Parent-offspring conflict over mating: The case of beauty

From the book : Evolutionary Psychology 6 issue 2 : 303-315.
In pre-industrial societies parents exercise a strong influence over the mating decisions of their offspring.
As modern pre-industrial societies approximate the way of life in ancestral human societies, human mating behavior should be seen as the outcome of a co-evolutionary process between parental and offspring’s mating choice.
Both parents and offspring have evolved mating preferences, which enable them to select those mates and in- laws who maximize their inclusive fitness.
Following Trivers’ (1974) theory of parent- offspring conflict, it is hypothesized that in-law and mating preferences substantially overlap, but also differ with respect to the beauty trait of a mating candidate.
This hypothesis is tested on a sample of 292 parents.
It is found that the two sets of preferences are strongly correlated, while beauty is preferred significantly more in a mating partner than in an in-law.