For nearly 70 years, studies have shown large sex differences in human mate selection preferences. However, most of the studies were restricted to a limited set of mate selection criteria and to college students, and neglecting relationship status. In this study, 21,245 heterosexual participants between 18 and 65 years of age (mean age 41) who at the time were not involved in a close relationship rated the importance of 82 mate selection criteria adapted from previous studies, reported age ranges for the oldest and youngest partner that they would find acceptable, and responded to 10 yes/no questions about a potential marriage partner. For nearly all mate selection criteria, women were found to be the more demanding sex, although men placed consistently more value on the physical attractiveness of a potential partner than women. Also, the effects of the participants' age and level of education were nearly negligible. These results demonstrate the robustness of sex differences in mate selection criteria across a substantial age range.
The purpose of this study was to describe patterns of infant care and development in family groups of the monogamous titi (Callicebus moloch). Three infant titis were observed with their natal family groups over the first six months of life. Field observations of extensive male involvement with infants were confirmed. Adult males were clearly the infants' primary social companions, and infants spent more time in contact with adult males at all ages than with mothers or older siblings. However, mothers and siblings also carried infants at times and interacted with them in affiliative ways (e.g., grooming, nuzzling, play). Mothers often invited nursing, but otherwise it was infants who primarily initiated transfers between carriers and approaches to parents, reminding us that the infants' own activities and their effects on caregivers should not be overlooked in considerations of the patterns of infant care. This is particularly important for those species exhibiting extensive parental involvement by males. It is suggested that substantial male care of young titi infants leads to several important consequences for the infant's social development, including the development of a stronger attachment to the father than the mother.
Color research has shown that red is associated with avoidance of threat (e.g., failure) or approach of reward (e.g., mating) depending on the context in which it is perceived. In the present study we explored one central cognitive process that might be involved in the context dependency of red associations. According to our theory, red is supposed to highlight the relevance (importance) of a goal-related stimulus and correspondingly intensifies the perceivers’ attentional reaction to it. Angry and happy human compared to non-human facial expressions were used as goal-relevant stimuli. The data indicate that the color red leads to enhanced attentional engagement to angry and happy human facial expressions (compared to neutral ones) - the use of non-human facial expressions does not bias attention. The results are discussed with regard to the idea that red induced attentional biases might explain the red-context effects on motivation.
This study investigated the accuracy of gender-specific stereotypes about movie-genre preferences for 17 genres. In Study 1, female and male participants rated the extent to which 17 movie genres are preferred by women or men. In Study 2, another sample of female and male participants rated their own preference for each genre. There were three notable results. First, Study 1 revealed the existence of gender stereotypes for the majority of genres (i.e., for 15 of 17 genres). Second, Study 2 revealed the existence of actual gender differences in preferences for the majority of genres (i.e., for 11 of 17 genres). Third, in order to assess the accuracy of gender stereotypes on movie preferences, we compared the results of both studies and found that the majority of gender stereotypes were accurate in direction, but inaccurate in size. In particular, the stereotypes overestimated actual gender differences for the majority of movie genres (i.e., 10 of 17). Practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
Asymmetric grandparental caregiving is usually explained by the paternity certainty hypothesis. Accordingly, the lower investment by grandfathers (GFs) and paternal grandparents, as compared to grandmothers (GMs) and maternal grandparents, is based on differential kinship certainty to grandchildren. Hence, differential caregiving by grandparents is equated with their on-average different genetic relatedness to a grandchild. But what about nonbiological grandparents? All else being equal, step-grandparents should not invest highly in step-grandchildren and their investment should not be asymmetric because no differences in kinship certainty exist. However, coresidence with a biological grandparent might enhance step-grandparents' investment. From a total of 508 respondents from Germany and the USA, 108 were step-grandchildren who reported kin caregiving from 151 stepgrandparents. Further, we analyzed data of 45 stepparents, 1,005 biological parents, and 1,585 biological grandparents. We identified different types of step-grandparents. Subjects reported step-grandparents who were spouses of biological grandparents (Type I) much more often than step-grandparents who were parents of stepparents (Type II). Investment and emotional closeness ratings for step-grandparents were relatively high, however, on average somewhat lower than that of biological grandparents.Step-GFs provided more caregiving than step-GMs for step-grandchildren. More detailed analyses, however, revealed that this applied only for later partners of biological GMs (Type Ib) who were not already stepparents of the parents (Type Ia). Type Ib step-grandparents generally invested less in step-grandchildren than Type Ia; however, Type Ib maternal step-GFs, by contrast, invested more. Similar to step-GFs, stepfathers also invested more than stepmothers. However, this could be explained by the stepfathers' household connection with their stepchildren. We conclude that mating effort best describes the differential stepGFs' step-grandchild investment.
The present article reports the results of a meta-analysis of nine student replication projects of Elliot et al.'s (2010) findings from Experiment 3, that women were more attracted to photographs of men with red borders (total n = 640). The eight student projects were part of the Collaborative Replication and Education Project (CREP; https://osf.io/wfc6u/), a research crowdsourcing project for undergraduate students. All replications were reviewed by experts to ensure high quality data, and were pre-registered prior to data collection. Results of this meta-analysis showed no effect of red on attractiveness ratings for either perceived attractiveness (mean ratings difference = -0.07, 95% CI [-0.31, 0.16]) or sexual attractiveness (mean ratings difference = -0.06, 95% CI [-0.36, 0.24]); this null result held with and without Elliot et al.'s (2010) data included in analyses. Exploratory analyses examining whether being in a relationship moderated the effect of color on attractiveness ratings also produced null results. /wfc6u) was created to address the need for high-quality direct replications in the field of psychology while training students in psychology courses who complete research projects. The purpose of the CREP more generally is to encourage students and instructors to conduct replications; the resulting data from these projects is crowdsourced into a meta-analysis (such as the present publication). Candidate studies for CREP replications are selected by first identifying the top journals in 9 subdisciplines of psychology, and then identifying the top cited empirical studies from one calendar year. From the studies culled from this process, the CREP advisory team identifies studies that are most feasible for undergraduates to replicate. In selecting Wagge, J. R., et al. (2019). A Demonstration of the Collaborative Replication and Education Project: Replication Attempts of the Red-Romance Effect. Collabra: Psychology, 5(1): 5.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.