Are engineers attractive? Tech careers and dating
Technical, engineering, and electronics careers are perceived as moderately attractive for men because they signal status, stable income, and resource-acquisition ability. Buss and Schmitt's cross-cultural review reports women value status, resources, and earning capacity in mates more than men do, and IFS online-dating data show men at +1 SD in combined income and education received about 255 percent more indicators of interest than men at -1 SD. However, occupation is secondary to looks: a 2024 conjoint analysis found job had a small effect on online-dating success — roughly 7 to 20 times smaller than physical attractiveness — and notably this effect did not differ between male and female raters. Engineer ranked 4th among male occupations women most right-swiped in a Tinder survey, behind teacher, COO, and financial analyst, placing it in the upper tier of perceived desirability.
Evidence & sources
- PsyPost summary of 2024 conjoint analysis
Job had a small effect on online-dating success, about 7 to 20 times smaller than physical attractiveness; the effect did not differ between men and women raters (not men-specific).
- Institute for Family Studies income and education in online dating
Men with combined income and education one SD above the mean received 255 percent more indicators of interest than men one SD below the mean (a 2-SD comparison).
- Tinder occupation survey via CultureMap Houston
Women's most right-swiped male occupations ranked: teacher, COO, financial analyst, engineer (4th), then CEO/entrepreneur.
- Buss and Schmitt mate preferences review (URL resolves; PDF binary, text not machine-verified)
URL resolves to a 677KB PDF on the Buss lab site matching the real 2019 Annual Review of Psychology paper; supports women valuing resources/status more than men, but exact wording could not be auto-extracted.