Only Cheap Talk after All? New Experimental Psychological Findings on the Role of Verbal Proficiency in Mate Choice

Abstract

Recent evolutionary experimental psychological research found that high verbal proficiency (VP) increased the perceived attractiveness of individuals (more so for males than females), especially in the context of a long-term relationship. Our study had the objective of replicating and extending this research. Similar to previous studies, audio files in which speakers performed scripted self-presentations that had equal content but varied on VP were used as stimuli for opposite-sex participants. VP was found to increase attractiveness ratings. The effects were mostly small for numerous variables relating to short-term mating, whereas they were moderate to large for long-term mating. Our participants attributed more future income, but not more total number of mates to speakers with higher VP. Female menstrual cycle effects on attractiveness ratings were not found. Contrary to former research, being more verbally proficient was not found to be more beneficial for one sex over the other.

Sex differences in language competence of 3- to 6-year-old children

“…It is more notable that the results showing greater variance among males corroborate findings regarding the evolutionary psychology of sex differences in general and the evolution of language in particular. From an evolutionary perspective, it can be assumed that a greater phenotypic variance among males than among females mirrors the larger reproductive variance in males compared to females (Archer & Mehdikhani, 2003; Lange, 2012; Lange, Zaretsky, Schwarz, & Euler, 2014). Sex differences in variance have been reported for somatic traits as well (Lehre, Lehre, Laake, & Danbolt, 2008), which also undermines explanations citing environmental factors.…”

The Name Is the Game: Nicknames as Predictors of Personality and Mating Strategy in Online Dating

“…As emphasized above, communication only by means of single words is even more limited than communicating through written texts. Still, those single words might communicate crucial information (Lange et al, 2016a). In accordance with findings on mate choice in "real life, " Whitty and Buchanan (2010) found that women were more attracted to online user names (hereinafter called nicknames) (e.g., in terms of the motivation to contact the person behind the name) that signaled intelligence, while men were more attracted to nicknames indicative of physical attractiveness.…”

“…This research has, on the one hand, identified several characteristics that both sexes prefer in a mate (e.g., healthy), as well as those that are more preferred by women (e.g., good earning capacity, college graduate) and those more preferred by men (e.g., physically attractive) (Buss et al, 1990). The role of language in human mate choice has also been examined recently (e.g., Lange et al, 2014Lange et al, , 2016a. On the other hand, empirical mate choice research has documented that women are more exacting in mate choice decisions, while men face stronger same-sex competition (for an overview, see Buss, 2003).…”

Sprachniveau in Online- und TV-Nachrichten: Eine quantitative computergestützte Textanalyse der Online- und TV-Berichterstattung von ARD, ZDF, Sat.1 und RTL

“…eloquent sich die Nachrichtensprache darstellt. Sprachniveau wird hierbei als wertfreier Begriff verstanden, der sich als (partiell) synonym zu sprachlicher Gewandtheit sowie Eloquenz auffassen und sich u. a. über Wortschatzdiversität (Anteil unterschiedlicher Wörter), Wortkomplexität (grob: Länge der Wörter) und Satzkomplexität (grob: Länge der Sätze) definieren lässt (s. Lange, 2012;Lange, 2016;Lange, Hennighausen, Brill & Schwab, 2016;Lange, Bögemann & Zaretsky, 2017; s. dazu auch weiter u.). Die bei-den dabei wesentlich verfolgten Fragen lauteten: Ist die Nachrichtensprache eher elaboriert oder eher einfach und schlicht?…”

“…Im Folgenden soll nochmals kurz elaboriert werden, wie Sprachniveau definiert ist und mittels der oben bereits kurz genannten linguistischen Marker operationalisiert werden kann. Sprachniveau (Synonym: sprachliche Gewandtheit; Lange, 2012;Lange et al, 2016Lange et al, , 2017Lange et al, , 2019 ist grob u. a. mittels Wortschatzdiversität (Anteil unterschiedlicher Wörter), Wortkomplexität (Länge der Wörter) und Satzkomplexität (Länge der Sätze) definier-und operationalisierbar. Mehrere Rezeptionsstudien (Lange, 2012;Lange, Zaretsky, Schwarz & Euler, 2014;Lange et al, 2016) bestätigen die Validität dieses Ansatzes: Unterschiedlich sprachlich gewandte Stimuli (Text, Audio, Video), die auf Basis dieser Definition erstellt wurden, wurden von Probanden mit hoher Effektstärke als unterschiedlich sprachlich gewandt bewertet.…”