Nearly half of men questioned in a poll said they would ditch a partner who gained weight, compared with only 20 per cent of women.Thinkstock
Men are more concerned with their partner's body type than women – but they also seem to value family more highly, according to a new survey released on Tuesday.
Nearly half of men questioned in the poll of 70,000 people said they would ditch a partner who gained weight, compared with only 20 per cent of women.
Two-third of men also said they had fantasized about their partner's friends, while only one-third of women had done so.
"Even as men are getting more comfortable with meeting their girlfriends online and less anxious about who she's 'friending' there, other romantic behaviours have proven to be timeless ones: chivalry isn't dead, size matters and women forgive while men forget," said James Bassil, editor-in-chief of AskMen, which conducted the poll jointly with Cosmopolitan.com.
While only 18 per cent of women said they would want their mate to be better endowed, more than 51 per cent of men said they wished they themselves were.
The survey also found 39 per cent of men chose family as their top choice of the ultimate status symbol. By contrast, 43 per cent of women selected a beautiful home (compared with only 6.5 per cent of men). One-quarter of women named a successful partner as a top status symbol.
Men were more likely to lie about the number of sex partners they had had (50 per cent) than women (35 per cent).
One thing both sexes agreed on was an as-yet undeveloped male birth-control pill, an idea that proved popular all around. More than half of women would want their partner to take it, while more than two-thirds of men are ready for it.
But the sexes differed about paying for dates, at least in the early stages. More women (38 per cent), think each person pay their own way, versus 33 per cent who think men should foot the bill. Meanwhile, 59 per cent of men think they should cover the tab, at least until a relationship is established.
In other findings, women are far less comfortable with their mates keeping in touch with an ex: More than two-thirds of men are okay with their partner friending an ex on Facebook, as opposed to 38 per cent of women.
But three-quarters of men surveyed said they consider sexting cheating.
Reuters