Does fame make you more attractive?

Cross-cultural evidence (Buss 1989) shows women, more than men, rate a partner's good financial prospects and status as important, and this sex difference is consistent across nearly all cultures studied. This supports a status/resources asymmetry favoring its importance for male desirability, but the cited evidence concerns stated mate preferences for financial prospects/status — not "fame" specifically — and does not quantify the size of any attractiveness boost or establish a diminishing-returns curve. Confidence should be moderate, not high, given reliance on a single preference-survey source.

Evidence & sources

• Buss 1989 37 cultures

  Buss 1989 study of 10,047 participants across 33 countries (37 cultures); women in 36 of 37 cultures rated 'good financial prospects' as more important in a mate than men did. Supports a sex-asymmetric preference for status/resources, but addresses financial prospects/status preferences, not fame, and gives no effect-size or dose-response data.