Assets at Risk: Menstrual Cycle Variation in the Envisioned Formidability of a Potential Sexual Assailant Reveals a Component of Threat Assessment

Abstract

Situations of potential agonistic conflict demand rapid and effective decision-making. The process of threat assessment includes assessments of relative fighting capacity, assessments of the likelihood of attack, and assessments of the extent to which one′s assets are at risk. The dimensions of physical size and strength appear to serve as key parameters in a cognitive representation summarizing multiple constituents of threat assessment. Here, we examine the thesis that this same representation summarizes asset risk. The fitness costs of sexual assault are in part a function of conception risk, as pregnancy due to assault compromises female choice and imperils existing and subsequent male investment. Prior research indicates that women′s attitudes and behaviors vary systematically across the menstrual cycle in a manner that would have reduced the likelihood of sexual assault during periods of greatest fertility in ancestral women. If the envisioned size and strength of a potential antagonist is used to represent asset risk, and if the threat that sexual assault poses to a woman′s reproductive assets is in part a product of her fertility, then the conceptualized size and strength of a potential sexual assailant should be a function of conception risk. We find support for this prediction in a large sample of naturally-cycling women in urban Southern California, indicating that asset risk is summarized using the same representation as relative fighting capacity and likelihood of attack. Presumably, this elegant use of a single representation for multiple aspects of threat assessment facilitates rapid decisionmaking in agonistic contexts.

Women's fear of crime and preference for formidable mates: how specific are the underlying psychological mechanisms?

“…For example, an interesting avenue for 530 future research would be to examine the development of PPFDM as a function of childhood 531 experiences of crime, heightened vulnerability, and limited protection. Other factors that might 532 affect women's PPFDM could include the psychological ability to cope with threat, the perceived 533 value of a women's assets (e.g., the ability to defend herself and the evolutionary costs to fitness 534 that she is likely to suffer from violent victimisation, see Fessler et al 2015) or past victimisation 535 experiences with strangers versus mates (Cate et al 2003). 536…”

Synchronized behavior increases assessments of the formidability and cohesion of coalitions

“…Consistent with this thesis, being aware that an opponent is armed (Fessler et al, 2012) or is prone to take physical risks (Fessler et al, 2014a;Fessler et al, 2014c) increases observers' 8 estimates of his size and muscularity. Such estimates are similarly influenced by the observer's own physical strength (Fessler et al, 2014b) and, inversely, temporary incapacitation (Fessler & Holbrook, 2013a); having vulnerable children (Fessler et al, 2014d); being in a vulnerable phase of the menstrual cycle (Fessler et al, 2015); one's friends' physical proximity (Fessler & Holbrook, 2013b); and information concerning a target's ethnicity or degree of commitment to a coalition and its agonistic objectives .…”

Mate choice preferences in an intergroup context: evidence for a sexual coercion threat-management system among women

“…Consistent with the theorizing above, a number of recent studies have found support for the proposition that women may possess psychological mechanisms that function to protect reproductive choice via the avoidance of sexually coercive threats (e.g., Bröder & Hohmann, 2003;Chavanne & Gallup, 1998;Fessler, Holbrook, & Fleischman, 2014;Guéguen, 2012;McDonald et al, 2011;Navarrete et al, 2009Navarrete et al, , 2010Petralia & Gallup, 2002) or which function to reduce the costs associated with sexual coercion (Chivers, Seto, Lalumière, Laan, & Grimbos, 2010). Relevant to the current research, in a series of studies Navarrete et al (2010;Studies 3 and 4) showed that racial bias against outgroup men is elevated among women who appraise themselves as being vulnerable to sexual coercion, even when controlling for domain-general fearfulness.…”

“…Past research has demonstrated that women exhibit greater vigilance and defensive mechanisms when faced with threatening stimuli at peak conception risk, without reference to the source of the threat (e.g. Bröder & Hohmann, 2003;Chavanne & Gallup, 1998;Fessler et al, 2014;Garver-Apgar et al, 2007;Guéguen, 2012;Petralia & Gallup, 2002). Given these findings, we might have expected women at peak conception risk who appraise themselves as vulnerable to sexual coercion to deny date requests from all men, regardless of whether it came from an ingroup or outgroup member.…”