Psychological essentialism from first principles
Publication date: Available online 19 July 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Tadeg QuillienAbstractCognitive scientists have documented the existence of “essentialist” intuitions in humans: from a very early age, we assume that things have deep unobserved properties that make them what they are. I provide a sketch of an adaptationist explanation of psychological essentialism, arguing that these intuitions are the unsurprising output of adaptations for inductive inference. Variations on this insight have previously been used mostly as after-the-fact speculations, yet theories of adaptive function should...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 19, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Human vocal behavior within competitive and courtship contexts and its relation to mating success
In this study, we investigated such relationships in both sexes in courtship and competitive interactions—as they correspond to the two different types of sexual selection—using an experimental design based on a simulated dating game. We assessed which type of sexual selection best predicted mating success, here defined as the self-reported number of sexual partners within the past year. Our results show that only acoustic inter-individual differences in the courtship context for both men and women predicted their mating success. Men displaying faster articulation rate and louder voices reported significantly more sexu...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 19, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Why hide? Concealed sex in dominant Arabian babblers (Turdoides squamiceps) in the wild
We examined whether birds indeed conceal sex and tested different hypotheses postulating that sex concealment functions to avoid predators, signal dominance status, or to avoid social interference. The results showed that the birds concealed sex in all observed cases of copulation, did not prefer to copulate under shelters and concealed mating solicitations from adult conspecifics. In addition, subordinates did not attack dominants who courted the respective female. Hence, none of the tested hypotheses explains these results satisfactorily. We postulate that dominant Arabian babblers conceal sex to maintain cooperation wit...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 18, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
You're not my type: Do conservatives have a bias for seeing long-term mates?
Publication date: Available online 26 June 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Naomi K. Muggleton, Corey L. FincherAbstractWhen choosing a mate, humans favour genetic traits (attractiveness, high sex drive) for short-term relationships and parental traits (warmth, high status) for long-term relationships. These preferences serve to maximise fitness of future offspring. But this model neglects the role of social norms in shaping evolved mating strategies. For example, in conservative cultures, individuals are likely to face costs such as punishment for short-term mating. Here we show that conservatives over-p...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 14, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Why conceal? Evidence for concealed sex by dominant Arabian babblers (Turdoides squamiceps)
We examined whether birds indeed conceal sex and tested different hypotheses, postulating that sex concealment functions to avoid predators, signal dominance status, or to avoid social interference. The results showed that birds concealed 100% of copulations; did not prefer to copulate under shelters; concealed mating solicitations from adult conspecifics; and that subordinates did not attack dominants who courted the female. We argue that none of the hypotheses tested explains our findings satisfactorily and postulate that dominants conceal sex to maintain cooperation with those helpers they prevent from mating. Empirical...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Every rose has its thorn: Infants' responses to pointed shapes in naturalistic contexts
Publication date: Available online 7 June 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Aleksandra Włodarczyk, Claudia Elsner, Alexandra Schmitterer, Annie E. WertzAbstractPlants produce dangerous chemical and physical defenses that have shaped the physiology and behavior of the herbivorous predators that feed on them. Here we explore the impact that these plant defenses may have had on humans by testing infants' responses to plants with and without sharp-looking thorns. To do this, we presented 8- to 18-month-olds with plants and control stimuli and measured their initial reaching behavior and subsequent object expl...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Do men with more masculine voices have better immunocompetence?
Publication date: Available online 8 June 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Steven Arnocky, Carolyn R. Hodges-Simeon, Danielle Ouellette, Graham AlbertAbstractThe human voice is often considered to be a secondary sexual characteristic that signals underlying information about the immunocompetence of the speaker (i.e. the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis; ICHH). However, no studies have yet shown a relationship between vocal characteristics and biomarkers of immune function or self-reported health. In a sample of 108 men, we examined correlations between masculine vocal characteristics [i.e. relatively ...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Who suppresses female sexuality? An examination of support for Islamic veiling in a secular Muslim democracy as a function of sex and offspring sex
Publication date: Available online 12 June 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Khandis R. Blake, Maleke Fourati, Robert C. BrooksAbstractWhether it is men or women who suppress female sexuality has important implications for understanding gendered relations, ultimately providing insight into one widespread cause of female disadvantage. The question of which sex suppresses female sexuality more avidly, however, neglects that our interests are never unambiguously masculine or feminine; each of us has a combination of male and female kin which alters how much of our future fitness derive from each sex. Here we ...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
God, sex, and money among the ultra-Orthodox in Israel: An integrated sociocultural and evolutionary perspective
Publication date: Available online 12 June 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Nechumi Malovicki Yaffe, Melissa McDonald, Eran Halperin, Tamar SaguyAbstractThe origin of the tendency for men to value wealth more than women can be explained by both social role theory and evolutionary theory. We integrate these two perspectives to provide insight into a unique cultural context, the Jewish ultra-Orthodox community in Israel, where social roles are reversed, such that women are the primary breadwinners in the family. Studies 1a and 1b provide support for social role theory's claim that men and women will interna...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Social observation increases deontological judgments in moral dilemmas
Publication date: Available online 18 June 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Minwoo Lee, Sunhae Sul, Hackjin KimAbstractA concern for positive reputation is one of the core motivations underlying various social behaviors in humans. The present study investigated how experimentally induced reputation concern modulates judgments in moral dilemmas. In a mixed-design experiment, participants were randomly assigned to the observed vs. the control group and responded to a series of trolley-type moral dilemmas either in the presence or absence of observers, respectively. While no significant baseline difference i...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Post-marital residence patterns show lineage-specific evolution
Publication date: Available online 18 June 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Jiří C. Moravec, Quentin Atkinson, Claire Bowern, Simon J. Greenhill, Fiona M. Jordan, Robert M. Ross, Russell Gray, Stephen Marsland, Murray P. CoxAbstractWhere a newly-married couple lives, termed post-marital residence, varies cross-culturally and changes over time. While many factors have been proposed as drivers of this change, among them general features of human societies like warfare, migration and gendered division of subsistence labour, little is known about whether changes in residence patterns exhibit global regulari...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Brazil's football warriors: Social bonding and inter-group violence
Publication date: Available online 21 June 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Martha Newson, Tiago Bortolini, Michael Buhrmester, Silvio Ricardo da Silva, Jefferson Nicássio Queiroga da Aquino, Harvey WhitehouseAbstractFootball-related violence (hooliganism) is a global problem. Previous work has proposed that hooliganism is an expression of social maladjustment. Here we test an alternative hypothesis, that hooliganism is typically motivated by a parochial form of prosociality, the evolutionary origins of which may lie in intergroup raiding and warfare. In a survey of Brazilian football fans (N = 465),...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Intergenerational incest aversion: self-reported sexual arousal and disgust to hypothetical sexual contact with family members
Publication date: Available online 22 June 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Paula Kresanov, Jennifer Kotler, Michael Seto, Debra Lieberman, Pekka Santtila, Jan AntfolkAbstractThe biological costs of inbreeding are expected to have shaped human incest aversion. These costs depend on biological sex, relatedness, and age. Whereas previous studies have focused on investigating how these factors modulate incest aversion in siblings and cousins—family members of the same generation—here we examined relatives of different generations. In a population-based sample, 2499 respondents reported reactions to imagi...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
A noisy signal: To what extent are Hadza hunting reputations predictive of actual hunting skills?
Publication date: Available online 22 June 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Duncan N.E. Stibbard-Hawkes, Robert D. Attenborough, Frank W. MarloweAbstractThe measurement of hunting ability has been central to several debates about the goals of men's hunting among the Hadza and other hunter-gatherer populations. Hunting ability has previously been measured indirectly, by weighing the amount of food individuals bring back to camp over an extended period, their central place hunting return rate, and by conducting hunting ability interviews. Despite the centrality of the hunting ability concept, some authors (...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
You’re Not My Type: Do Conservatives Have a Bias for Seeing Long-Term Mates?
Publication date: Available online 26 June 2018Source: Evolution and Human BehaviorAuthor(s): Naomi K. Muggleton, Corey L. FincherAbstractWhen choosing a mate, humans favour genetic traits (attractiveness, high sex drive) for short-term relationships and parental traits (warmth, high status) for long-term relationships. These preferences serve to maximise fitness of future offspring. But this model neglects the role of social norms in shaping evolved mating strategies. In conservative cultures, individuals are likely to face costs such as punishment for short-term mating. Here we show that conservatives over-perceive some ...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - July 10, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
