Sascha Schwarz

University of Wuppertal | Uni-Wuppertal, BUW ·  Psychologie

For nearly 70 years, studies have shown large sex differences in human mate selection preferences. However, most of the studies were restricted to a limited set of mate selection criteria and to college students, and neglecting relationship status. In this study, 21,245 heterosexual participants between 18 and 65 years of age (mean age 41) who at t...

Recent studies have shown that the color red enhances men?s sexual attraction to women. In this study, a sample of 60 young (M = 24.67 years) and 60 old male participants (M = 53.47 years) were presented either a young female target (perceived age: M = 23.67 years), or an old female target (perceived age: M = 48.18 years), either on a red or white...

The current literature shows mixed results regarding whether the perception of facial attractiveness is automatic, i.e. that it operates independently from attentional resources. We argue that an evolutionary perspective on mating strategies provides a comprehensive account of the findings. In two studies, we used the locus-of-slack logic in a psyc...

Sex differences in mating strategies and partner preferences are well established. However, most research solely focused on heterosexual women and men. We examined the mate selection, marriage, and age preferences of a sample of lesbian women, gay men, and bisexual women and men (LGB) who took part in an online dating survey. Additionally, we analy...

Wovon hängt der viel berühmte „erste Eindruck“ ab, wenn wir privat oder beruflich neuen Menschen begegnen? Und welchen Einfluss können unsere Eigenschaften und Bedürfnisse auf die Wahrnehmung einer anderen Person bei dieser Begegnung haben? Im folgenden Buchkapitel werden wir diesen Fragen nachgehen und dafür zunächst vorstellen, anhand welcher Dim...

In vielen Forschungsfeldern der Sozialwissenschaften wurde und wird versucht die Darwinische Evolutionstheorie in den eigenen Arbeitsbereich zu integrieren. Motivation und Nutzen der Integration können dabei von Forschungsfeld zu Forschungsfeld verschieden sein und reichen von der Berücksichtigung biologischer Grundlagen für soziale Phänomene bis z...

In vielen sozialwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen wurde mittlerweile das Potential der Darwinischen Evolutionstheorie erkannt und nicht selten hat diese Rezeption auch zur Herausbildung neuer Forschungsfelder geführt. So haben sich beispielsweise die Evolutionäre Psychologie, Evolutionäre Soziologie oder Evolutionäre Demografie als eigenständige Diszi...

Violations against mitigation actions to prevent the spreading of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19, such as not wearing a mask or not practicing social distancing, were seen as immoral and could also increase the likelihood of spreading the virus. In two studies (N1 = 318, N2 = 293), we found that moral and pathogen disgust sensitivity differe...

In this chapter, we review the literature on attractiveness by explaining the multifaceted nature of attractiveness and then focusing on physical attractiveness as it has a predominant impact on attractiveness.

In this chapter, we review the current literature on (a) the color red and perceived (sexual) attractiveness and (b) if (especially women) use red clothing to attract potential mates. We identify several limitations in the literature to draw the conclusion that red can be used as a mate attraction tactic. Keywords: Synonyms Red-romance effect; Red...

In recent years, researchers have discovered much about how disgust works, its neural basis, its relationship with immune function, its connection with mating, and some of its antecedents and consequents. Despite these advances in our understanding, an under-explored area is how disgust may be used to serve a communicative function, including how i...

The color red has been implicated in a variety of social processes, including those involving mating. While previous research suggests that women sometimes wear red strategically to increase their attractiveness, the replicability of this literature has been questioned. The current research is a reasonably powered conceptual replication designed to...

A more sustainable diet has been discussed as one desirable behavior to protect the environment. However, individual differences in personality traits and social processes related to the similarity-attraction hypothesis may oppose reduced meat consumption. We investigated these relationships by experimentally exposing 812 participants to one of eig...

We investigated the accuracy of gender stereotypes regarding digital game genre preferences. In Study 1, 484 female and male participants rated their preference for 17 game genres (gender differences). In Study 2, another sample of 226 participants rated the extent to which the same genres were presumably preferred by women or men (gender stereotyp...

We conducted two computer-mediated speed dating studies to evaluate personality perception based on language use in online dating and analyzed the data with Bayesian statistics. In each study, participants first reported mating-relevant personality traits (Big Five, sociosexual orientation) and we assessed their intelligence (N1 = 186, N2 = 618). S...

From an evolutionary perspective, the perception and interpretation of sexual advances depend on sex-specific mechanisms, individual differences in the perceivers' mating strategies, and the actor's attractiveness. In two studies (N = 1516), participants evaluated hypothetical situations of sexual advances from a coworker varying in attractiveness...

Sex differences in mating-relevant attitudes and behaviors are well established in the literature and seem to be robust throughout decades and cultures. However, recent research claimed that sex differences are "overrated", and individual differences in mating strategies (beyond sex) are more important than sex differences. In our current research,...

The original version of this article contained a mistake in Table 2.

Is the Social Network profile photo important when women need help? In two field experiments (N = 681), male and female participants received a help request from a woman of below-average, above-average (Study 1 and 2), or a woman of unknown physical attractiveness (Study 2). Men (but not women) responded more often, answered more detailed, and were...

The present article reports the results of a meta-analysis of nine student replication projects of Elliot et al.’s (2010) findings from Experiment 3, that women were more attracted to photographs of men with red borders (total 'n' = 640). The eight student projects were part of the Collaborative Replication and Education Project (CREP; https://osf....

„Frauen mögen Schnulzen – Männer wollen Action!“. Handelt es sich bei dieser Aussage um ein nichtzutreffendes Stereotyp über geschlechtsspezifische Filmpräferenzen oder spiegelt sie die Realität wider? Wenn die Aussage richtig ist: Sind die Unterschiede zwischen Männern und Frauen so groß, dass Männer vom Mars, Frauen von der Venus sind, wie uns po...

"Wenn zwei das Gleiche tun, ist das noch lange nicht dasselbe" sagt ein altes Sprichwort. Dies gilt auch für die Interpretation mehrdeutigen Verhaltens am Arbeitsplatz. In diesem Beitrag widmen wir uns der Frage, welche Faktoren aus einer evolutionspsychologischen Perspektive dazu beitragen können, ob ein mehrdeutiges Verhalten als sexuell belästig...

Das Buch nimmt sich eines Themas an, das die Gedanken im Grenzbereich zwischen evolutionären Grundlagen und deren aktuellen Manifestationen in der Kultur aufgreift und fortführt, nämlich Geschlecht und Geschlechterunterschiede in Erleben und Verhalten. Der erste Themenblock beschäftigt sich mit direkten Vergleichen zwischen männlichem und weibliche...

The present article reports the results of a meta-analysis of eight student replication projects of Elliot et al.’s (2010) Experiment 3. The eight student projects were part of the Collaborative Replication and Education Project (CREP; https://osf,io/wfc6u/), a research crowdsourcing project for undergraduate students. Studies to be replicated were...

Ästhetisches Gefühl ist eine weitgehend unbewusste Reaktion auf eine Wahrnehmung. Der Ausgangspunkt für eine darwinistische Ästhetik ist ein Erleben von Schönheit als Wahrnehmung optimierter Fitness. Mehrere evolutionär bedeutsame Bereiche sind betroffen: Einschätzungen der Umwelt, Partnerwahl, Berufserfolg, Artefakte, Medienereignisse u.a. Obgleic...

This study investigated the accuracy of gender-specific stereotypes about movie-genre preferences for 17 genres. In Study 1, female and male participants rated the extent to which 17 movie genres are preferred by women or men. In Study 2, another sample of female and male participants rated their own preference for each genre. There were three nota...

The present article focuses on the role of situational factors - such as the color red - and their influence on what humans notice in others. Humans form impressions of others instantly. These impressions are predominantly based on physical appearance, which is part due to a person’s search for indicators of a potential partner’s fitness. Attractiv...

The present article focuses on the role of situational factors - such as the color red - and their influence on what humans notice in others. Humans form impressions of others instantly. These impressions are predominantly based on physical appearance, which is part due to a person’s search for indicators of a potential partner’s fitness. Attractiv...

Evolutionary psychologists assume that grandparenthood is not only a social role (Kahana & Kahana, 1971), but has profound implications for reproductive success (Voland, Chasiotis, & Schiefenhövel, 2005). From birth on, children are highly dependable on their parents and require a great amount of parental investment (Trivers, 1972). According to th...

This section covers the questions, how the presence of children affects parental mate selection in a subsequent partner for a new relationship, and how children are expected to actively manipulate their parent in their mate preferences for a subsequent potential stepparent.

We investigated the impact of movie genre preferences on memory for movie content. Starting from a well-documented gender gap in movie preferences, we predicted that women would recall more contents from a romantic movie than from an action movie, whereas men were expected to recall more contents from an action movie than from a romantic movie. In...

in der bestehenden Literatur werden bereits verschiedene Einflussfaktoren beschrieben, die das Urteil der physischen Attraktivität beeinflussen. Evolutionspsychologische Ansätze fokussieren überwiegend auf Eigenschaften der Zielperson, d.h. welche Merkmale liegen in der betrachteten Person vor, damit ein Wahrnehmender zu einem Attraktivitätsurteil...

Asymmetric grandparental caregiving is usually explained by the paternity certainty hypothesis. Accordingly, the lower investment by grandfathers (GFs) and paternal grandparents, as compared to grandmothers (GMs) and maternal grandparents, is based on differential kinship certainty to grandchildren. Hence, differential caregiving by grandparents is...

Previous studies have shown that romantic partners and siblings are important attachment figures. This study compares the attachment to the romantic partner with the attachment to the sibling as a function of the participant’s sibling type among monozygotic (MZ) twins, dizygotic (DZ) twins, and non-twin (NT) siblings. The results show that MZ twins...

Zusammenfassung traditionell sehen verschiedene wissenschaftliche ansätze das Verhalten und erleben des Menschen als wesentlich z.b. von umwelt, Kultur, erziehung oder sozialisation geprägt. Komplementäre Perspektiven wie die der Verhaltensge-netik und der evolutionären Psychologie betonen hingegen die rolle geneti-scher Prädispositionen und (anzes...

Zusammenfassung Welche Menschen sehen besonders gut aus und welche eher nicht? Dies scheint ein zentrales Thema zu sein, mit denen sich Menschen anscheinend schon lange beschäftigen. Bereits in den Schriften von z.b. Platon oder Ovid finden sich erste überlieferte Auseinandersetzungen dazu. Ziel des vorliegenden Kapitels ist es, aus dieser sehr umf...

Unterscheiden sich Menschen dahingehend voneinander, ob sie eher langfristige Beziehungen wünschen, die z.B. durch Wärme und Geborgenheit gekennzeichnet sind (Langzeitorientierung), oder ob sie eher kurzfristige, sexuelle Abenteuer suchen (Kurzzeitorientierung)? Im Gegensatz zu eindimensionalen Messinstrumenten, die davon ausgehen, dass Menschen en...

Female fertility, which changes across the menstrual cycle, as an important factor in human mate choice has been in the scope of evolutionary psychological research for some time now. Many studies report effects of fertility on the female perception of many different mate choice-relevant traits, especially in short-term mating. One trait not studie...

Color research has shown that red is associated with avoidance of threat (e.g., failure) or approach of reward (e.g., mating) depending on the context in which it is perceived. In the present study we explored one central cognitive process that might be involved in the context dependency of red associations. According to our theory, red is supposed...

Applying sexual selection theory to language, it can be assumed that high verbal proficiency increases attractiveness, but male more than female attractiveness, because women have higher costs regarding reproduction and are thus more selective in mate choice. These predictions were tested experimentally. In the first study, videos were used as the...

Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt einen Überblick über evolutionspsychologische Ansätze zur Erklärung kultureller Leistungen. Die Evolutionspsychologie sieht, der Darwin’schen Evolutionstheorie folgend, in den Vorteilen eines Phänomens für Überleben (natürliche Selektion) und Reproduktion (sexuelle Selektion) die eigentliche Ursache für sein Entstehen un...

Darwins Theorie der sexuellen Selektion sagt, angewandt auf Sprache, voraus, dass sprachliche Gewandtheit attraktivitätssteigernd wirkt (Miller, 2001). Aufgrund geschlechtsdifferenter Reproduktionsbedingungen betrifft dies, so die weitere Vorhersage, männliche Attraktivität jedoch stärker als weibliche. Diese Annahmen wurden experimentell untersuch...

Traditionally, religion, art, and other human achievements are subsumed under the term culture, whereas other aspects of human life, like mate choice and reproduction in general, are considered to be merely a part of “human nature.” Like others before us, we propose that literature, religion, and presumably other cultural achievements may be placed...

Die Evolutionspsychologie hat in den letzten Jahren neue Einsichten über die Einflüsse weiblicher Fertilität auf das Verhalten und die Infor­mationsverarbeitung im Kontext von Partnerschaften ermöglicht. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen Einblick in den aktuellen Forschungsstand. Ausgehend von einigen wesentlichen Grundannahmen der evolutionspsych...

According to error management theory (EMT) [Haselton M.G., & Buss D.M. (2000). Error management theory: a new perspective on biases in cross-sex mind reading. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 81–91], evolved psychological mechanisms can lead to systematic cognitive errors whenever costs of false-positive and false-negative decision...

Recent studies have shown that preferences for close relationships (Long-Term Relationship Orientation) are independent of preferences for various sexual partners (Short-Term Relationship Orientation). In the current studies, we hypothesized that Short-Term Relationship Orientation would be negatively related to 2D:4D finger-length ratio (i.e., the...

Among laypersons and even among scientists, little agreement exists about the definition of sex. Using the prototype approach, the current research explored the prototypical structure of sex. Further, it examined important intersexual and intrasexual personal templates. In Study 1, 122 participants produced a list of 80 features for the concept sex...

Some empirical evidence suggests that women's sexual motivation varies throughout the menstrual cycle, showing a peak prior to ovulation. One potential byproduct of this increased desire might be a provocative clothing style during the fertile days of the cycle. We conducted a longitudinal diary study with 40 normally ovulating women throughout one...

Based on the prototype of relationship quality (Hassebrauck, 1997) we examined the dimensions of relationship quality. In a first study with a German sample based on a principle components analysis, four dimensions -- Intimacy, Agreement, Independence, and Sexuality -- underlying the prototype of relationship quality were identified. This four fact...

Unterscheiden sich Menschen dahingehend, ob sie eher langfristige Beziehungen wollen, die z. B. durch Wärme und Geborgenheit gekennzeichnet sind, oder ob sie eher kurzfristige, sexuelle Abenteuer suchen? Wenn ja - wie sind diese Unterschiede beschreibbar, erklärbar und aufgrund welcher ontogenetischen Faktoren entwickeln sie sich? Welche theoretisc...

Relationship Orientation is a new two-dimensional construct comprising preferences regarding long-term and short-term mating. In one cross-sectional study with 284 participants and one longitudinal study with 287 participants, the diagnostic properties as well as the convergent and discriminant validity of scales measuring short-term and long-term...

Sowohl die Wahl eines geeigneten Partners als auch das Eingehen von sexuellen Beziehungen mit diesem stellen besonders für Frauen ein enormes adaptives Problem dar: das Treffen einer falschen Entscheidung könnte in hohen Netto- Kosten resultieren. Darüber hinaus gibt es eine besonders vulnerable Phase im Verlauf eines jeden Monats im Leben einer Fr...

In vier Studien wurde der Einfluss des Geschlechts und der weiblichen Fertilität auf die Verarbeitung beziehungsrelevanter Informationen untersucht. Studie 1 zeigte, dass Frauen mehr über ihre Beziehungen nachdenken als Männer. Studie 2 versuchte, den zugrunde liegenden Prozess näher zu beleuchten, und untersucht diese Geschlechtsunterschiede in de...