Susanne Huber, Martin Fieder Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, Veterinary University Vienna Title Fitness effects of status and partner age difference in modern society Abstract Evolutionary assumptions predict that in humans, social status should be of prime importance for successful mating primarily in males, as should be mate choice primarily in females. In line with these assumptions, we investigated whether status and mate choice are associated with mating success in modern humans. On basis of a representative data set from modern Sweden, we find a positive association between status indicated by income and educational level attained and average offspring count in men: wealthier men have, on average, more offspring. In women, on the contrary, a negative association between income and average offspring count emerged. As status typically increases with age, evolutionary assumptions further predict that women should tend to mate with older men. Correspondingly, preferences of certain age characteristics of the partner are reported across cultures: women prefer mates older than themselves and men prefer women younger than themselves. To examine whether these age preferences entail fitness effects, we investigated the association among age differences between partners and offspring count. We show that men increase their offspring count if they mate with a younger women, women increase their offspring count if they mate with an older man, indicating that the age preference for the partner yields fitness benefits for both men and women. CV 1993 Mag. rer. nat., Zoology, University of Vienna 1996 Dr. rer. nat. Zoology, University of Vienna 2002 Habilitation, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna Professionell experience 1997-1999 Post-Doctoral scientist, Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine 1999-2004 Hertha Firnberg fellowship (Austrian Science Fund) 2004-2007 APART-fellowship (Austrian Academy of Sciences) 2007-present Research Scientist, Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine Selected recent Publications Fieder M, Huber S. Parental age difference and offspring count in humans. Biology Letters, in press. Fieder M, Huber S. The effect of sex and childlessness on the association between status and reproductive output in modern society. Evolution and Human Behavior, in press. Huber S, Fieder M. 2007. Season of birth effects on reproduction. Current Women’s Health Reviews 3, 182-189. Fieder M, Prossinger H, Iber K, Schäfer K, Wallner B, Huber S. 2006. Season-of-birth effect contributes to variation of university examination outcomes. American Journal of Human Biology 18, 714-717. Fieder M, Huber S, Bookstein F, Iber K, Schäfer K, Wallner B, Winckler G. 2005 Status and reproduction in humans: new evidence for the validity of evolutionary explanations on basis of a university sample. Ethology, 111, 940-950. Huber S, Fieder M, Wallner B, Moser G, Arnold W. 2004. Brief communication: Birth month influences reproductive performance in contemporary women. Human Reproduction 19, 1081-1082. Huber S, Fieder M, Wallner B, Iber K, Moser G. 2004. Season of birth effects on reproduction in contemporary humans. Brief communication. Human Reproduction 19, 445-447. Institution address Susanne Huber Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology Austrian Academy of Sciences Savoyenstraße 1 1160 Vienna Austria Phone: +43-1-4890915-140 Fax: +43-1-4890915-540 Mail: Susanne.Huber@fiwi.at Website: http://www.fiwi.at