Marco Antônio Corrêa Varella

University of São Paulo | USP · Department of Experimental Psychology

Though people usually imagine the typical person as a man rather than a woman, the effect is mixed for racial groups and understudied among traditionally male social groups (e.g., police and criminals) and non-U.S. populations. Results from a survey (N > 5000) collected via a globally distributed laboratory network in over 40 regions demonstrated t...

Appearance modification practices are ubiquitous, serving to enhance physical attractiveness and accrue social advantages, including increased desirability as a potential mate. Facial cosmetics are frequently used for appearance modification, yet individual differences in makeup usage remain understudied. While makeup usage in women has been linked...

The evolution of music, language, and cooperation have been debated since before Darwin. The social bonding hypothesis proposes that these phenomena may be interlinked: musicality may have facilitated the evolution of group cooperation beyond the possibilities of spoken language. Although dozens of experimental studies have shown that synchronised...

Este livro foi pensado para ser um primeiro texto didático e introdutório às bases ecológicas e evolutivas do comportamento humano, voltado para o ensino ao nível de graduação. Porém, este livro também pode ser útil para aqueles entrando na pós-graduação, especialmente vindos de áreas sem muita tradição de ensino e pesquisa ecológica e evolutiva. E...

O foco do presente capítulo é uma dificuldade específica causada pelo essencialismo psicológico: a compreensão e a aceitação da teoria da evolução (Gelman & Rhodes 2012). Esse assunto é tão importante porque não envolve só o público leigo, mas também os especialistas, professores e educadores, que deveriam estar habilitados a entender e a ensinar a...

Esse capítulo é sobre a saga da materialização e legitimação das explicações teleológicas. Nele busco um breve panorama sobre como as explicações voltadas para finalidades, metas e propósitos dos seres vivos passaram a ser concebidas em termos próprios e ao mesmo tempo como puramente materialistas e entendidas como científicas, e não mais como mági...

Somos primatas musicofílicos; apresentamos um interesse e apego espontâneo e universal por atividades musicais, podendo ser parte inerente da natureza humana (Sacks 2007; Varella et al. 2010; Varella 2011). Da "nana neném" até a "marcha fúnebre", a música perpassa períodos relevantes de nossa vida. Para Platão, a música é soberana porque o ritmo e...

Both music and language are found in all known human societies, yet no studies have compared similarities and differences between song, speech, and instrumental music on a global scale. In this Registered Report, we analyzed two global datasets: (i) 300 annotated audio recordings representing matched sets of traditional songs, recited lyrics, conve...

Previous studies have found a negative relationship between creativity and conservatism. However, as these studies were mostly conducted on samples of homogeneous nationality, the generalizability of the effect across different cultures is unknown. We addressed this gap by conducting a study in 28 countries. Based on the notion that attitudes can b...

Previous studies have found a negative relationship between creativity and conservatism. However, as these studies were mostly conducted on samples of homogeneous nationality, the generalizability of the effect across different cultures is unknown. We addressed this gap by conducting a study in 28 countries. Based on the notion that attitudes can b...

Fundamental frequency ( f o ) is the most perceptually salient vocal acoustic parameter, yet little is known about how its perceptual influence varies across societies. We examined how f o affects key social perceptions and how socioecological variables modulate these effects in 2,647 adult listeners sampled from 44 locations across 22 nations. Low...

Studies investigating facial attractiveness in humans have frequently been limited to studying the effect of individual morphological factors in isolation from other facial shape components in the same population. In this study, we go beyond this approach by focusing on multiple components and populations while combining geometric morphometrics of...

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the introduction of unprecedented safety measures, one of them being physical distancing recommendations. Here, we assessed whether the pandemic has led to long-term effects on two important physical distancing aspects, namely interpersonal distance preferences and interpersonal touch behaviors. We analyzed nearly 1...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of the global food system, sending shockwaves across countries' societies and economy. This has presented formidable challenges to sustaining a healthy and resilient lifestyle. The objective of this study is to examine the food consumption patterns and assess diet diversity indicators, pri...

Human musicality exhibits the necessary hallmarks for biological adaptations. Evolutionary explanations focus on recurrent adaptive problems that human musicality possibly solved in ancestral environments, such as mate selection and competition, social bonding/cohesion and social grooming, perceptual and motor skill development, conflict reduction,...

The current research aimed to study the strategies that people employ in order to become more desirable as mates in different cultural settings. More specifically, using a closed‐ended questionnaire on a sample of 7181 participants from 14 different countries, we identified 10 different strategies that people employ to become more appealing as mate...

In a multinational project (N = 3707), we factor analyzed a commonly used self-report measure of intrasexual competition and found a three-dimensional system. We called these factors envy (i.e., wanting what others have), jealousy (i.e., protecting what one has), and competitiveness (i.e., beliefs that one is better). To better understand these fac...

Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of objects mentioned in sentences. Mental representation is often measured with the sentence-picture verification task, wherein participants first read a sentence that implies the object property (i.e., shape and orientation). Partic...

Mate value is an important concept in mate choice research although its operationalization and understanding are limited. Here, we reviewed and evaluated previously established conceptual and methodological approaches measuring mate value and presented original research using individual differences in how people view themselves as a face-valid prox...

Evolutionary social science is having a renaissance. This volume showcases the empirical and theoretical advancements produced by the evolutionary study of romantic relationships. The editors assembled an international collection of contributors to trace how evolved psychological mechanisms shape strategic computation and behavior across the life s...

Adult individuals frequently face difficulties in attracting and keeping mates, which is an important driver of singlehood. In the current research, we investigated the mating performance (i.e., how well people do in attracting and retaining intimate partners) and singlehood status in 14 different countries, namely Austria, Brazil, China, Greece, H...

Dark triad (DT) refers to a set of antisocial and self-interested personality traits (Machiavellianism, sub-clinical psychopathy and narcissism). The nocturnal cognitive niche hypothesis suggests that the DT was advantageous in a nocturnal niche because it enables exploitative strategies and would be linked with an evening-oriented chronotype as pa...

Artistic behavior as aesthetically enhancing activities is conceptualized as a functionally autonomous activity within the evolved human behavioral repertoire. Accordingly, it should be intrinsically motivated, and it might also be expected to be temporally stable and domain specific. Preferential freely-pursued activities reflect intrinsic motivat...

Both music and language are found in all known human societies, yet no studies have compared similarities and differences between song, speech, and instrumental music on a global scale. In this Registered Report, we analyzed two global datasets: 1) 300 annotated audio recordings representing matched sets of traditional songs, recited lyrics, conver...

The COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic social changes for many people, including separation from friends and coworkers, enforced close contact with family, and reductions in mobility. Here we assess the extent to which people's evolutionarily-relevant basic motivations and goals—fundamental social motives such as Affiliation and Kin Care—might have b...

People across the world and throughout history have gone to great lengths to enhance their physical appearance. Evolutionary psychologists and ethologists have largely attempted to explain this phenomenon via mating preferences and strategies. Here, we test one of the most popular evolutionary hypotheses for beauty-enhancing behaviors, drawn from m...

The COVID-19 pandemic (and its aftermath) highlights a critical need to communicate health information effectively to the global public. Given that subtle differences in information framing can have meaningful effects on behavior, behavioral science research highlights a pressing question: Is it more effective to frame COVID-19 health messages in t...

People across the world and throughout history have gone to great lengths to enhance their physical appearance. Evolutionary psychologists and ethologists have largely attempted to explain this phenomenon via mating preferences and strategies. Here, we test one of the most popular evolutionary hypotheses for beauty-enhancing behaviors, drawn from m...

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about...

How does psychology vary across human societies? The fundamental social motives framework adopts an evolutionary approach to capture the broad range of human social goals within a taxonomy of ancestrally recurring threats and opportunities. These motives—self-protection, disease avoidance, affiliation, status, mate acquisition, mate retention, and...

People across the world and throughout history have gone to great lengths to enhance their physical appearance. Evolutionary psychologists and ethologists have largely attempted to explain this phenomenon via mating preferences and strategies. Here, we test one of the most popular evolutionary hypotheses for beauty-enhancing behaviors, drawn from m...

Jealousy is an affective state activated by a perceived threat to a valued relationship by a third party. On average, males report higher distress about their partner’s sexual extra-pair involvement, while females show higher emotional jealousy. These sex differences are specific to heterosexuals and to contexts with potential reproductive costs. W...

The interface of sexual behavior and evolutionary psychology is a rapidly growing domain, rich in psychological theories and data as well as controversies and applications. With nearly eighty chapters by leading researchers from around the world, and combining theoretical and empirical perspectives, The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectiv...

Since Darwin proposed that human musicality evolved through sexual selection, empirical evidence has supported intersexual selection as one of the adaptive functions of artistic propensities. However, intrasexual competition has been overlooked. We tested their relative importance by investigating the relationship between the self-perceived talent/...

By conceptualizing Sexual Selection, Darwin showed a way to analyze intra-specific individual differences within an evolutionary perspective. Interestingly, Sexual Selection is often used to investigate the origins of sports, arts, humor, religion and other phenomena that, in several languages, are simply called “play.” Despite their manifested dif...

Significance Communicating in ways that motivate engagement in social distancing remains a critical global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study tested motivational qualities of messages about social distancing (those that promoted choice and agency vs. those that were forceful and shaming) in 25,718 people in 89 countries...

Significance Communicating in ways that motivate engagement in social distancing remains a critical global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study tested motivational qualities of messages about social distancing (those that promoted choice and agency vs. those that were forceful and shaming) in 25,718 people in 89 countries...

There are numerous classifications of physical activities (PAs). However, they lack precise grouping criteria and tend to vary according to each author. Among other factors, the individual’s level of motivation is considered an important aspect of PA maintenance. In this study, we aimed to (1) compare several PAs according to intrinsic (Interest, E...

Women wearing makeup are perceived by others as more attractive, competent, dominant, and more socially prestigious. Individuals differ in how much and how frequently they use makeup. Some studies show that women with lower self-esteem use more makeup, probably to hide imperfections. However, women with higher self-esteem can also use makeup to att...

Dark triad (DT) refers to a set of personality traits (Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism) related to low empathy and socially aversive behavior. The nocturnal cognitive niche hypothesis suggests that the DT was advantageous in a nocturnal niche to enact a “cheater” strategy and thus this constellation of traits is linked with an evening...

Feeling and expressing love is at the core of romantic relationships, but individuals differ in their proclivity to worry about their relationships and/or avoid intimacy. Saying ‘I love you’ signals a commitment to a future with our romantic partner. Contrary to gender stereotypes, research in the US demonstrates that men are more likely to confess...

Darwin explored the evolutionary processes underlying artistic propensities in humans. He stressed the universality of the human mind by pointing to the shared pleasure which all populations take in dancing, engaging in music, acting, painting, tattooing, and self-decorating. Artistic motivation drives/reinforces individuals to engage in aesthetica...

Appearance modification is ancient, universal and influences other and self-perceptions. It has been rarely addressed how expectation of appearance modification would affect women’s self-perception. We analyzed self-assessments of women without makeup and after having makeup professionally applied at four increasing levels (light, moderate, heavy 1...

A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attentio...

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about...

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about...

A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attentio...

A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attentio...

The presence of pathogens has imposed constant threats to human survival and reproduction. Selective pressures exerted by pathogens have shaped our array of immune functions—including physiological, psychological, and behavioral immune systems. Pathogens and epidemics have plagued humankind and our ancestors from their dawn, yet despite advances in...

The current research aimed to examine the reasons people are single, that is, not in an intimate relationship, across eight different countries-Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, India, Japan, and the UK. We asked a large cross-cultural sample of single participants (N = 6,822) to rate 92 different possible reasons for being single. Th...

Humans have been using fire for hundreds of millennia, creating an ancestral expansion toward the nocturnal niche. The new adaptive challenges faced at night were recurrent enough to amplify existing psychological variation in our species. Night-time is dangerous and mysterious, so it selects for individuals with higher tendencies for paranoia, ris...

Sexual selection, including mate choice and intrasexual competition, is responsible for the evolution of some of the most elaborated and sexually dimorphic traits in animals. Although there is sexual dimorphism in the shape of human faces, it is not clear whether this is similarly due to mate choice, or whether mate choice affects only part of the...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global societal, economic, and social upheaval unseen in living memory. There have been substantial cross-national differences in the kinds of policies implemented by political decision-makers to prevent the spread of the virus, to test the population, and to manage infected patients. Among other factors, these po...

Number of romantic/sexual relationships is suggested as a proxy of potential reproductive success. Cross-culturally, both sexes desire playful long-term mates and playfulness predicts relationship quality. It is yet to be tested, however, if playfulness is associated with number of long- and short-term relationships. We hypothesised that specific p...

Well-being (vs. ill-being) might function as an internal guide for approaching (vs. avoiding) situations, strategies, and achievements that ancestrally led to higher (vs. lower) reproductive success. Indeed, coupled individuals report higher well-being than singles, while depressive individuals report lower mate value and higher sociosexuality. Her...

Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and you...

Objectives: To examine changes in planning, selecting, and preparing healthy foods in relation to personal factors (time, money, stress) and social distancing policies during the COVID-19 crisis. Methods: Using cross-sectional online surveys collected in 38 countries worldwide in April-June 2020 (N = 37,207, Mage 36.7 SD 14.8, 77% women), we compa...

Appearance modification is ancient, universal, and influences other- and selfperceptions. The role of expectation of appearance modification has never beeninvestigated. We analyzed self-assessments of women without makeup and after having makeup professionally applied at four increasing levels. In the simulation phase,women were treated with colorl...

Number of romantic/sexual relationships is suggested as a proxy of potential reproductive success. Cross-culturally, both sexes desire playful long-term mates and playfulness predicts relationship quality. It is yet to be tested, however, if playfulness is associated with number of long-term and short-term relationships. We hypothesized that specif...

Human sexual orientation is an intriguing phenomenon which is still poorly understood and has important evolutionary implications. Evolutionary based studies mostly focus on heterosexual individuals and relationships, probably because non-heterosexuality concerns a minority of the population and decreases individual direct reproductive success. To...

Human sexual orientation is an intriguing phenomenon which is still poorly understood and has important evolutionary implications. Evolutionary based studies mostly focus on heterosexual individuals and relationships, probably because non-heterosexuality concerns a minority of the population and decreases individual direct reproductive success. To...

Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear w...

Evidence suggests that personality may influence romantic relationship quality in several ways. Quality of relationship can be affected by an individual's personality (actor effect), partner's personality (partner effect), by discrepancy between ideal and actual partners' personalities (discrepancy effect), or by similarity between partners' person...

We developed a cascade model to reconstruct the hypothesized developmental progression from (a) increased resource instability during childhood to (b) decreased maternal sensitivity during childhood to (c) social vulnerability cognitive schemata to (d) faster Life History strategies to (e) decreased behavioral regulation to (f) more pronounced “Dar...

Jealousy promotes relationship maintenance by reducing partners’ extra-pair liaisons. On average, men report higher distress about their partner’s sexual infidelity, while women show higher emotional jealousy. These sex differences are specific to heterosexuals, and to contexts with potential reproductive costs. Here we tested the effect of sex and...