Experimental evidence that women's mate preferences are directly influenced by cues of pathogen prevalence and resource scarcity

Lee, Anthony J.; Zietsch, Brendan P.

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2011.0454

Cited by 85 publications

(93 citation statements)

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“…Previous studies suggest that priming women with cues to financial/environmental harshness decreases their masculinity preferences (Little et al , 2013b; see also Lee and Zietsch 2011), which has been interpreted as evidence that harsh environments may favour the choice of lower-quality but higher-investing (long-term) partners. Instead of priming participants with hypothetical scenarios, we tested whether perceived financial resource scarcity affects masculinity preferences.…”

Section: P2: Resource Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Women’s Preferences for Men’s Facial Masculinity: Trade-Off Accounts Revisited

Holzleitner

Perrett

2017

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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Studies on mate preferences have demonstrated that women's perception of male attractiveness is sensitive to men's facial masculinity, and that women's preferences for facial masculinity are subject to individual differences, such as own condition. These individual differences have been linked to potential tradeoffs that women face given the hypothesized benefits and costs that masculinity may cue in a potential partner. Whereas most studies based conclusions regarding such trade-offs on shifts in mean preferences for a feminized vs. masculinized face shape, here we directly investigated attractiveness as a function of different levels of masculinity. Using computer-graphic methods, we manipulated the facial masculinity of men's 3D faces to vary between extremely feminine and hypermasculine, and assessed women's preferences for these different masculinity levels in the light of individual differences in self-rated attractiveness, financial worries, pathogen disgust sensitivity, self-reported health and relationship status. Our findings show that some individual differences shift preferences towards a generally lower or higher masculinity level, whereas others affect the tolerance to low vs. high levels of masculinity. We suggest that the use of preference curves allows for a more comprehensive investigation of how and why women's preferences for masculinity may shift under different contexts.

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Section: P2: Resource Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Women’s Preferences for Men’s Facial Masculinity: Trade-Off Accounts Revisited

Holzleitner

Perrett

2017

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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“…Again, it was found that women with high pathogen disgust were more likely to choose the masculine face. This effect appears to persist across several levels of analysis, not only across individuals with differences in pathogen disgust predicting masculinity preference (DeBruine, Jones, Tybur et al, 2010;Jones, Fincher, Little, & DeBruine, 2013), but also across countries with different levels of national health predicting mean levels of masculinity preference for that nation (DeBruine, Jones, Crawford, Welling, & Little, 2010;Penton-Voak, Jacobson, & Trivers, 2004), and in response to pathogen cues (Lee & Zietsch, 2011;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To illustrate this, the range of mean participant age of studies investigating the link between pathogen avoidance and preference for masculinity is 18.6 to 25.3 years (DeBruine, Jones, Crawford, et al 2010;DeBruine, Jones, Tybur, et al, 2010;Jones et al, 2013;Lee & Zietsch, 2011;Lee et al, 2013;Little et al, 2011;Penton-Voak et al, 2004). Also, when reported, the age of facial stimuli used to assess masculinity preference is of young adults.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women's pathogen disgust predicting preference for facial masculinity may be specific to age and study design

Lee

Zietsch

2015

Evolution and Human Behavior

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Facial masculinity in men is thought to be an indicator of good health. Consistent with this idea, previous research has found a positive association between pathogen avoidance (disgust sensitivity) and preference for facial masculinity. However, previous studies are mostly based on young adult participants and targets, using forced-choice preference measures; this begs the question whether the findings generalise to other adult age groups or other preference measures. We address this by conducting three studies assessing facial masculinity preferences of a wider age range of women for a wider age range of male faces. In studies 1 and 2, 447 and 433 women respectively made forced choices between two identical faces that were manipulated on masculinity/femininity. In study 1, face stimuli were manipulated on sexual dimorphism using age-matched templates, while in study 2 young face stimuli were manipulated with older templates and older face stimuli were manipulated using young templates. In the full sample for study 1, no association was found between women's pathogen disgust and masculinity preference, but when limiting the sample to younger women rating younger faces we replicated previous findings of significant association between pathogen disgust and preference for facial masculinity. Results for study 2 found no effect of pathogen disgust sensitivity on facial masculinity preferences regardless of participant and stimuli age. In study 3, the facial masculinity preferences of 386 women were revealed through their attractiveness ratings of natural (unmanipulated) faces. Here, we did not find a significant association of pathogen disgust on facial masculinity preferences, regardless of participant and stimuli age. These results call into question the robustness of the link between women's pathogen avoidance and facial masculinity preference, and raise questions as to why the effect is specific to younger adults and the forced-choice preference measure.

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“…However, in times of resource scarcity, men with higher earning potential or relationship commitment were preferred over those genetic qualities (A. J. Lee & Zietsch, 2011). These two lines of research demonstrate the multiple factors that influence mate preferences, which may very well also lead to differences in outgroup prejudice.…”

Section: Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender differences in prejudice: a biological and social psychological analysis

Dozo¹

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Gender differences are ubiquitous in the social psychological literature as there is an intense belief that men and women differ in most behaviour. The assumption is that the difference is either essential (biological differences) or learned (social differences) and can interact to produce the differences we see today. However, even with researchers' interest in revealing gender differences, studies have been conducted rather atheoretically and sometimes produce inconsistent results. The present thesis addresses prejudice -an area of social behaviour proposed by some researchers to be gendered in nature but currently lacking in systematic review and empirical studies. The present thesis will examine multiple theories for gender differences in prejudice with a meta-analysis and three lab studies assessing the biological and social components to any effect.At first glance, there appears to be consistent evidence of gender differences. For example, women have reported more favourable attitudes than men on social issues such as desegregated neighbourhoods and funding for public schools (Hughes & Tuch, 2003). In comparison, surveys have found that men reported higher levels of xenophobia, endorsement of White superiority, and racism compared to women (Ekehammar & Sidanius, 1982;Sidanius, Ekehammar, & Ross, 1979).However, meta-analyses have demonstrated that gender effects can vary across different operational definitions of prejudice (Hughes & Tuch, 2003) and that overall there is more evidence for gender similarities than differences (Hyde, 1984).This thesis therefore begins with the report of a meta-analysis (Study 1) that provides a comprehensive review of the literature assessing whether gender differences exist in the psychological literature of prejudice. The meta-analysis covered over 50 years of research and included 772 datasets. Across all studies, a small effect (r = .101) of gender was found, with men demonstrating more prejudice than women. The size of this effect, however, was moderated by several variables, including the measure of prejudice, social category of the outgroup, and gender of the target. My analyses also uncovered no instance where women demonstrated more prejudice than men. The results demonstrate that prejudice is somewhat influenced by gender but the small effect size indicates that other variables may play a larger role.Informed by the results of this meta-analysis, the following studies were designed to understand the underlying mechanisms of this gendered phenomenon. Study 2 investigated whether the effect can be explained from a biological perspective, specifically hormonal differences. The study tested basal levels of testosterone, measured via a saliva sample, and its interaction with cortisol to also assess a dual hormones hypothesis. In addition, I examined the role of prenatal testosterone exposure through the measurement of digit ratio (2D:4D) and facial width to height ratio (fWHR). Results revealed no significant association between gender, testosterone, cortisol, or...

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Experimental evidence that women's mate preferences are directly influenced by cues of pathogen prevalence and resource scarcity

Cited by 85 publications

References 20 publications

Women’s Preferences for Men’s Facial Masculinity: Trade-Off Accounts Revisited

Women’s Preferences for Men’s Facial Masculinity: Trade-Off Accounts Revisited

Women's pathogen disgust predicting preference for facial masculinity may be specific to age and study design

Gender differences in prejudice: a biological and social psychological analysis

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