female preferences for attractive physical traits include:

• Attractive facial features
• Height
• Symmetrical body and faces
• Athleticism / musculature
• Masculine features (more personality-based than the previous ones)
  • Large jaw
  • Jutting chin
  • Beard
  • Low voice (up to a certain point)
  • V-shaped torso

Culture and individual preferences matter, but how much they matter also depends on the specific traits. Some physical traits, like height, are intercultural and present fewer exceptions (though still not zero). Other traits are more cultural and contextual, including the preference for masculine facial features (Perrett et al., 1998).

Masculine Virtue Is… Above The Middle, But Not Too Extreme

Men struggle to understand this because their admiration for masculine men continues to increase long after women have stopped finding those men attractive.

This difference may suggest that the ‘lover strategy’ beats the ‘fighter’ strategy in seduction (Tamsin, 2015).

We call this phenomenon “law of optimum balance“.
See here:

• Law of dating optimum balance

Male facial attractiveness matters

An evolutionary-only lens may underestimate how much facial attractiveness matters, but in general, women may look more at male faces than the body.

Though we can’t overgeneralize and individual preferences and contexts always get the last word, facial attractiveness may matter more than height (Hitsch et al., 2010; Kurzban and Weeden, 2005; Asendorpf et al., 2011).

Men instead may look more at bodies than faces. Younger men in locker-room mode may refer to “intercourse while covering her face”.

#2. Male Resources

Says David Buss:

The male occupational status seems to be the best predictor of the attractiveness of the woman he marries.

Many studies show women’s preference for men with resources is universal across cultures, religions, and political systems.

Women prefer men with resources even when they themselves have resources.
Research among women in the upper-income bracket in the US showed that high-income women placed an even greater value on mates with high degrees, professional status, and high income.

While most men use resources for long-term commitment, it can also empower wealthy men for uncommitted, short-term sexual access. For example, Berlusconi placed several “entertainers” in his many condos around Milan and ready “on call”.

#3. Male Social Status

Women desire men who command a high position in society.

For US women, high social status or a high-status job are almost as important as financial prospects.
Women also place high importance on indicators linked to high social status, including:

• Education
• Professional degrees
• Commanding the respect of the group (social power)

Women Wear Blinders to Low-Status Men

The Handbook of Relationship Initiation makes this point with a TV-show example:

In an episode of Sex in the City, the four main protagonists bemoaon the lack of available men in New York.
In fact, the establishment is stacked with young, reasonably attractive men—busboys, doormen, barmen, water waiters, and so forth.
These men, however, are not mateworthy (and are almost invisible) because they fall well below the minimum criteria of status and resources

Attractive low-status men can make good short-term flings though. But women enter these relationships from a position of power and only “settle” for lower-status men.

See more in successful women dating.

#4. Male Ambition & Industriousness

Connected traits are:

• Ambition
• Industriousness
• Intelligence

In Buss’ large-sample study, ambition and industriousness were rated as important or indispensable.

Both industriousness and ambition facilitate men’s growing income and social status.
And that may explain why men are over-represented among CEO and board members. Men are sexually incentivized to work harder.

Again, there is a major gender difference between the sexes here: women regarded a lack of ambition as extremely undesirable, while men didn’t care about women’s ambition.

#5. Kindness

In Buss’ large survey data, both men and women across the globe value kindness.

Buss says it’s because support is important in life.
And a kind mate offers an unstated promise of support when we will all, eventually, hit a rough patch.

Kindness also increases the chance that a man will commit and provide, and make for a better father.

TPM Note: Limitations of survey research
Buss collected data with surveys, where decisions may be swayed by social desirability bias and not fully reflect real-life behavior. Also, while ‘kindness’ facilitates win-win, extreme kindness may turn into even more convenient ‘exploitability’. So be kind, but don’t be naive! See smart-giving and positive calculativeness.

5.2. But… How About Assholes?

The stereotype goes that women say they want nice guys, but prefer ‘assholes’.

There is a backdrop of truth because women are attracted to behavioral cues of male dominance and social confidence (Gangestad et al., 2004; Li, Yong, Tsai, et al., 2020). And especially so for short-term mating (Brown et al, 2022).

In general, ‘bad boys’ beat “kind guys” when “kind” means weak and unconfident.
Viram Swami reached this same conclusion when reviewing the evidence. Hence, to be successful, the “nice” guy must be confident.
However, we add that the ‘bad boy’ may have a short-term advantage in signaling dominance.

Also see:

• How to be a good asshole
• The asshole strategy
• Power University is designed to help good men also become high-power, attractive men

#6. Intelligence

Evolutionary psychology professor Geoffrey Miller says:

During human evolution, sexual selection seems to have shifted its primary target from body to mind.

Think about men and boys meeting.
What do they do?
99% of the time, they talk.

Talking allows us to showcase and assess the health and intelligence of a person’s mind. Intelligence is also the meta-trait that allows us to play the dating game itself.

6.2. Humor, “Game”, Conversations, Frames

Engaging conversations and humor showcase intellectual brainpower. Humor may also be a well-adapted tool of discrimination. When a brain’s pleasure center can be stimulated, but not stimulated by everyone, chances are that it’s an evolved tool of sexual discrimination.

“Frame control” is an indicator of social dominance and intelligence.

Also see:

• The role of dominance in seduction
• 10 frame controlling techniques

6.3. Vocabulary & Conversations

Vocabulary is at least 60% heritable and 80% correlated with general intelligence (and 20% with body symmetry).

A theory of the existence of so many synonyms when one single word would suffice is that words serve not to better explain things, but to display superior intelligence.

#7. Female Youth

Men care more about her youth.
Quoting from the Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology:

Women’s preference for a young, fertile-looking partner has been theorized and found to be weaker than that of men (Antfolk, 2017; Buss, 1989; Conroy-Beam & Buss, 2019; Kenrick & Keefe, 1992)

Why?
From an evolutionary point of view, we can speculate because of:

1. Fertility: Age is more correlated with her reproductive value than men’s
2. Evolved preference for looks: Age is more correlated with beauty in women than in men
3. Mathematical concentration: Women’s sexual value is based on fewer traits than men’s, and age and beauty carry comparatively more weight

Real-world data provides evidence. The richest 400 men in the US married women who were, on average, 7 years younger.
But when they remarried, billionaires chose mates who were on average 22 years younger.

The peak of desirability depends on many factors but, on average, it’s in the early and mid-20s for women and late 20s and mid-30s for men.
OK Cupid released this chart based on the number of messages received by each gender:

The evidence that men seek youth as a sign of fertility is in adolescent males, who instead prefer older women (an unrequited attraction).

From an evolutionary perspective, the MILF can be a safer and cheaper bet.

7.2. Youthful Behavior

Buss says that our ancestors had two types of evidence for a woman’s health and youth:

1. Features of physical appearance
2. Features of behaviors

Features of behavior include:

• Bouncy youthful gait
• Animated facial expressions
• High energy levels

#8. Female Physical Appearance

Men rate physical appearance much higher than women do.

Traits of high-appeal physical appearance include:

• Smooth, clear, and homogenous skin color distribution (signals absence of parasites)
• Facial femininity (signals your and more estrogen, ie.: higher fertility)
  • Full lips
  • Large eyes
  • Thinner jaw
  • Small chin
  • Chromatic contrast
  • High cheekbones
  • Relatively short distance between mouth and jaw
• Clear eyes
• Lustrous hair (hair quality and length correlate with age and health)
• Good muscle tone
• Leg length (long legs relative to torso length, 5% longer than the average receive maximum attractiveness)
• Symmetrical faces and bodies

Waist-to-hip ratio plays a role, but less than initial research suggested and has a smaller impact than overall body fat and shape (Tovee et al., 1998, 1999).

8.2. Women’s Physical Appearance Matters More

Physical appearance matters more to women’s SMV.

While handsome men gain more in short-term dating, women gain both in short-term dating and long-term dating.

8.3. Status Boost: The Trophy Wife

Men value a woman’s attractiveness also for the status boost it grants them.

The trophy wife is especially important for unattractive men because people infer that if he is with an attractive wife, he must have a very high social status.

#9. Faithfulness

Survey after survey shows that men care a lot about fidelity (Buss & Schmitt, 2019).

Even in relatively open-minded and modern societies, faithfulness still matters.
In a survey by David Buss, U.S. Men evaluated faithfulness and sexual loyalty as the most valued trait out of 67 possible characteristics.

Women took evolutionary note and strategically present cues to sexual fidelity when seeking long-term mates.
Also see the “Madonna-whore” dichotomy.

TPM Note: Faithfulness matters more to men with a ‘provider mindset’
Because their investment boosts the costs of possible betrayal. Men with a ‘player psychology’ instead care less because they invest less emotionally, and often financially.

#10. Misc.: Art, “Fun”, Good Sex

While the above categories list many of the foundations of SMV, there is much more that goes into it.

These also all either signal fitness, are attractive, or facilitate seduction:

• Pro-social behavior (indicator of kindness, resources, and positive power)
  P.S.: men increase their charitable contributions and tips when women are around (it’s virtue-signaling, as a sexual strategy).
• Art (indicator of mental fitness)
• Ideological ardor (indicator of social influence/ambition)
• Good sex (facilitates bonding, signals physical fitness, boosts pleasure)

Since both men and women enjoy good sex, good sex is naturally a valued SMV currency. The female orgasm may be elusive because it’s a sexual discrimination tool.

Men who are successful at short-term dating tend to have a higher sexual vibe, signal sexual confidence. These seducers also offer “guilt-free sex”, sparing women from having to play the Madonna and hiding her true self to appease men’s desire for chastity.

The Science of SMV & Traits Ranking

Albeit still somewhat controversial, animals assessing other animals’ mate value is a natural consequence of biological life (and not exclusive to ‘female hypergamy‘, as some mistakenly believe).

By evolutionary logic, animals who maximize their reproductive fitness leave out more offspring who will do more of the same.

This applies to humans as well.
Let’s now review some approaches that have studied and offered evidence of mate value dynamics in humans.

What People Declare: The Survey Approach

Here is how Buss’ survey ranks the characteristics most commonly sought in a mate:

And here’s how they changed over time.
Let’s improve this approach by differentiating short VS long term:

Short-Term VS Long-Term Changes

This is how women’s rating changes between the two temporal modes:

ranging from −3 (extremely undesirable) to +3 (extremely desirable):

Ambition presents the biggest difference between short-term and long-term.
It explains why an attractive hippie with a guitar is a great short-term fling, but not a great long-term, “official” mate.

Adaptive Problems: The ‘Solving a Need’ Approach

This approach explains mate value preferences by looking at the evolutionary problem one is trying to solve.
For example, women:

Adapted from the Evolutionary Psychology handbook

Budget Allocation: The Microeconomics Approach to Priorities

A more quantitative approach to measure what men and women value most is with budget allocation studies borrowed from microeconomics.

The principle is that people carefully allocate limited budgets to prioritize the most important traits.

In evolutionary terms, fertility is a “basic need”, and the rest cascades from there.
Since women’s fertility decreases faster, this model explains why men prioritize beauty -even in long-term dating-.
Quoting from the Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology:

For long-term mates, men tend to allocate a signifcant portion of their low budgets on physical attractiveness, whereas women allocate a signifcant portion to social status traits.
As budgets increase, however, signifcantly less is spent on these necessities, and more is spent on other traits—so-called luxuries (Li et al. , 2002)

Women considering short-term mates prioritize physical attractiveness about as strongly as men do for long-term mates. But women spend increasingly more on other traits as budgets increase.
And men, of course, prioritize attractiveness even more for the short term. This is what our charts above show.

Similar experiments used a budget to reveal more information. Women inquired first about physical attractiveness for short-term mates but social level for long-term mates.

Regression analyses on these studies showed that being below average hurt more than being above average.
A curvilinear pattern indicating a necessity’s diminishing marginal returns, and indirectly also confirming the validity of the microeconomics approach.

Quoting from the same handbook:

researchers demonstrated that a compensatory decision-making strategy (where traits that are high in value can offset those that are low in value) using weighted-sum calculations outperformed the Euclidean distance model and noncompensatory models such as take-the-best, threshold, and aspiration

Combining Science With Experience & Logic: TPM Approach

Our approach at TPM combined science with real-world experience and logic.
This video provides an overview:

Lucio: Short-term looks matter, long-term it’s mostly high-power behavior

Lucio’s experience as a shorter man also proves that one can succeed without the stereotypical traits of high SMV. See how to stop believing in ‘black pill ideology’ for example.

Evidence & Consequences of SMV Calculations

Most of these calculations are unconscious, but no less real.
And the consequences are endless and far-reaching.

Just three examples:

• People forgive high-value cheaters more than lower-value ones (Sidelinger and Booth-Butterfeld, 2007)

The unspoken calculation is that higher-value mates give more. So they’re more afforded to stray.

• Higher mate value partner = higher relationship satisfaction (Conroy-Beam et al., 2016)

Worth noting though this is only true up to a certain point. If the discrepancy grows too large, partners may get uncomfortable (the optimum balance again).

• High-mate value partners = more jealousy and mate guarding (Buss and Shackelford, 1997)

The subconscious calculation is that higher value partners are more likely to stray because of more options. They’re also a bigger loss if lost, and harder to replace.

• Men commit more when women are scarce (Guttentag and Secord, 1983; Birger, 2015).

And whole cultures may shift towards more courtship and romance.
Commitment and courtship can be forms of investment to make up for a value-imbalance:

The longer, more effortful, and more expensive the courtship, the higher the woman’s value is compared to the man (Buffalmano, 2026)

Exchange & Choice Constraints

It’s a common misunderstanding that everyone -or women- seeks the “best of the best”.
Instead, people usually target mates close enough to their own sexual market value.

Usually, men are willing to “fish down” for short-term and uncommitted dating, while still maintaining standards for the longer-term.

Boosting Your SMV

Everyone can boost their SMV, and these are only some of the ways to do it:

Compensatory Excellence

Since women seek more traits, men may have an advantage to not only work on what they have, but also to compensate for what they don’t have.

Says Geoffrey Miller, talking about correlations between different fitness indicators and overall fitness/SMV:

(…) Because each indicator is costly (so it works according to the handicap principle), there are trade-offs between indicators. This allows scope for individuals to differ in their allocation of resources to different indicators

This has also been borne out by the above research on compensatory decision-making strategy, something we explored in our article “Exceptional Dating“.

Niching Down

At the highest level, men already subconsciously specialize in choosing between a lover or provider strategy.
But a more conscious approach is often higher ROI, specializing or niching down to adapt to differing individual preferences.

Value Signaling

Smart value signaling is crucial for all the traits that aren’t immediately visible.

This is paramount for less good-looking men, so they can add to their total SMV less visible traits like intelligence, character, mental resilience, etc.

Dating Skills, Processes, & ‘Shortcuts’

In our complex mating dance, better dating processes, strategies, and tactics can also often make a large difference.

We focus on the full spectrum of effective dating in Seduction University, helping men succeed even if they aren’t born with fame and striking looks: