bims-chumac Biomed News
on Context effects on human mate choice
Issue of 2022–06–05
seven papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society
  1. The Attractiveness of Masked Faces Is Influenced by Race and Mask Attitudes.
  2. We Don't Choose Whom We Love: Predictors for Romantic Attraction to Villains.
  3. Beautiful seems good, but perhaps not in every way: Linking attractiveness to moral evaluation through perceived vanity.
  4. Experimental data exploring the effects of intranasal oxytocin on young adult social preference and attachment to romantic partners, parents, friends, and strangers.
  5. Intra- and Intersexual Mate Competition in Two Cultures : A Comparison of Women's Response to Mate Competition with Women and Gender-Nonbinary Males in Samoa and among the Istmo Zapotec.
  6. Too Many Males or Too Many Females? Classroom Sex Ratio, Life History Strategies and Risk-Taking Behaviors.
  7. Strategies and Reasons for Nondisclosure in Close Relationships During Adolescence.
  1. Front Psychol. 2022 ;13 864936
    The Attractiveness of Masked Faces Is Influenced by Race and Mask Attitudes.
    Veronica Dudarev, Miki Kamatani, Yuki Miyazaki, James T Enns, Jun I Kawahara.
      This study tests the influence of wearing a protective face mask on the perceived attractiveness of the wearer. Participants who identified as White, and who varied in their ideological stance toward mask wearing, rated the attractiveness of facial photographs. The photos varied in baseline attractiveness (low, medium, and high), race (White and Asian), and whether or not the face was wearing a protective mask. Attitudes regarding protective masks were measured after the rating task using a survey to identify participants as either pro- or anti-mask. The results showed that masked individuals of the same race were generally rated as more attractive than unmasked individuals, but that masked individuals of another race were rated as less attractive than unmasked individuals. Moreover, pro-mask participants rated masked individuals as generally more attractive than unmasked individuals, whereas anti-maskers rated masked individuals as less attractive. A control experiment, replicating the procedure but replacing the protective masks with a partially occluding notebook, showed that these effects were mask-specific. These results demonstrate that perceived attractiveness is affected by characteristics of the viewer (attitudes toward protective masks), their relationship to the target (same or different race), and by circumstances external to both (pandemic).
    Keywords:  COVID-19; affective appreciation; affective devaluation; facial attractiveness; microvalence; protective mask; sanitary mask
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.864936
  2. Front Psychiatry. 2022 ;13 802988
    We Don't Choose Whom We Love: Predictors for Romantic Attraction to Villains.
    Iris Frowijn, Lisa M W Vos, Erik Masthoff, Stefan Bogaerts.
       Introduction: Why are women (not) romantically attracted to dark personalities or villains, which might be a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization? In the current study, it is opted to investigate how adult attachment, maladaptive personality traits, and acceptance of couple violence in women predict romantic attraction to heroic/villainous characters using structural equation modeling (SEM).
    Method: First, a pilot study was conducted in 122 heterosexual women (aged 16-25) to select male TV characters. This resulted in the selection of six villains and 10 heroes for the main study, in which 194 other heterosexual women (aged 16-25) were asked to rate the pictures of TV characters through an online questionnaire. This was combined with self-report measures of maladaptive personality traits, acceptance of couple violence, and adult attachment. These variables were entered into a SEM model to assess model fit.
    Results: Overall, women rated heroes higher on physical appearance (pilot study) and romantic attraction (main study) compared to villains. We found different direct effects of avoidant (negative) and anxious (positive) attachment styles on romantic attraction to heroes. Moreover, maladaptive personality traits fully mediated the positive effect of avoidant attachment style on romantic attraction to villains.
    Discussion: Despite the limitations of the study design (e.g., low N, low notoriety of the TV characters), this study emphasizes that women are generally more romantically attracted to heroes (vs. villains). Besides, there are different predictors of romantic attraction to heroes and villains, which requires further investigation, especially in the context of IPV.
    Keywords:  acceptance of couple violence; adult attachment style; intimate partner violence; maladaptive personality traits; romantic attraction; women
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.802988
  3. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2022 Jun 02.
    Beautiful seems good, but perhaps not in every way: Linking attractiveness to moral evaluation through perceived vanity.
    Da Eun Han, Sean M Laurent.
      For almost 50 years, psychologists have understood that what is beautiful is perceived as good. This simple and intuitively appealing hypothesis has been confirmed in many ways, prompting a wide range of studies documenting the depth and breadth of its truth. Yet, for what is arguably one of the most important forms of "goodness" that there is-moral goodness-research has told a different story. Although greater attractiveness is associated with a host of positive attributes, it has been only inconsistently associated with greater perceived morality (or lesser immorality), and meta-analyses have suggested the total effect of beauty on moral judgment is near zero. The current research documents one plausible reason for this. Across nine experiments employing a variety of methodological and measurement strategies, we show how attractiveness can be perceived as both morally good and bad. We found that attractiveness causally influences beliefs about vanity, which translates into beliefs that more attractive targets are less moral and more immoral. Then, we document a positive association between attractiveness and sociability-the nonmoral component of warmth-and show how sociability exerts a countervailing positive effect on moral judgments. Likewise, we document findings suggesting that vanity and sociability mutually suppress the effects of attractiveness on each other and on moral judgments. Ultimately, this work provides a comprehensive process account of why beauty seems good but can also be perceived as less moral and more immoral, highlighting complex interrelations among different elements of person perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000317
  4. Data Brief. 2022 Jun;42 108283
    Experimental data exploring the effects of intranasal oxytocin on young adult social preference and attachment to romantic partners, parents, friends, and strangers.
    Harry Freeman, Jamie L Scholl, Musheera AnisAbdellatif, Gina L Forster, Suma Jacob, Sabi Kaflay, Rajeev Bam, Tuyen Do, Etienne Z Gnimpieba.
      Experimental studies exploring the effects of intranasal oxytocin are typically underpowered due to small samples. Open access to experimental data and procedures and the use of previously employed measures is critical to building more robust and replicable findings, especially in less studied areas of oxytocin research. In this paper, data is provided from a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study exploring the effects of intranasal oxytocin (IN-OT: 24 IU) on social preference to romantic partners, parents, peers, and strangers. Young adults (N = 44; 91% female) in committed dating relationships completed three phases of data collection including a screening survey followed by two cmd kwdnextpage ?>laboratory visits. In addition to romantic partner-, and stranger attraction ratings, the data is the first to provide comparisons between attachment and social preference ratings to parents, close friends, and romantic partners under placebo and IN-OT conditions. The data also include differences by situational and life history factors known to moderate oxytocin effects. The detailed protocol, and dataflow can be accessed to verify the analysis and findings or to conduct a replication study. The standardized experimental design and common IN-OT protocol add to the capacity for a meta-analysis exploring oxytocin effects on partner preference and may also be directly ported to existing or future studies with related questions to increase sample size and power.
    Keywords:  Attachment formation; Attachment networks; Life history; Mate selection; Oxytocin; Romantic relationships; Social networks; Social selection
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2022.108283
  5. Hum Nat. 2022 Jun 03.
    Intra- and Intersexual Mate Competition in Two Cultures : A Comparison of Women's Response to Mate Competition with Women and Gender-Nonbinary Males in Samoa and among the Istmo Zapotec.
    Scott W Semenyna, Francisco R Gómez Jiménez, Paul L Vasey.
      The present study examined women's mate competition tactics in response to female and feminine-male rivals in two cultures in which competition against both occurs. In Samoa and the Istmo Zapotec (Southern Mexico), women not only compete with other women (intrasexually) but also compete with rival feminine males (intersexually) in order to access/retain the same masculine men as sexual/romantic partners. Using a mixed-method paradigm, women were asked about their experiences of intra- and intersexual mate competition, and these narratives were recorded. The tactics reportedly employed by participants, and those attributed to mate competitors, were categorized according to established taxonomies of mate competition tactics, and their frequencies compared. Within-culture, the likelihood that participant women had ever experienced intra- and intersexual mate competition did not differ. Furthermore, participants reported a similar pattern of behavioral tactics whether their rival was another woman or a feminine male. These included benefit provisioning tactics during mate acquisition and cost-inflicting tactics during mate retention. Similarly, the mate competition tactics attributed to rival women and rival feminine males bore a striking resemblance, focused on enticing target men. Results highlight the mate competition tactics employed by women outside of a Euro-American context, and the way cultural factors impact mating landscapes presumed to be exclusively heterosexual. The presence of feminine males, alongside masculine men's willingness to engage in sexual activity with them, induces women in such cultures to compete intersexually in comparable ways to intrasexual competition with rival women.
    Keywords:  Cross-cultural research; Intersexual mate competition; Male androphilia
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-022-09424-0
  6. J Youth Adolesc. 2022 Jun 01.
    Too Many Males or Too Many Females? Classroom Sex Ratio, Life History Strategies and Risk-Taking Behaviors.
    Javier Salas-Rodríguez, Luis Gómez-Jacinto, Isabel Hombrados-Mendieta, Natalia Del Pino-Brunet.
      Prior research finds that sex ratio, defined as the proportion of males and females in a given context, is related to engagement in risk-taking behaviors. However, most research operationalizes sex ratio at a local context (e.g., regional or county), which fails to reflect with precision the sex ratios contexts of individuals at a closer level. Furthermore, the relationship between sex ratio and risk-taking behaviors may be affected by individuals' life history strategy, with previous studies showing fast life history strategies linked to risk-taking behaviors, compared to slow life history strategies. The present study analyzes the relationship between classroom sex ratio and risk-taking behaviors and the interaction between classroom sex ratio and life history strategy in adolescents. The sample comprised 1214 participants nested in 57 classrooms, 49.75% females, 91.5% Spanish and a mean age of 16.15 years (SD = 1.23, range 14-21). Results from multilevel modeling showed a negative relation between classroom sex ratio and risk-taking behaviors in female adolescents with faster life history strategy. By contrast, classroom sex ratio in male adolescents related positively to risk-taking behaviors but did not interact with life history strategy. These findings underscore the importance of studying proximate sex ratio on risk-taking behaviors in adolescents and underline its potential influence in the development and expression of life history strategies.
    Keywords:  Adolescents; Classroom sex ratio; Evolutionary psychology; Life history strategy; Multilevel modeling; Risk-taking behaviors
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01635-z
  7. J Youth Adolesc. 2022 May 31.
    Strategies and Reasons for Nondisclosure in Close Relationships During Adolescence.
    Yue Guo, Sarah Killoren, Nicole Campione-Barr.
      Adolescents keep secrets from parents to assert independence or avoid punishment; however, there is little research on nondisclosure in other close relationships during adolescence. This article examines strategies and reasons for nondisclosure between adolescents (N = 244, 47.5% female, Mage = 12.71, SDage = 1.66) and multiple close relationships (parents, siblings, and best friends). The results show that adolescents tended to use nondisclosure strategies more for personal information (e.g., thoughts/feelings). Adolescents had more reasons to keep information from family as they got older, and girls reported keeping information from mothers more than boys because they would feel bad, embarrassed, or ashamed. These findings provide a greater understanding of patterns of nondisclosure during adolescence, which may in turn have implications for adolescent adjustment and relationship quality.
    Keywords:  Adolescence; Close relationships; Nondisclosure; Secrecy
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01634-0
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