Quantifying the strength and form of sexual selection on men's traits

Hill, Alexander K.; Hunt, John; Welling, Lisa L. M.; Cárdenas, Rodrigo A.; Rotella, Michelle A.; Wheatley, John R.; Dawood, Khytam; Shriver, Mark D.; Puts, David A.

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.05.004

Cited by 166 publications

(124 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Greengross and Miller, 2011) our findings suggest that male competition and alliance formation could have played a role in shaping the cognitive processes that regulate men"s appreciation of other men"s humor. This complements other recent work on the importance of male-male competition in shaping social perception (e.g., Hill et al, 2013;Puts, 2010;Watkins et al, 2010a) and behaviour (reviewed in Archer, 2009) more generally. Indeed, while the perceiver"s own dominance shapes how men judge other men"s dominance from vocal cues (Watkins et al, 2010b), here it shapes how men judge other men"s…”

Section: Accepted M Manuscriptsupporting

confidence: 82%

It’s the way he tells them (and who is listening): men’s dominance is positively correlated with their preference for jokes told by dominant-sounding men

Cowan

Watkins

Fraccaro

et al. 2016

Evolution and Human Behavior

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It's the way he tells them (and who is listening): Men's dominance is positively correlated with their preference for jokes told by dominant-sounding men AbstractWhile much research has explored humorous exchange in relation to mate choice, recent perspectives have emphasized the importance of humor for monitoring interest within social partnerships more generally. Indeed, given that similarity is thought to be important in the maintenance of social partnerships, we may expect humor appreciation to vary according to the degree of similarity between humor producers and recipients. In the current study we report evidence for such variation that is specific to men"s judgments of other men"s humor. Here we manipulated voice pitch in a set of "one-liner" jokes to create low-pitched and high-pitched versions of men and women telling jokes. A composite measure of men"s own dominance was positively correlated with their preference for jokes told by other men with lowered voice pitch (a vocal cue to dominance). A follow-up study demonstrated that selfreported dominance was positively related to men"s choice of low-pitch men as friends when judging humorous audio clips but not when judging neutral control audio clips, suggesting that humour may be important in mediating the effect of dominance on friendship choice. These studies indicate systematic variation in humor appreciation related to friendship choices which may function to promote cohesion within male partnerships based on status.

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Section: Accepted M Manuscriptsupporting

confidence: 82%

It’s the way he tells them (and who is listening): men’s dominance is positively correlated with their preference for jokes told by dominant-sounding men

Cowan

Watkins

Fraccaro

et al. 2016

Evolution and Human Behavior

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“…Thus, beardedness and chest hair might obscure or enhance the features of body composition and craniofacialshape thatare importantas gestaltcues of masculinity that influence male attractiveness (B. J. Dixson, Grimshaw, Ormsby, & Dixson, 2014;Rhodes, 2006), mating success (Hill et al, 2013), and are, in some cases, judged as more attractive at the peri-ovulatory period by women (Gildersleeve et al, 2014a; but see .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Facial and Body Hair Distribution in Women’s Judgments of Men’s Sexual Attractiveness

Dixson

Rantala

2015

Arch Sex Behav

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Facial and body hair are some of the most visually conspicuous and sexually dimorphic of all men's secondary sexual traits. Both are androgen dependent, requiring the conversion of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone via the enzyme 5α reductase 2 for their expression. While previous studies on the attractiveness of facial and body hair are equivocal, none have accounted as to how natural variation in their distribution may influence male sexual attractiveness. In the present study, we quantified men's facial and body hair distribution as either very light, light, medium, or heavy using natural photographs. We also tested whether women's fertility influenced their preferences for beards and body hair by comparing preferences among heterosexual women grouped according their fertility (high fertility, low fertility, and contraceptive use). Results showed that men with more evenly and continuously distributed facial hair from the lower jaw connecting to the mustache and covering the cheeks were judged as more sexually attractive than individuals with more patchy facial hair. Men with body hair were less attractive than when clean shaven, with the exception of images depicting some hair around the areolae, pectoral region, and the sternum that were significantly more attractive than clean-shaven bodies. However, there was no effect of fertility on women's preferences for men's beard or body hair distribution. These results suggest that the distribution of facial and body hair influences male attractiveness to women, possibly as an indication of masculine development and the synthesis of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone via 5α reductase.

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“…Indeed, in men but not women, earlier puberty has been found to predict greater sex drive, interest in casual sex, and reported number of lifetime sex partners (Ostovich and Sabini 2005). Because physical masculinity augments men's mating opportunities (Rhodes et al 2005;Hodges-Simeon et al 2011;Lassek and Gaulin 2009;Hill et al 2013), variables that influence LH strategy, such as extrinsic mortality risk and nutrition, may also increase physical masculinity as a means of promoting mating success and earlier mating and reproduction. Moreover, if a fast LH strategy in men comprises a suite of traits that includes earlier puberty and greater mating effort (Del Giudice and Belsky 2011), then earlier pubertal timing should predict the expression of traits that aid in competition over mates-that is, traits favored by sexual selection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because research has shown that men's muscularity, strength, and facial and vocal characteristics are especially likely to have been targets of sexual selection (Hill et al 2013;Lassek and Gaulin 2009;Doll et al 2014), we focused on these traits. We also attempted to replicate previous associations with mental rotation ability (Beltz and Berenbaum 2013) and BMI (Mamun et al 2009;Widen et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual Selection and Life History: Earlier Recalled Puberty Predicts Men’s Phenotypic Masculinization

Doll

Cárdenas

Burriss

et al. 2015

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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In some laboratory rodents, males' brains and behavior become less sensitive to the organizing effects of androgens across the time window surrounding puberty. Later puberty in human males has also been associated with less male-typical psychology and behavior, such as lower performance on mental rotation tasks and lower risk of substance abuse and delinquency. Here, we propose that life history (LH) theory provides a useful theoretical framework for understanding such relationships between pubertal timing and phenotypic masculinization. Because a faster male LH strategy emphasizes mating over parenting, earlier puberty may lead more generally to greater masculinization of traits that increase in sexual dimorphism at puberty and function in mating competition. In other words, we suggest that decreasing sensitivity to androgens represents a proximate mechanism that facilitates the development of mating-related adaptations in men with fast LH strategies. We tested this hypothesis in 153 men. Consistent with our hypothesis, earlier recalled pubertal timing predicted greater adult male body mass index, facial dominance, biceps circumference, and, to a lesser degree, systemizing and mental rotation ability. Some sexually dimorphic traits that were unrelated to pubertal timing in our data may have been less relevant to our male ancestors' mating success and hence to a fast LH strategy.

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Quantifying the strength and form of sexual selection on men's traits

Cited by 166 publications

References 60 publications

It’s the way he tells them (and who is listening): men’s dominance is positively correlated with their preference for jokes told by dominant-sounding men

It’s the way he tells them (and who is listening): men’s dominance is positively correlated with their preference for jokes told by dominant-sounding men

The Role of Facial and Body Hair Distribution in Women’s Judgments of Men’s Sexual Attractiveness

Sexual Selection and Life History: Earlier Recalled Puberty Predicts Men’s Phenotypic Masculinization

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