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Homogamy, genetic similarity, and imprinting; parental influence on mate choice preferences
Abstract
Whereas the hypothesis of genetically mediated homogamy has been supported by several studies, certain theoretical and methodological criticisms have been raised against genetic similarity theory. As an alternative approach to assortative mating, we suppose that imprinting-like mechanisms, rather than “direct” genetic detection, are responsible for choosing similar spouses. In a study aimed at comparing more than 300 facial photographs of family members and controls, the judges correctly matched wives to their mother-in-law at a significantly higher rate than expected by chance. Furthermore, a higher degree of similarity was ascribed between the husbands’ mother and the husbands’ wife than between the husbands and their wives. A regression analysis has revealed that men who had been more frequently rejected by their mother during childhood were less likely to choose mates who resemble their mothers in physical appearance. These results suggest that under the influence of childhood experiences, sons internalize their mother’s phenotype as a template for acquiring similar mates.
... However, previous studies only focused on the education level of respondents and disregarded the influence of their parents' education level. The individual's own education level cannot fully determine the preference for mate selection because this preference can be traced back to childhood or even earlier (Bereczkei et al., 2002). ...
... Experiences in the family during early childhood have been found to have an impact on sexual preferences (Kim and Smith, 1998;Bereczkei and Csanaky, 2001;Bereczkei et al., 2002). According to attachment theory, parental influence plays a crucial role in children's future mate choice (Shaver and Mikulincer, 2002). ...
... For example, a study found that women who appeared more masculine were more likely to be team leaders than men (Lanaj and Hollenbeck, 2015). Bereczkei et al. (2002) believed that men internalize their mother's phenotype as a template for acquiring similar mates, suggesting that the mother's gender role characteristics affect men's mate preference. Regarding the choice of career, the level of education is an important factor. ...
Parents have an influence on the formation of their children’s mate preferences. This research conducted two studies to test the relationship between parents’ education level and the gender role characteristics (masculinity and femininity) of ideal mate for college students, and the moderating role of urban-rural residence on this relationship. In study 1, 1,033 participants (627 females) reported their explicit attitude toward gender role characteristics for an ideal mate via the Chinese Sex Role Inventory-50. In study 2, we recruited 130 participants (66 females) and used an implicit association test to measure their implicit attitude. Regression-based analyses showed that the higher education level of parents was significantly associated with female students’ mate preferences with high-femininity but low-masculinity traits. For male students, the higher education level of parents was associated with their explicit (not implicit) preferences of mates with high-masculinity but low-femininity traits. The significant moderating effect of urban-rural residence was observed in explicit preference, with the different patterns in gender groups. In conclusion, parents with higher educational attainment might bring up children who are more likely to embrace a partner with non-traditional gender roles (e.g., androgynous individuals, feminine men or masculine women).
... Parental effects on mate preferences and choices may be consequence of various processes, such as heritability of preferences, parents' active involvement in mate choice (e.g., Apostolou, 2007), and imprinting-like effects. According to Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, and Bernath (2002), positive imprinting-like effect is a genetically canalized learning mechanism, through which individuals during a sensitive period of ontogeny develop a template of their close relatives and consequently in adulthood prefer and/or potentially also choose mates who resemble their parents or other close individuals. Choosing a mate who is similar to one's own parents can be adaptive because parents have already proven that they can survive to adulthood and reproduce. ...
... Due to constrains on actual mate choice, mate preferences may not be fully translated into actual choice and indeed, several studies have reported substantial differences between partner preferences and actual partner choices (e.g., Štěrbová et al., 2017;Wincenciak et al., 2015). Further evidence for an imprinting-like effect on mate choice had shown that independent judges rate faces of women's husbands and their fathers as similar (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Bereczkei, Gyuris, & Weisfeld, 2004; but see Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012;Nojo, Tamura, & Ihara, 2012). In the same vein, women report that their partners have a similar eye color as their fathers do (Little, Penton-Voak, Burt, & Perrett, 2003;Wilson & Barrett, 1987; but see Saxton, 2016). ...
... A similarity has also been found between women's fathers' and women's current partners' level of hirsuteness (Rantala et al., 2010) and the extent of their facial hair (Dixson et al., 2012; but see, Valentova et al., 2017). Among men, similarities have been found between their wives' and their mothers' faces (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012; but see Nojo, Ihara, Furusawa, Akamatsu, & Ishida, 2011;Nojo et al., 2012), between the eye and hair color of their female partners and their mothers (Little et al., 2003), and between their partners' and their mothers' WHR, but no similarity has been reported between their partners' and mothers' buttock or breast size . Interestingly, however, a large study conducted on a sample of Australian twins found no parental effect on any of the examined traits (such as BMI, body height, personality) in actual partners (Zietsch, Verweij, Heath, & Martin, 2011). ...
Body constitution plays an important role in human mate choice. Cross-cultural research reports that women on average prefer men with muscular physique. It is still unclear, however, what mechanisms influence the inter-individual variation in mate preferences and choices of partner's physique. In this study, we tested the mechanisms of an imprinting-like effect (similarity between father and an ideal and actual partner) and of homogamy (similarity between self and an ideal and actual partner) for male physique in heterosexual women and homosexual men. To assess the variation in male physique, we employed somatotype paradigm which characterizes body constitution using three components: endomorphic (heavy-set), mesomorphic (muscular), and ectomorphic (lean). In total, 149. homosexual men and 769. heterosexual women from the Czech Republic indicated the somatotype of their father, ideal and actual partner, and in homosexual men also their own somatotype. In line with previous research, the somatotype most preferred by both men and women was the mesomorphic, followed by the ectomorphic and the endomorphic one. Women's preferences for an ideal partner somatotype weakly correlated with their fathers' somatotype, especially in women who reported a positive relationship with their fathers during childhood. Among homosexual men, we found imprinting-like preferences only for the ectomorphic somatotype component and no significant association with the quality of their relationships with their fathers. We also found no significant relationship between the fathers' and actual partners' somatotype in either heterosexual women or homosexual men. Our research indicates that fathers have a rather weak influence on mate preference for somatotypes and no influence on actual mate choice.
... Features found in parental faces might be one of the most useful cues to genetic similarity, particularly in the environment in which humans evolved, without frequent exposure to views of themselves in reflective surfaces. Data support this: several studies have found that people choose partners and prefer faces that resemble their parents (Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, & Bernath, 2002;Bereczkei, Gyuris, & Weisfeld, 2004;Dixson, Tam, & Awasthy, 2013;Heffernan & Fraley, 2013;Jedlicka, 1980;Jedlicka, 1984;Little, Penton-Voak, Burt, & Perrett, 2003;Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012;Perrett et al., 2002;Rantala, Polkki, & Rantala, 2010;Saxton, 2016;Seki, Ihara, & Aoki, 2012;Wilson & Barrett, 1987;Zei, Astolifi, & Jayakar, 1981; see also Fraley & Marks, 2010;Rantala & Marcinkowska, 2011;but see Nojo, Ihara, Furusawa, Akamatsu, & Ishida, 2011). ...
... The photographs were grouped so that six of the sets only contained younger brothers, six of the sets only contained older brothers, and two of the sets (one from the volunteer sample and one from the online sample) contained a mixture (3:1) of younger and older brothers. The photographs were arranged into tableaux following the methodology of previous work on preferences for parental resemblance in faces (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Bereczkei et al., 2004), and printed in colour on A4 sheets of paper. Photographs varied a little in size, but each was around 5 cm × 6 cm. ...
... Therefore, it is possible that our raters were not matching the photographs merely on facial structural similarity, but also on elements such as emotionality (perceived through facial expressions), and socio-economic status and cultural cues (perceived through clothing and hairstyle). Nevertheless, we note that previous research that used non-standardised photographs (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Bereczkei et al., 2004) to examine similarity between individuals' partners and their parents revealed similar results to research that used standardised photographs (Vukovic, Boothroyd, Meins, & Burt, 2015). Future research might undertake the logistically more complicated step of creating standardised photographs of all participants. ...
Research on optimal outbreeding describes the greater reproductive success experienced on average by couples who are neither too closely related, nor too genetically dissimilar. How is optimal outbreeding achieved? Faces that subtly resemble family members could present useful cues to a potential reproductive partner with an optimal level of genetic dissimilarity. Here, we present the first empirical data that heterosexual women select partners who resemble their brothers. Raters ranked the facial similarity between a woman's male partner, and that woman's brother compared to foils. In a multilevel ordinal logistic regression that modeled variability in both the stimuli and the raters, there was clear evidence for perceptual similarity in facial photographs of a woman's partner and her brother. That is, although siblings themselves are sexually aversive, sibling resemblance is not. The affective responses of disgust and attraction may be calibrated to distinguish close kin from individuals with some genetic dissimilarity during partner choice.
... People select partners who resemble their parents, and in particular their opposite-sex parent. Independent judges perceive similarity between the face of a woman's husband and her father (Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, & Bernath, 2002;Bereczkei, Gyuris, & Weisfeld, 2004; see also Fraley & Marks, 2010; but see Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012;Nojo, Ihara, Furusawa, Akamatsu, & Ishida, 2011;Nojo, Tamura, & Ihara, 2012), and between the face of a man's wife and his mother (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012; but see Nojo et al., 2011Nojo et al., , 2012. People with older parents have stronger preferences for faces that look older (Heffernan & Fraley, 2013;Perrett et al., 2002;Wilson & Barrett, 1987;Zei, Astolfi, & Jayakar, 1981). ...
... People select partners who resemble their parents, and in particular their opposite-sex parent. Independent judges perceive similarity between the face of a woman's husband and her father (Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, & Bernath, 2002;Bereczkei, Gyuris, & Weisfeld, 2004; see also Fraley & Marks, 2010; but see Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012;Nojo, Ihara, Furusawa, Akamatsu, & Ishida, 2011;Nojo, Tamura, & Ihara, 2012), and between the face of a man's wife and his mother (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012; but see Nojo et al., 2011Nojo et al., , 2012. People with older parents have stronger preferences for faces that look older (Heffernan & Fraley, 2013;Perrett et al., 2002;Wilson & Barrett, 1987;Zei, Astolfi, & Jayakar, 1981). ...
... Preferences for parent-similar features extend beyond faces, to body hair (Rantala, Pölkki, & Rantala, 2010) and to height (Seki, Ihara, & Aoki, 2012). These preferences appear to be acquired based on people's interactions with their parents; people who report better relationships with their parents tend to have stronger preferences for faces that resemble those parents (Wiszewska, Pawlowski, & Boothroyd, 2007; see also Kocsor, Gyuris, & Bereczkei, 2013;Saxton, 2016;Vukovic, Boothroyd, Meins, & Burt, 2015;Watkins et al., 2011), and these preferences are also reflected in their actual mate choice (Bereczkei et al., 2002(Bereczkei et al., , 2004 but see Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012;Nojo et al., 2012). This suggests an imprinting-like mechanism that influences mate-choice preferences in adulthood, and that consists of a predisposition to learn certain physical and behavioral cues of the individuals that one is exposed to during childhood and adolescence. ...
Several studies have found that individuals select partners who resemble their parents. The evidence for this effect seems stronger in relation to opposite-sex than same-sex parents, although the ultimate-level biological explanations put forward to explain these preferences do not seem to require that they need to be built on the appearance of the opposite-sex parent, rather than any other immediate family member. We set out to revisit this question, while assessing face preferences rather than partner choice. Face preferences might uncover more subtle effects than partner choice, as they can elucidate preferences in an unconstrained environment. We presented participants with faces manipulated to resemble their mother, father or self, but did not find that they selected these faces as more suitable for relationships than control faces. However, consistent with previous work, participants who reported less childhood rejection by their opposite-sex parent selected faces that resembled that parent significantly more frequently than control faces. Taken together with previous work, opposite-sex parental faces seem more important than same-sex parental faces in shaping partner preferences, and childhood relationships seem to modify potential attraction to parent-resembling faces. Despite some inconsistent findings, this effect has been detected across the different methodologies used to assess preferences.
... A number of studies have been conducted to look for an association between parental features and sexual or partner preferences in humans. Most of these studies found a relationship between the opposite-sex parent and partner preferences in both men (Jedlicka 1980 ;Bereczkei et al. 2002 ;Perrett et al. 2002 ;Little et al. 2003 ) and women (Jedlicka 1980 ;Zei et al. 1981 ;Wilson and Barrett 1987 ;Perrett et al. 2002 ;Little et al. 2003 ;Bereczkei et al. 2004 ;Wiszewska et al. 2007 ). Perrett et al. ( 2002 ) found a predominantly maternal influence on male preferences but an influence of both the father and the mother on female preferences. ...
... Little et al. ( 2003 ) also found a paternal influence on the partner preferences of heterosexual men. Although sexual imprinting has been suggested as a mechanism behind the observed parental influences on sexual preferences (Zei et al. 1981 ;Wilson and Barrett 1987 ;Bereczkei et al. 2002Bereczkei et al. , 2004Little et al. 2003 ;Wiszewska et al. 2007 ), other explanations are possible. For instance, a preference for individuals resembling the opposite-sex parent could potentially be the effect of a genetically determined preference for selfsimilar individuals (phenotype matching) (e.g., Bereczkei et al. 2002 ;Wiszewska et al. 2007 ). ...
... Although sexual imprinting has been suggested as a mechanism behind the observed parental influences on sexual preferences (Zei et al. 1981 ;Wilson and Barrett 1987 ;Bereczkei et al. 2002Bereczkei et al. , 2004Little et al. 2003 ;Wiszewska et al. 2007 ), other explanations are possible. For instance, a preference for individuals resembling the opposite-sex parent could potentially be the effect of a genetically determined preference for selfsimilar individuals (phenotype matching) (e.g., Bereczkei et al. 2002 ;Wiszewska et al. 2007 ). Bereczekei et al. ( 2004 ) ruled out an explanation in terms of genetically determined preferences by looking at the preferences of adopted daughters. ...
Traditionally, evolutionary psychology has conceptualized sexual
preferences as genetically determined adaptations, enabling organisms
to single out high quality partners. In this chapter, I argue that the
existence of paraphilias, such as fetishism, poses a serious problem for
such traditional evolutionary accounts. My own proposal revives the
ethological notion of sexual imprinting – a process observed in
animals where sexual preferences are acquired through experience
with parents and siblings during a sensitive period in early life.
Although this process usually generates biologically functional
preferences for conspecifics, in certain situations another species or
even artefacts can be imprinted on. Acknowledging that it is difficult
to provide evidence for the existence of sexual imprinting in humans
(and to design studies that would generate such evidence), I suggest
that sexual imprinting may provide an explanation for both common
and uncommon human sexual preferences.
Read here:
https://books.google.se/books?id=pPUvOgqT1yMC&lpg=PR4&hl=sv&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q&f=false
... Mężczyźni i kobiety, które w dzieciństwie miały lepsze relacje z rodzicem płci przeciwnej (więcej ciepła emocjonalnego, brak poczucia odrzucenia), w dorosłości wykazują silniejszą preferencję dla twarzy podobnych do twarzy tych rodziców (BERECZKEI et al. 2002WISZEWSKA et al. 2007). WISZEWSKA et al. (2007) nie znaleźli związku między dobrocią relacji z rodzicem a obecnością rodzica w domu, zatem powyższe wyniki nie są efektem ekspozycji na twarz, która była mniej lub więcej widywana. ...
... 1. Twarz żony mężczyzny jest bardziej podobna do twarzy jego matki niż do jego własnej twarzy (BERECZKEI et al. 2002). ...
... Istnienie preferencji tylko dla twarzy podobnych do twarzy rodzica przeciwnej, a nie własnej płci, podważa hipotezę, że preferowanie osobników podobnych jest formą altruizmu krewniaczego lub, że jest to prosta preferencja dla znajomo wyglądających twarzy (efekt ekspozycji). Tym bardziej, że w kilku badaniach wykazano, iż preferencja dla twarzy podobnych do twarzy rodzica płci przeciwnej jest dodatnio związana z jakością relacji z tym rodzicem w okresie dzieciństwa (BERECZKEI et al. 2002WISZEWSKA et al. 2007. Brak związku między dobrocią relacji z rodzicem a obecnością rodzica w domu (WISZEWSKA et al. 2007) dodatkowo oddala możliwość, że za obserwowane preferencje odpowiada efekt ekspozycji na twarz, która była mniej lub więcej widywana. ...
A newer version of the Polish text which has been published (in somewhat shortened form) as two English-language papers: "Facial attractiveness: General patterns of facial preferences" and "Facial attractiveness: Variation, adaptiveness and consequences of facial preferences".
... In humans we usually find a preference for similar mates. Except of one study that showed a preference for dissimilar mates in the context of a short term relationship (DeBruine, 2005), studies usually find that humans prefer a mate that resembles themselves in many traits, including facial characteristic (Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, & Bernath, 2002;Bereczkei, Gyuris, & Weisfeld, 2004;Griffths & Kunz, 1973 ;Zajonc, Adelmann, Murphy, & Niendenthal, 1987 ). This kind of phenotypic matching has been termed sexual imprinting (Bateson, 1978) and is one aspect by which animals and humans seem to choose their mates in order to ensure high reproductive success. ...
... On the other hand, observational studies have shown that human romantic partners tend to resemble each other in many traits, including facial characteristics (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Bereczkei et al., 2004). Imprinting-like mechanisms have been suggested to account for this effect (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Daly, 1989): Cross-fostering studies with animals and adoption studies with humans have revealed that animals and humans prefer sexual partners that are similar to the opposite sex-parent that reared them (Immelmann, Pröve, Lassek, & Bischof, 1991;Oetting, Pröve, & Bischof, 1995). ...
... On the other hand, observational studies have shown that human romantic partners tend to resemble each other in many traits, including facial characteristics (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Bereczkei et al., 2004). Imprinting-like mechanisms have been suggested to account for this effect (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Daly, 1989): Cross-fostering studies with animals and adoption studies with humans have revealed that animals and humans prefer sexual partners that are similar to the opposite sex-parent that reared them (Immelmann, Pröve, Lassek, & Bischof, 1991;Oetting, Pröve, & Bischof, 1995). This is believed to be due to a fixation to a set of family characteristics that later shape mate preferences during adulthood. ...
Stress is a common phenomenon for animals living in the wild, but also for humans in modern societies. Originally, the body's stress response is an adaptive reaction to a possibly life-threatening situation, and it has been shown to impact on energy distribution and metabolism, thereby increasing the chance of survival. However, stress has also been shown to impact on mating behaviour and reproductive strategies in animals and humans. This work deals with the effect of stress on reproductive behavior. Up to now, research has only focused on the effects of stress on reproduction in general. The effects of stress on reproduction may be looked at from two points of view. First, stress affects reproductive functioning by endocrine (e.g. glucocorticoid) actions on the reproductive system. However, stress can also influence reproductive behavior, i.e. mate choice and mating preferences. Animals and humans do not mate randomly, but exhibit preferences towards mating partners. One factor by which animals and humans choose their mating partners is similarity vs. dissimilarity: Similar mates usually carry more of one's own genes and the cooperation between similar mates is, at least theoretically, less hampered by expressing diverse behaviors. By mating with dissimilar mates on the other hand one may acquire new qualities for oneself, but also for one's offspring, useful to cope with environmental challenge. In humans we usually find a preference for similar mates. Due to the high costs of breeding, variables like cooperation and life-long partnerships may play a greater role than the acquaintance of new qualities.rnThe present work focuses on stress effects on mating preferences of humans and will give a first answer to the question whether stress may affect our preference for similar mates.rnStress and mating preferences are at the centre of this work. Thus, in the first Chapter I will give an introduction on stress and mating preferences and link these topics to each other. Furthermore, I will give a short summary of the studies described in Chapter II - Chapter IV and close the chapter with a general discussion of the findings and directions for further research on stress and mating preferences.rnHuman mating behavior is complex, and many aspects of it may not relate to biology but social conventions and education. This work will not focus on those aspects but rather on cognitive and affective processing of erotic and sexually-relevant stimuli, since we assume that these aspects of mating behaviour are likely related to psychobiological stress mechanisms. Therefore, a paradigm is needed that measures such aspects of mating preferences in humans. The studies presented in Chapter II and Chapter III were performed in order to develop such a paradigm. In these studies we show that affective startle modulation may be used to indicate differences in sexual approach motivation to potential mating partners with different similarity levels to the participant.rnIn Chapter IV, I will describe a study that aimed to investigate the effects of stress on human mating preferences. We showed that stress reverses human mating preferences: While unstressed individuals show a preference for similar mates, stressed individuals seem to prefer dissimilar mates.rnOverall, the studies presented in this work showed that affective startle modulation can be employed to measure mating preferences in humans and that these mating preferences are influenced by stress.rn
... On the other hand, observational studies have shown that human romantic partners tend to resemble each other in many traits, including facial characteristics (Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, & Bernath, 2002;Bereczkei, Gyuris, & Weisfeld, 2004). Imprinting-like mechanisms have been suggested to account for this effect (Bereczkei, et al., 2002;Daly, 1989): Crossfostering studies with animals and adoption studies with humans have revealed that animals and humans prefer sexual partners that are similar to the opposite sex-parent that reared them (Immelmann, Pröve, Lassek, & Bischof, 1991;Oetting, Pröve, & Bischof, 1995). ...
... On the other hand, observational studies have shown that human romantic partners tend to resemble each other in many traits, including facial characteristics (Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, & Bernath, 2002;Bereczkei, Gyuris, & Weisfeld, 2004). Imprinting-like mechanisms have been suggested to account for this effect (Bereczkei, et al., 2002;Daly, 1989): Crossfostering studies with animals and adoption studies with humans have revealed that animals and humans prefer sexual partners that are similar to the opposite sex-parent that reared them (Immelmann, Pröve, Lassek, & Bischof, 1991;Oetting, Pröve, & Bischof, 1995). This is believed to be due to a fixation to a set of family characteristics that later shape mate preferences during adulthood. ...
... Our results are in line with the findings that human romantic partners tend to resemble each other, indicating a preference for similar mates (Bereczkei, et al., 2002;Bereczkei, et al., 2004). However, our results are not compatible with the findings of Debruine (2005), who showed that facial-self-resemblance decreased attractiveness in the context of a short-term relationship and had no effect on attractiveness in the context of a long-term relationship. ...
Startle reactions are fast, reflexive, and defensive responses which protect the body from injury in the face of imminent danger. The underlying reflex is basic and can be found in many species. Even though it consists of only a few synapses located in the brain stem, the startle reflex offers a valuable research method for human affective, cognitive, and psychological research. This is because of moderating effects of higher mental processes such as attention and emotion on the response magnitude: affective foreground stimulation and directed attention are validated paradigms in startle-related research.
This work presents findings from three independent research studies that deal with (1) the application of the established “affective modulation of startle”-paradigm to the novel setting of attractiveness and human mating preferences, (2) the question of how different components of the startle response are affected by a physiological stressor and (3) how startle stimuli affect visual attention towards emotional stimuli. While the first two studies treat the startle response as a dependent variable by measuring its response magnitude, the third study uses startle stimuli as an experimental manipulation and investigates its potential effects on a behavioural measure.
The first chapter of this thesis describes the basic mechanisms of the startle response as well as the body of research that sets the foundation of startle research in psychophysiology. It provides the rationale for the presented studies, and offers a short summary of the obtained results. Chapter two to four represent primary research articles that are published or in press. At the beginning of each chapter the contribution of all authors is explained. The references for all chapters are listed at the end of this thesis.
The overall scope of this thesis is to show how the human startle response is modulated by a variety of factors, such as the attractiveness of a potential mating partner or the exposure to a stressor. In conclusion, the magnitude of the startle response can serve as a measure for such psychological states and processes. Beyond the involuntary, physiological startle reflex, startle stimuli also affect intentional behavioural responses, which we could demonstrate for eye movements in a visual attention paradigm.
... Parental effects on mate preferences and choices may be consequence of various processes, such as heritability of preferences, parents' active involvement in mate choice (e.g., Apostolou, 2007), and imprinting-like effects. According to Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, and Bernath (2002), positive imprinting-like effect is a genetically canalized learning mechanism, through which individuals during a sensitive period of ontogeny develop a template of their close relatives and consequently in adulthood prefer and/or potentially also choose mates who resemble their parents or other close individuals. Choosing a mate who is similar to one's own parents can be adaptive because parents have already proven that they can survive to adulthood and reproduce. ...
... Due to constrains on actual mate choice, mate preferences may not be fully translated into actual choice and indeed, several studies have reported substantial differences between partner preferences and actual partner choices (e.g., Štěrbová et al., 2017;Wincenciak et al., 2015). Further evidence for an imprinting-like effect on mate choice had shown that independent judges rate faces of women's husbands and their fathers as similar (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Bereczkei, Gyuris, & Weisfeld, 2004; but see Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012;Nojo, Tamura, & Ihara, 2012). In the same vein, women report that their partners have a similar eye color as their fathers do (Little, Penton-Voak, Burt, & Perrett, 2003;Wilson & Barrett, 1987; but see Saxton, 2016). ...
... A similarity has also been found between women's fathers' and women's current partners' level of hirsuteness (Rantala et al., 2010) and the extent of their facial hair (Dixson et al., 2012; but see, Valentova et al., 2017). Among men, similarities have been found between their wives' and their mothers' faces (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012; but see Nojo, Ihara, Furusawa, Akamatsu, & Ishida, 2011;Nojo et al., 2012), between the eye and hair color of their female partners and their mothers (Little et al., 2003), and between their partners' and their mothers' WHR, but no similarity has been reported between their partners' and mothers' buttock or breast size . Interestingly, however, a large study conducted on a sample of Australian twins found no parental effect on any of the examined traits (such as BMI, body height, personality) in actual partners (Zietsch, Verweij, Heath, & Martin, 2011). ...
Previous studies have demonstrated that female preferences can be influenced by father’s appearance and that the quality of relationship with the father can impact the strength of this influence. Few studies have examined these effects on somatotype preferences and limited data exists on the parental effects on the partner preferences of homosexuals. The aims of this study were to test if the father’s appearance predicted somatotype in the ideal and actual partners of both heterosexual women and homosexual men, and if partner preferences and choices are modulated by the quality of relationship with father during childhood. Heterosexual females and homosexual males selected which somatotype best matched the somatotype of their ideal partner and that of their father as well as rating the quality of the relationship with their father during childhood. Results indicated that somatotype dimensions of both the ideal partner and the father were significantly correlated in a positive direction for heterosexual women but not for homosexual men. Relationship quality with the father significantly predicted the somatotype similarity of ideal partner and father for heterosexual women but not homosexual men. Results suggest that relationship quality with ones father impacts imprinting influences for heterosexual women but not homosexual men.
... Adults tend to be attracted to physical features that bear resemblance to those of their parents. For example, people choose partners, and are attracted to faces, that show some facial resemblance to their other-sex parent (Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, & Bernath, 2002, Bereczkei, Gyuris, & Weisfeld, 2004Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012;Wiszewska, Pawlowski, & Boothroyd, 2007; see also Fraley & Marks, 2010; but see Nojo, Ihara, Furusawa, Akamatsu, & Ishida, 2011, Nojo, Tamura, & Ihara, 2012. This phenomenon has also been tested in adopted women, who were found to have chosen marriage partners who tended to resemble their adoptive father (Bereczkei et al., 2004), suggesting that the entire phenomenon cannot be explained as arising from heritable preferences, nor from preferences for faces that resemble the self (as biological offspring resemble their father). ...
... Similarly, the amount of body hair on a woman's partner and father were found to be correlated, and a woman's preference for body hair correlated with the hairiness of her father (Rantala, Polkki, & Rantala, 2010); a woman's partner and father were found to have similar levels of facial hair (Dixson, Tam, & Awasthy, 2013); and the height of an individual's other-sex parent predicted their individual preferences for the height of an ideal partner (Seki, Ihara, & Aoki, 2012). Further, these preferences for faces that resemble one's other-sex parent are stronger when people report that they had a good relationship with their parent in childhood (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Wiszewska et al., 2007; see also Kocsor, Gyuris, & Bereczkei, 2013;Vukovic, Boothroyd, Meins, & Burt, 2015;Watkins et al., 2011; but see Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012;Nojo et al., 2012). ...
... This question followed Watkins et al. (2011), who found that participants' reports of their father's emotional support using this question predicted the extent to which participants preferred self-resemblance in other-sex faces. This single-item measure appears to measure the same underlying construct as longer questionnaires of parental investment (Watkins et al., 2011), including the EMBU which has been used by other researchers who examined a link between childhood closeness to parents and preferences for parental features (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Nojo et al., 2012). Although retrospective reports suffer some limitations, measures of parental bonding have good test-retest reliability (Gerlsma, Das, & Emmelkamp, 1993, Gerlsma, Kramer, Scholing, & Emmelkamp, 1994Wilhelm & Parker, 1990), and scores on a measure of maternal attachment were fairly well-matched between children aged 7-11 reflecting on their current relationship with their mother and those same children seven years later reflecting back to that period (Cournoyer & Rohner, 1996). ...
Much research has documented how people’s face preferences vary, but we do not know whether there is a specific sensitive period during development when some individual differences in face preferences become established. This study investigates which specific developmental phases may be instrumental in forming individual differences in face preferences in adulthood. The study design is based on the established finding that people tend to be attracted to facial features that resemble those of their other-sex parent, particularly if they report a close childhood relationship with that parent. Accordingly, if individual differences in adult facial preferences (specifically, preferences for faces that resemble one’s parents) are formed during specific developmental stages, then only the quality of the parental relationship in those stages should predict adult preferences for facial features that resemble one’s parents. Adult participants reported the emotional support received from their parents during three different developmental phases and at the current time, and they reported the hair and eye colour of their ideal and actual partner, and their parents and selves. The study found that a woman’s retrospectively reported greater emotional support from her mother or father after menarche predicted significantly stronger preferences for partners whose eye colour was closer to that of the parent. In contrast, emotional support prior to menarche predicted greater dissimilarity between the eye colour of the parent and a woman’s preferred partner. These results indicate a possible interplay of positive and negative sexual imprinting that may arise from adaptations to promote optimal outbreeding. The study also found that parental hair colour, and in particular maternal hair colour, predicted women’s preferences for hair colour in a partner, although this may have been driven by ethnic group matching. The results of the study suggest that experiences during specific childhood and adolescent developmental periods may have longstanding effects on individual differences in human facial preferences.
Full text available online (open access): http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513815000598
... Another predictor of individual differences in partner choice is family resemblance, particularly in relation to the parent whose gender matches that of the partner, and particularly if the individual has a good relationship with that parent. Thus, research has shown that people's partners resemble their family members in aspects, such as eye color, hair color, height, body hair, and general facial appearance (Bereczkei et al., 2002(Bereczkei et al., , 2004Bressan, 2020;Bressan & Damien, 2018;DeBruine et al., 2017;Little et al., 2003;Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012;Saxton, 2016;Saxton et al., 2017;Valentova et al., 2017;Wilson & Barrett, 1987;Wiszewska et al., 2007;see Štěrbová et al. [2017], however, for weaker effects found in same-sex parents and homosexual individuals). That is, to some extent, individual differences in partner choice are systematic and predictable. ...
... Further, physical similarity may engender feelings of trust (DeBruine, 2005). Heritability of partner choice could also be a factor, with some evidence suggesting an "imprintinglike" effect can be seen in humans (e.g., Bereczkei et al., 2002Bereczkei et al., , 2004Zietch et al., 2011;however cf. Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012). ...
Studies have indicated that people are attracted to partners who resemble themselves or their parents, in terms of physical traits including eye color. We might anticipate this inclination to be relatively stable, giving rise to a sequential selection of similar partners who then represent an individual’s “type”. We tested this idea by examining whether people’s sequential partners resembled each other at the level of eye color. We gathered details of the eye colors of the partners of participants (N = 579) across their adult romantic history (N = 3250 relationships), in three samples, comprising two samples which made use of self-reports from predominantly UK-based participants, and one which made use of publicly available information about celebrity relationship histories. Recorded partner eye colors comprised black (N = 39 partners), dark brown (N = 884), light brown (N = 393), hazel (N = 224), blue (N = 936), blue green (N = 245), grey (N = 34), and green (N = 229). We calculated the proportion of identical eye colors within each participant’s relationship history, and compared that to 100,000 random permutations of our dataset, using t-tests to investigate if the eye color of partners across an individual’s relationship history was biased relative to chance (i.e., if there was greater consistency, represented by higher calculated proportions of identical eye colors, in the original dataset than in the permutations). To account for possible eye color reporting errors and ethnic group matching, we ran the analyses restricted to White participants and to high-confidence eye color data; we then ran the analyses again in relation to the complete dataset. We found some limited evidence for some consistency of eye color across people’s relationship histories in some of the samples only when using the complete dataset. We discuss the issues of small effect sizes, partner-report bias, and ethnic group matching in investigating partner consistency across time.
... This would be in line with predictions based on the reason-based choice framework proposed by Shafir et al. (1993). Previous research has consistently shown that there is a preference for homophily when individuals are asked to seek a positive reason to pair individuals (Griffiths et al., 1973;Zajonc et al., 1987;Hinsz, 1989;Bereczkei et al., 2002;Bereczkei et al., 2004). Conversely, this means that homophily will not be used as a "reason" to reject certain pairings, precisely because homophily is seen as positive factor. ...
... This would be in line with predictions based on the reason-based choice framework proposed by Shafir et al. (1993). As previous research has consistently shown that there is a preference for homophily when individuals are asked to seek a positive reason to pair individuals (Griffiths et al., 1973;Zajonc et al., 1987;Hinsz, 1989;Bereczkei et al., 2002;Bereczkei et al., 2004). Of course this reason-based choice framework is a post-hoc interpretation of these results and would need further experiments that are specifically designed to test it. ...
Our relation to our kin shapes much of our social world. It's no surprise then, that how we recognize and react to our own kin has been a widely investigated topic. In particular, when tackling direct kin recognition, facial similarity has emerged as a putative cue of relatedness. In this thesis, I investigate whether or not the same can be said for third party kin recognition. Split between two lines of research, we explore individuals' predictions of nepotistic and mating behavior} in third party scenarios using facial stimuli. These two domains provide the backbone of our research. Categorization must serve action. So, what would strengthen the notion of a presence of third-party kin recognition in humans? Facial similarity \emph{must have} a context-dependent effect on participants predictions, susceptible to valence changes in scenarios and switches from the prosocial and mate choice domains. This is precisely what we set out to do with our two lines of research. Though our literature review revealed that when context is starved participants seem to be able to detect similarity and seemingly connect it to relatedness. Our nepotism and mating series of experiments, by re-inserting context, offers us a different conclusion altogether. Within scenarios in which valence is modified and our participants analysis is bounded by predictions made by kin selection, their choices do no reflect a connection between similarity and relatedness.
... Instead, the most satisficing solution may be to partner with someone who is equal in intelligence. The balancing of these costs and benefits may be responsible for the well-documented homogamy in mate selection for intelligence (Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, & Bernath, 2002;Buss, 1985;Thiessen & Gregg, 1980), but suggests homogamy is an emergent effect of competing interests instead of something sought out a priori (Watson et al., 2004). To test this satisficing hypothesis, we predict that (1) less intelligent partners will be the least desirable but (2) more intelligent partners will not be any more desirable than partners who are equal in intelligence. ...
... In contrast, a partner who was relatively more intelligent comes with her/his own set of costs like a greater probability of defection and even a sense of superiority, both which may also be dealbreakers. This apparently nonlinear function of level of intelligence creates a balancing point whereby people prefer partners of equal intelligence (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Buss, 1985;Thiessen & Gregg, 1980). Nevertheless, there were sex differences in desirability that tracked the long-term/short-term distinction brought to our attention by sexual strategies theory (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). ...
There has been a recent surge of research on the role of intelligence in mate preferences. To advance this area of research, in two online studies (N = 743), we manipulated relative, as opposed to absolute, intelligence and examined desirability in long-term and short-term relationships. In Study 1, we also examined the role of mate value towards understanding differences in desirability and, in Study 2, we also manipulated target's level of physical attractiveness. The sexes found less intelligent partners less desirable, a more intelligent partner was no more desirable than partner who was equal in intelligence, and intelligence was particularly valued as a long-term mate. In addition, mate value was correlated with rejecting less intelligent mates and desiring more intelligent ones in women only. And, last, we found that once men and women found sufficient rates of attractiveness for their short-term partners, they care about the intelligence of their partner.
... Although it is not clear whether people do really have 'their type', i.e. whether they systematically choose partners who possess specific traits, several studies have investigated various mechanisms that affect mate choice. One such possible factor is an imprinting-like effect, a process whereby individuals internalise certain characteristics of their parent and later use these parent-related characteristics as a template for choosing their mates (Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, & Bernath, 2002; for a review, see Rantala & Marcinkowska, 2011). This imprinting-like effect may be a prerequisite for consistency in mate choice, since individuals learn the characteristics they later prefer. ...
... Therefore, we should expect a balance between mating with a partner who is too different or too similar, what has been termed optimal outbreeding (Bateson, 1983). A balance between positive and negative imprinting may be one of the results of these antagonistic tendencies, whereby positive sexual imprinting causes a preference for and choice of parentsimilar partners (Bereczkei et al., 2002), while negative sexual imprinting causes sexual aversion to individuals categorised as close genetic relatives (Westermarck, 1921). ...
Partner preferences are formed by several mechanisms, including an imprinting-like effect (parent-similarity) and homogamy (self-similarity). It is still unknown, however, whether these preferences remain stable throughout an individual's lifetime. We have therefore tested the consistency of mate choice in eye and hair colour both in a shortand long-term context. In other words, we tested whether people systematically choose partners with a particular eye and hair colour. We asked 1,048 respondents to indicate the eye and hair colour of themselves, their opposite-sex and same-sex parent, and all the romantic partners they had in their lives. Our results show that people consistently choose partners of a particular eye and hair colour in both short- and long-term contexts, which suggests that people do have their ‘types’. Nevertheless, the consistency was significantly higher in a long-term context than in a short-term context. Furthermore, the eye colour of one's partner was predicted by the eye colour of one's opposite-sex as well as same-sex parent, but the strongest parental effect was found when both parents had same eye colour. There were no significant results for hair colour. Our results thus suggest that preferences for eye colour are determined by the imprinting-like effect rather than by homogamy, and that they remain stable over time. These findings also indirectly support an assumption of stability of this imprinting-like effect in humans, since people consistently choose partners with their opposite-sex parent's eye-colour.
... Since there is evidence that parent-child attachment influences adult romantic relationships (Cassidy, 2000), attachment could also plays a role in sexual imprinting, yet this relationship has yet to be demonstrated. Previous research has found that the strength of the relationship to one's opposite-sex parent (OSP) influences the strength of sexual imprinting; individuals who view their OSP positively are likely to have more similarities between their mate and their opposite-sex parent than individuals who view their parent negatively (Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves, & Bernath, 2002;Bereczkei et al., 2004;Gyuris et al., 2010). Specifically, this study predicts that those who are securtely attached will have more similiarities between their OSP and their ideal mate compared to those who are insecurely attached. ...
... Overall these results provide some support for prior work (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Bereczkei et al., 2004;Gyuris et al., 2010) finding a relationship between attachment style and OSP template use, but it also indicates that important qualifications may be necessary for that relationship in terms of strength and sex-specificity. Whereas previous work supports that an individual's early environment influences short-term mating strategies, which in turn would increase the likelihood that one would be more flexible in choosing a mate (Belsky et al., 1991;Ellis et al., 2009;Hill et al., 1994), we found no evidence of early environment harshness or unpredictability as an influence on trait ratings of ideal or merely acceptable mates. ...
Animal and human studies have suggested that some individuals use sexual imprinting, in which a template is created based on traits of one's opposite-sex parent (OSP), to assist in choosing potential mates. The current study investigates the role of parental attachment and early environment in the variance of using a sexual imprinted template. Two hundred twenty-nine undergraduate students from a Midwestern university completed the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire (Rohner, 1990), answered questions on early environment, and rated traits of their opposite-sex parent, ideal partner, and acceptable partner. Results show varying evidence for sexual imprinting. In particular, there are correlations between secure attachment and stricter adherence to an opposite-sex parent template, especially for women, but no association between early environment and template variance.
... As a result, we have had many interesting discussions with our students about testing for resemblance between family members. Students are also interested to hear about research into resemblance for non-related family members and pets; such as the debate about whether dogs resemble their owners (Roy and Christenfeld 2004;Levine 2005;Roy and Christenfeld 2005) and evidence for resemblance between husbands and wives and between wives and their mother-in-laws (Bereczkei, Gyuris, P., Koves, and Bernath 2002). ...
... We found many studies in the literature focused on the general question of resemblance, for example, between parents and children (Alvergne et al. 2007;Christenfeld and Hill 1995), dogs and owners (Roy and Christenfeld 2004;Levine 2005;Roy and Christenfeld 2005), and husbands and wives and wives and mothers-in-law (Bereczkei et al. 2002). We ...
In this article, we present a study to test whether neutral observers perceive a resemblance between a parent and a child. We demonstrate the general approach for two separate parent/child pairs using survey data collected from introductory statistics students serving as neutral observers. We then present ideas for incorporating the study design process, data collection, and analysis into different statistics courses from introductory to graduate level.
... A handful of studies have found correlations between parental features and real or ideal partners for eye and hair colour (Little et al. 2003), ethnicity (Jedlicka 1980), nativity (Jedlicka 1984), facial features (Bereczkei et al. 2002, Bereczkei et al. 2004, Wiszewska et al. 2007, and age (Wilson and Barrett 1987, Zei et al. 1981, Perrett et al. 2002. Bereczekei et al. (2004) ruled out explanations in terms of genetically inherited preferences when they found a positive effect of adoptive father on adopted daughters, but the validity of this study has been questioned (Rantala & Marcinkowska 2011). ...
... Further, most of the previous studies explored the relationship between parental traits and actual partner choice (Jedlicka 1980, Zei et al. 1981, Wilson and Barrett 1987, Bereczkei et al. 2002, Little et al. 2003, Bereczkei et al. 2004). However, partner choice in humans is not likely to be determined solely by sexual attraction. ...
In this thesis I investigate whether human sexual preferences develop
through sexual imprinting. Sexual imprinting is the acquisition of
sexual preferences through non-rewarded experiences with parents
and siblings during an early sensitive period and it is known to exist in
many other animals. Learning is often sex specific so that males, for
instance, learn to prefer as sexual partners individuals that look like
their mother, and avoid individuals that look like their father. First,
sexual imprinting in animals and humans is reviewed and compared to
prevailing evolutionary views presupposing genetically determined
sexual preferences. Further, by means of web surveys, I have explored
the relationship between childhood exposure to parents with certain
natural and cultural traits and sexual attraction to these traits in a part�ner. Cultural traits were included because it is unlikely that prefer�ences for them are genetically determined adaptations. Parental effects
varied between traits. For instance, in heterosexual males, a positive
effect of mother was found on attraction to smoking, but not glasses,
while a negative paternal effect was found on attraction to glasses, but
not smoking. However, when maternal and paternal effects were in�vestigated for a large number of artificial and natural traits, including
smoking and glasses, an overall positive effect of opposite sex parent
emerged in both heterosexual males and females. Additionally, in the
last study we explored a sexual preference for pregnant and lactating
women. Results suggest that exposure to a pregnant and lactating
mother had an effect if it occurred when the respondent was between
1,5 and 5 years old. In conclusion, these results suggest that human
sexual preferences are the result of sex specific learning during a sensitive period. Sexual imprinting should therefore be recognised as a
plausible explanation to human sexual preferences that deserves further scientific investigation.
�
... Additionally, people are more likely to be attracted to their own faces (Little et al., 2003(Little et al., , 2011Bereczkei et al., 2002;Penton-Voak et al., 1999;Zajonc et al., 1987). Penton-Voak et al. (1999) asked participants to judge the attractiveness of facial photos. ...
... It would be interesting to clarify why the painters who exhibited the self-sufficiency component in this study also exhibited the self-image phenomenon in their Venus paintings. The first possible reason might be that these narcissistic painters were more likely to be attracted by their own faces (Little et al., 2003(Little et al., , 2011Bereczkei et al., 2002;Holtzman & Strube, 2010;Moskowitz et al., 2009;Penton-Voak et al., 1999;Zajonc et al., 1987). This supposition would indicate that narcissistic people are more confident, feel better than others, and are more self-centered in their comparisons of the things around them. ...
This study investigated 73 designed beginners who drew the Venus plaster and completed the 7-dimensional Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) test. Next, 5-point scales were used to compare the degrees of the facial similarity between the paintings and photos of the beginners who created the paintings. The results indicated that over half of the paintings were similar to the photos of the painters, and the similarity was significantly correlated with narcissism. For example, the painters with self-sufficient personalities were more likely to exhibit assertiveness, independence, self-confidence, and need for achievement; thus, they were automatically drawn to their own sense of personal feelings as projected onto the drawings, which naturally tended to look like themselves. These results might help the educators in the design field identify the likely NPI-associated psychological and behavioral outcomes of design beginners by observing the contexts of their paintings.
... For example, certain personality features might simply influence the amount of attention that an individual typically directs towards the eyes of other people (Gutiérrez-García et al., 2019), which, in turn, could facilitate the otherwise existing effects of positive stereotypes towards blue eyes (Gründl et al., 2012). Next, positive sexual imprinting (preferences for mates with characteristics that correspond to the opposite sex parent as a consequence of developmental exposure) is documented across different animal species (e.g., Kendrick et al., 1999) and humans (Bereczkei et al., 2002), even in the context of eye-colour preferences (Bressan, 2020). Sexual imprinting might not be a general process strong enough to cause the observed effect of blue-eyes preferences, as shown by Laeng et al. (2007). ...
Previous research (Laeng et al., 2007) conducted on Norwegian samples showed that blue-eyed men rate blue-eyed women as more attractive, while brown-eyed men and all the women show no differences in attractiveness assessments with respect to eye colour. Correspondingly, positive assortative mating was found for blue, but not brown eyes, and it most often occurred in blue-eyed men. We aimed to replicate this blue-like-blue effect in the Croatian population, which differs in the ratio of eye colour phenotypes (blue eye colour is the most prevalent in Norway while brown is the most prevalent in Croatia). Additionally, we examined whether this effect is moderated by life history strategies and sociosexuality. Our hypothesis was that the effect would be larger in those blue-eyed men who exert a slower life history strategy and who are sociosexually restrictive. One hundred and twenty-eight participants assessed the attractiveness of blue-eyed and brown-eyed models, whose eye colours were experimentally manipulated in such a way that participants were shown models with natural or artificially changed eye colours. The blue-like-blue effect was replicated in the context of preferences, although it was smaller than in the original study. However, unlike the original study, in a sample of 138 participants no assortative pairing by eye colour was found between participants and their romantic partners. Finally, the hypothesis about the moderation was supported for life history strategies, but not for sociosexuality. In addition to the rationale for the blue-like-blue effect based on the paternity uncertainty account, which was offered by the authors of the original study, we discussed other accounts of this phenomenon.
... This objection also applies to the findings that women whose fathers have a hairy chest tend to have partners with a hairy chest, too 19 , and that the eye colours of partners and opposite-sex parents are more similar than expected by chance 20 . Two studies 21,22 reported above-chance facial resemblances between people's partner and opposite-sex parent, especially for individuals who had enjoyed a good relationship with that parent as children. Yet both studies asked neutral judges to rate the resemblance of four possible spouses of a person to that person's parent, so the particular set of three nonspouses that happened to accompany the actual spouse would weigh heavily on the outcome. ...
Early exposure to parental features shapes later sexual preferences in fish, birds, and mammals. Here I report that human males’ preferences for a conspicuous trait, colourful eyes, are affected by the eye colour of mothers. Female faces with light (blue or green) eyes were liked better by men whose mother had light eyes; the effect broke down in those who had felt rejected by her as children. These results, garnered on over one thousand men, complete those of a symmetrical study on one thousand women, painting a fuller picture of human sexual imprinting. Both men and women appear to have imprinted on their opposite-sex parents unless these were perceived as cold and unjustly punitive. Birds require strong attachment to sexually imprint—a constraint in place to reduce the perils of acquiring the wrong sort of information. Parents who form no bond with their offspring may fail to be recognised as appropriate parental imprinting objects. Consistent with human females being, as in most of the animal kingdom, the choosier sex, imprinted preferences were displayed by both sexes but translated into real-life partner choices solely in women—attractive women. Apparently, not all of us can afford to follow our own inclinations.
... A different factor of familiarity may be the salience of potential partners whose traits reflect those of one's own opposite sex parent, an effect that seems to have some relevance in the functioning of filter tests, and especially for subjects who have not experienced recurrent refusal from their opposite sex parent [148], even if the actual dimension of such an effect seems controversial [149]. ...
We introduce a typological characterization of possible human heterosexual couples in terms of the concordance-opposition of the orientations of their active and receptive areas as defined by the tie-up theory. We show that human mating incentives, as characterized by widely adopted approaches, such as Becker’s marriage market approach, only capture very specific instances of actual couples thus characterized. Our approach allows us to instead explore how super-cooperation among partners vs. convenience vs. constriction may be regarded as alternatives modes of couple formation and cohesion, leading to very different types of couples with different implications in terms of stability and resilience. Our results may have interesting implications for future experimental research and for individual and family counseling.
... A special role of the attitude of a man to his mother in the assessment of his wife's AP was confirmed, which was found in the work by Bereczkei et al. [21]. ...
The study analyzed the relationship of attitudes toward one’s appearance and appearance of the partner with attitude toward the own personality and that of the other persons’ in married men and women. The empirical object of the study included 52 married couples in a registered (26 couples) and unregistered (26 couples) marriage with a duration from 5 months to 26 years (M = 7.31; SD = 6.78). The age of the respondents was 20–45 years old (M = 30.26; SD = 7.31; all are residents of the Russian Federation; Russians). Methods included the following questionnaires: (1) "History of the couples’ relationships”; (2) "Estimated and informative interpretation of one’s appearance and its compliance with gender–age constructs"; (3) "Color test of relationships"; (4) "Method of diagnosing interpersonal relationships”; (5) "Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior questionnaire”. Empirical data were analyzed with Spearman correlation analysis, Mann–Whitney U-test, Kruskal–Wallis H-test. The results were as follows: (1) in men and women the attitude to their appearance is related to the attitude to themselves; attitude to the spouse’s appearance is associated with the attitude to him or her; (2) in women, the assessment of their appearance is related to the attitude to their appearance; in men, the assessment of their appearance is related to the attitude to appearance of their spouses; (3) women's attitude to their appearance is associated with the need for inclusion, while in the men's case it is associated with the need for love; 4) men who emotionally reject their mothers are dissatisfied with the appearance of their wives.
... In other words, the consequence of the repeated associations is that there will be a shift in what people expect from someone with a particular facial traits. These results echo the findings of other experiments using evaluative conditioning paradigms as a means to change attitudes towards others (e.g., FeldmanHall et al., 2018;Putz et al., 2018;Walther et al., 2005;Walther et al., 2011), and studies measuring face preferences in relation to long term interactions with personally significant people, such as parents (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Bereczkei et al., 2004;Kocsor et al., 2013; or partners (Günaydin et al., 2012). ...
Generalization has been suggested as a basic mechanism in forming impressions about unfamiliar people. In this study, we investigated how social evaluations will be transferred to individual faces across contexts and to expressions across individuals. A total of 93 people (33 men, age: M ¼ 29.95; SD ¼ 13.74) were exposed to facial images which they had to evaluate. In the Association phase, we presented one individual with (1) a trustworthy, (2) an untrustworthy, (3) or an ambiguous expression, with either positive or negative descriptive sentence pairs. In the Evaluation phase participants were shown (1) a new individual with the same emotional facial expression as seen before, and (2) a neutral image of the previously presented individual. They were asked to judge the trustworthiness of each person. We found that the valence of the social description is transferred to both individuals and expressions. That is, the social evaluations (positive or negative) transferred between the images of two different individuals if they both displayed the same facial expression. The consistency between the facial expression and the description, however, had no effect on the evaluation of the same expression appearing on an unfamiliar face. Results suggest that in social evaluation of unfamiliar people invariant and dynamically changing facial traits are used to a similar extent and influence these judgements through the same associative process.
... Hinsz [20] compared the perceived resemblance, by unfamiliar judges, of the faces of actual couples and compared these with judgments of randomly-paired individuals (or 'fake couples'), finding that similarity ratings were higher for judgments of real couples, see also [21,22]. Such preferences may likely arise through imprinting-like effects on parental traits [23]. Consistent with https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.05.002 the latter, several studies suggest that preferences for facial shape and eye colour in potential partners is strongly influenced by the traits of the opposite-sex parent [24,25]. ...
There is substantial evidence for assortative partner preferences in humans based on physical characteristics. In contrast, evidence suggests that olfactory preferences tend to be disassortative, with people preferring body odour of potential partners who are dissimilar at key genetic loci, perhaps to gain fitness advantage through offspring heterozygosity. We compared ratings of perceived body odour similarity of real couples with those of randomly paired 'fake' couples. Contrary to prediction, we find that odours of real partners are perceived more, rather than less, similar to each other than fake couples. However, this applied only to natural odour samples: there were no differences in similarity levels of real and fake couples' samples which were collected while wearing artificial fragrances. Furthermore, in light of suggestions that hormonal contraception (HC) disrupts disassortative odour preferences in women, we compared odour similarity among real couples in which the female partner was using or not using HC at the time when the relationship began. We find that odours of HC-using couples are of intermediate similarity between non-using and fake couples, suggesting that HC use during partner choice could affect odour-influenced assortment. We also examined the association between relationship satisfaction and perceived similarity of unfragranced odours of real couples. We found that these are positively correlated in male partners but negatively correlated in the female partners, indicative of a sex difference in the relative favourability of odour similarity in partner preference. Finally, by comparing odour similarity ratings with those given by perfumers using a novel olfactory lexicon we found evidence that similarity judgements were based on the Spicy/Animalic aspects of individual odour profiles. Taken together, our results challenge the conventional view that odour-mediated partner preferences in humans are typically disassortative.
... zjištěno, že partnerky mužů se nejvíce podobaly jejich matkám za předpokladu, že matky vůči svým synům v období dětství projevovaly více emoční vřelosti a méně je odmítaly. (25) Naopak jiná studie, byť provedená stejným výzkumným týmem, ukázala, že muži si vybírali ženy podobné svým matkám tehdy, pokud během dětství zažívali ze strany matky více odmítání. To poukazuje na skutečnost, že vztah s matkou během dětství, ať už byl výrazně pozitivní či negativní, může ovlivňovat pozdější partnerské preference mužů, zatímco u žen by mohl hrát roli vztah s otcem pouze za předpokladu, že byl kladný. ...
... However, evidence suggests that a degree of associative learning may also take place, with positive parent-child relationships predicting greater imprinting. For instance, Bereczkei and colleagues (Bereczkei, Gyuris, Koves & Bernath, 2002;Bereczkei, Gyuris, & Weisfeld, 2004) used a photograph-matching task to show that similarity between an individuals' opposite-sex parent and their spouse was significantly greater if the individual reported a warmer relationship with their parent (although see Marcinkowska & Rantala, 2012). Furthermore, Bereczkei et al. (2004) controlled for self-similarity effects and used adoptive fathers and daughters so that genetic explanations can be ruled out. ...
Humans show preferential responses to ‘attractive’ individuals from the first hours of life onwards. However, these early preferences are subject to later development, both in terms of increasing agreement on general attractiveness, and the emergence of preferences for specific dimensions of attractiveness relevant to mate choice. Here we firstly outline key aspects of mate choice and consider evidence for their hormonal mediation in adults of reproductive age. We then examine preferences for these traits across key periods of hormonal changes, namely: infancy, puberty, and menopause; and consider potential hormonal mediation arguments for the mate choice changes observed during these periods. We find overall that expression of specific preferences is ambiguous in infancy, but there is clear evidence that preferences become stronger in late childhood and adolescence (albeit subject to disruption around puberty). There is also a modest evidence base suggesting a decline in some preferences at menopause in women. Across the developmental and lifespan literature, however, there is a critical lack of studies assessing hormones directly. We close with key recommendations for future research.
... According to Guo et al. (2014), genetic assortment may really occur at a higher level than found in their study. This is because genetic similarity depends upon the magnitude of genetic influence on a certain phenotypic trait (Bereczkei et al., 2002). Furthermore, assortative mating is based on phenotypes that, even if similar, may result from different sets of genes. ...
... According to Guo et al. (2014), genetic assortment may really occur at a higher level than found in their study. This is because genetic similarity depends upon the magnitude of genetic influence on a certain phenotypic trait (Bereczkei et al., 2002). Furthermore, assortative mating is based on phenotypes that, even if similar, may result from different sets of genes. ...
In a former study based on US census data, we found that educational homogamy is common and reduces the odds to remain childless. This study takes the next step and examines the prevalence of educational homogamy and its association with childlessness as well as the number of children on a worldwide basis. We analyzed census data from 41 different countries encompassing a total of 2,179,736 married women. In all investigated countries, the prevalence of educational homogamy is high. Furthermore, educational homogamy is not associated with a woman’s average number of children, which generally increases with decreasing education. This is not the case as regards childlessness, however, which is usually reduced by a combination of moderate female hypergamy and homogamy. We conclude that educational homogamy is a universal phenomenon. We discuss that, together with its effects on childlessness, this may have consequences going beyond the individual to include the level of society and population genetics.
... Despite these potential biological benefits, studies on human mate choice demonstrate that, with the possible exception of odor preferences, positive rather than negative assortative preferences are the rule: many studies show morphological (Zajonc et al., 1987;Bereczkei et al., 2002;Little et al., 2006) as well as psychosocial (Keller et al., 1996;Buston and Emlen, 2003) similarity within couples (also termed 'homogamy'). This is no less the case in terms of facial preference. ...
Self-resemblance has been found to have a context-dependent effect when expressing preferences for faces. Whereas dissimilarity preference during mate choice in animals is often explained as an evolutionary adaptation to increase heterozygosity of offspring, self-resemblance can be also favoured in humans, reflecting, e.g., preference for kinship cues. We performed two studies using transformations of facial photographs to manipulate levels of resemblance with the rater, to examine the influence of self-resemblance in single versus coupled individuals. Raters assessed facial attractiveness of other-sex and same-sex photographs according to both short-term and long-term relationship contexts. We found a preference for dissimilarity of other-sex and same-sex faces in single individuals, but no effect of self-resemblance in coupled raters. No effect of sex of participant or short-term versus long-term attractiveness rating was observed. The results support the evolutionary interpretation that dissimilarity of other-sex faces is preferred by uncoupled individuals as an adaptive mechanism to avoid inbreeding. In contrast, lower dissimilarity preference of other-sex faces in coupled individuals may reflect suppressed attention to attractiveness cues in potential alternative partners as a relationship maintenance mechanism, and its substitution by attention to cues of kinship and psychological similarity connected with greater likelihood of prosocial behavior acquisition from such persons.
... Human external phenotypes, perceived by simple visual inspection, are evolutionary speaking very important since they play key roles in individual recognition (Christakis & Fowler, 2014) and mate choice (Bereczkei et al., 2002;Mascie-Taylor, 1995). The visual perception that humans have of their congeners is strongly influenced by their cultural background, and the natural environment they have grown up in: main differences are observed in the ways individuals perceive not only colors or subtle shades, but also horizontal-vertical ratio (Segall, Campbell, & Herskovits, 1966), suggesting that proportion, including physical appearance, might be perceived differently between individuals. ...
As humans migrated across the world, they encountered new environments requiring them to adapt to new challenges that presented themselves. The distribution of human phenotypes observed today is the result of this continuous adaptation, via biological/physiological and cultural means, and also by the modification of cultural practices, which leads to biological change. In this chapter, we examine a number of adaptive traits and the roles played by their genetic and environmental determinants. We have selected a few traits used for human identification purposes (externally visible characteristics), associated with human metabolism and linked to a shift in subsistence method and food consumption. We discuss the evolutionary processes that have affected the temporal and spatial distribution of these traits, including natural, sexual, and cultural selection.
... Il existe probablement une distance génétique idéale entre les partenaires, ni trop faible ni trop grande, qui pourrait être atteinte grâce à une préférence pour des individus non-apparentés présentant des caractéristiques phénotypiques similaires. Et en effet, des corrélations positives ont été trouvées entre les membres d'un couple pour un grand nombre de traits, comme le milieu culturel, le statut socio-économique, la personnalité, les capacités intellectuelles, et l'apparence physique Jaffe & Chacon-Puignau 1995;Bereczkei & Csanaky 1996;Keller, Thiessen et al. 1996;Bereczkei, Gyuris et al. 2002;Bereczkei, Gyuris et al. 2004;Little, Burt et al. 2006;Tognetti, Berticat et al. 2014). Enfin, une homogamie au niveau du génome dans son ensemble a récemment été démontrée (Domingue, Fletcher et al. 2014). ...
In a context of mate choice, preferences are psychological mechanisms allowing
individuals to choose a partner who can enhance their reproductive success. As a man's number of
children greatly depends on the fertility of his mate(s), the ability to detect and prefer women with a
high fertility has been selected. Moreover, as a woman's fertility is linked to various physical
features, female attractiveness is largely physical. An experimental approach has been used to
identify the physical traits influencing women's attractiveness, as well as the fertility characteristics
of which they are the cues. In addition to well known cues of current fertility (i.e. a woman's ability
to conceive a child at that given time), our results show that men are also sensitive to cues for
residual fertility (i.e. the potential number of children a woman could have in the future), which is
partially determined by age at menopause. Male means of detecting these features have been
analysed too, highlighting the crucial role of the peripheral vision when judging the attractiveness
of a woman's body. Furthermore, the issue of whether these attractiveness standards are universal
has been addressed. Our studies show that men's preferences vary through time (the ideal body
shape, determined by the waist-to-hip ratio, has changed since the 15th century), geographically
(preferences concerning the residual fertility differ between France and Indonesia), and individually
(a preference for homogamy has been found within facial features). Thus, our results disprove the
notion of a single, universal and biologically fixed idea of beauty. But these variations of
preferences are not arbitrary, and can be explained by evolutionary stakes and trade-offs, linked to
environmental, cultural and individual conditions.
This chapter “Models and Typologies of Love” suggests the integrative typological approach to the studies of love. It defines the concepts of models and types and specified their varieties. Among those are scientific, personal, and cultural models of love, the ideal models of love, what people think about love, and real models of love – how they really experience love. In this chapter I propose methodological strategies and specific methods of categorization for the construction of individual and cultural typologies. Methods of categorization include the selection of specific representations of categories, implementation of the data transformation, and techniques of statistical analyses. Personal and cultural models and typologies of love are presented as illustrative example.KeywordsDefinitions of loveConstruction of loveModels of lovePersonal models of loveCultural models of loveTypologies of loveTypological models of loveCultural factors of loveCultural values
Gender differences in experience of first intercourse are among the largest in sexuality research, with women recalling less pleasure and satisfaction than men. This "enjoyment gap" has not been considered in explanations of gender differences in sexual desire. Yet, reinforcement and incentive learning features prominently in recent models of women's sexual desire, and nonhuman animal models demonstrate their impact at sexual debut. We examined whether women's lower sexual desire is explained by their gender or by gendered experience of enjoyment at sexual debut. Emerging adults (N = 838) provided retrospective accounts of physical (orgasm) and affective (satisfaction) enjoyment at (hetero)sexual debut. We replicated gender differences across behavioral, general, and multidimensional measures of trait sexual desire; however, they were contingent on experience and measurement method. When its cognitive multidimensional properties were appreciated, women's sexual desire varied with experience of orgasm at sexual debut and diverged from men's only when orgasm did not occur. Such effects were not observed for satisfaction, nor for men. Nor did effects of a control event - masturbatory debut - extend beyond solitary sexual desire. Findings underscore the importance of orgasm equality, and suggest its absence at sexual debut may play an unacknowledged role in differentiating sexual desire.
Tanulmányunkban a tehetség két aspektusát elemezzük. Az egyik szinten arra a kérdésre keresünk választ, hogy milyen örökletes tényezők tehetők felelőssé a lángész kialakulásáért. Megállapítjuk, hogy a jelenlegi kutatások szerint a tehetség mögött nem fedezhetők fel specifikus gének, de lehetségesek olyan genetikai hatások, amelyek egyfajta emergens szerveződése teremti meg az alapját a lángész kialakulásának – természetesen a különböző környezeti hatásokkal kölcsönhatásban. A másik szintű elemzésben a tehetség evolúciós eredetére kérdezünk rá, és négy olyan humánspecifikus kognitív képesség kialakulását elemezzük, amelyek fontos szerepet játszhatnak a szellemi kiválóság megjelenésében. Nevezetesen arra teszünk kísérletet, hogy megértsük az elmeolvasás, rugalmas gondolkodás, nyelv és kreativitás evolúciós létrejöttét. Ehhez olyan magyarázó model-leket veszünk igénybe, mint a Szociális Intelligencia, Machiavelli Intelligencia, Szexuális Szelekció és Fluid Intelligencia hipotézisek. E magyarázatok megerősítése további kutatásokat igényel.
Sexual imprinting refers to the phenomena where an individual's mate selection behavior is influenced by the characteristics of their parents in the early stages of life. Previous studies revealed that heterosexual men and women prefer partners with personality traits similar to their opposite-sex parents, indicating the sexual imprinting effects in personality preferences. This study aims to examine whether there are sexual imprinting effects on partner preferences for personality traits in gay men. We tested whether parent-child relationship in childhood (before 12 years old) and/or adolescence (12–18 years old) moderated the sexual imprinting effects. Participants (N = 311) were asked to assess their parents' and ideal partner's Big Five personality traits and gender roles, respectively. The parent-child relationships in childhood and adolescence were also assessed. The results revealed that gay men's ideal partner's traits were similar to their fathers' traits for emotional stability, similar to their mothers' traits for agreeableness and openness, and similar to both their fathers' and mothers' traits for conscientiousness. The ideal partners' gender roles were similar to both mothers' and fathers' instrumentality and expressiveness. The relationship quality with the mother in childhood modulated the mating effects in conscientiousness and expressiveness. The relationship quality with the father in adolescence modulated the mating effects in masculine instrumentality. The findings indicated the sexual imprinting effects on partner preference for personality traits in gay men and both father's and mother's personality traits in shaping gay's partner preference.
Objective
To understand marriage patterns, homogamy and fertility of women of European ancestry in the United States from an evolutionary perspective we aim to investigate if a prevalence for ancestral homogamy exists, the factors influencing a female preference for an ancestral homogamous vs. an heterogamous marriage, if an ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriages influences fertility and if there is an inherted component of the tendency to marry homogamously vs. heterogamously. Furthermore we aim to determine the heritability of homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage behaviour.
Methods
We used the census data of 369,121 US women married only once and aged between 46 and 60 years, provided by IPUMS USA ( https://usa.ipums.org/usa/ ). We used linear mixed models to determine associations of the probability of a homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage and the individual fertility of a women. We aimed to estimate the heritability (in our case genetic & parental environment) of marriage behaviour using a linear mixed model.
Results
We found, that ancestral heterogamous marriages are more frequent (56.5%), compared to homogamous marriages (43.5%). Most of the variance in inter- ancestry marriage and fertility is explained by ancestry per se, followed by the ratio of individuals of a certain ancestral background in a county: the more individuals of a certain ancestry live in a county the lower is the tendency to marry someone of a different ancestral background. Furthermore we found that about 11.8% of the marriage behaviour is heritable. Being in a homogamous marriage as well as the income of the spouse are both significantly positively associated with the number of children a women has and the probability that a women has at least one child.
Discussion
The most important explaining factor (in terms of variance explained) for being in an ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage, for number of children, as well as childlessness is the ancestry of the women. Albeit we are not able to distinguish the genetic and social heritability on basis of our data, with a total value of 11.8% variance explained, only a small heritability for in-group vs, out-group marriage behaviour is indicated.
Atrakcyjność fizyczna była przedmiotem zainteresowania już w starożytności, jednak naukowe badania nad atrakcyjnością fizyczną z perspektywy biologicznej rozpoczęły się dopiero w latach 90. ubiegłego wieku. Niegdyś uważano, że jest to właściwość zależna jedynie od mody lub gustu. Dziś wiemy, że wiele cech decydujących o atrakcyjności fizycznej człowieka stanowi ważny sygnał informujący o jakości biologicznej (wysokiejstabilności rozwojowej, zdrowiu i zdolności reprodukcyjnej) oraz wieku osobnika.
Monografia ATRAKCYJNOŚĆ FIZYCZNA CZŁOWIEKA jest zbiorem kilkunastu prac naukowych dotyczących różnych aspektów (cech) wyglądu najczęściej decydujących o urodzie. Zawiera też prace dotyczące atrakcyjności głosu. Przedstawione oryginalne prace naukowe oparte są na różnorodnej metodologii. Dlatego oprócz walorów czysto poznawczych publikacja może być pomocna przy pisaniu prac naukowych, także dyplomowych.
Twarz jako pierwsza przyciąga wzrok oceniających, szczególnie płci przeciwnej. Uważa się, że o atrakcyjności twarzy decydują głownie trzy jej elementy – oczy, nos i usta, a także jej symetria. Ocena takich cech twarzy jak: kolor i jakość skóry (czysta i gładka) i włosów, zarost, kolor i struktura tęczówki oka, kształt i kolor ust, kształt nosa czy rodzaj makijażu mają wpływ na postrzeganie atrakcyjności fizycznej człowieka.
Związek męskiego głosu z budową fizyczną ciała jest niezwykle ciekawym zagadnieniem, zarówno dla antropologów fizycznych, jak i antropologów zajmujących się mechanizmami ewolucyjnymi. Kobiety oceniają niższe głosy mężczyzn, jako bardziej atrakcyjne, a ich właścicielom przypisują cechy takie, jak większa tężyzna fizyczna, wyższy wiek, intensywniejsze owłosienie klatki piersiowej i większe umięśnienie, a zgodność kobiet co do oceny tych parametrów jest bardzo duża. Ponieważ istnieje niewiele prac dotyczących związku atrakcyjności i jakości głosu z atrakcyjnością fizyczną ciała i twarzy, warto nadal kontynuować badania tego zagadnienia. Badania nad parametrami akustycznymi głosu człowieka są stosunkowo nowe. Wynika to z wcześniejszych ograniczeń technicznych związanych z rejestracją oraz analizą nagranych dźwięków. Jednakże dość szybko po udoskonaleniu narzędzi i opracowaniu odpowiedniej metodologii akustyka głosu znalazła się w kręgu zainteresowań biologów człowieka.
Badania nad atrakcyjnością dotyczą też różnych form zdobienia ciała. Spośród mnogości prac na temat atrakcyjności bardzo niewielki odsetek stanowią artykuły poświęcone ich związkom z postrzeganiem ludzi przez otoczenie społeczne. Z pewnością warto prowadzić tego rodzaju badania, gdyż oprócz typowo poznawczego celu pozwolą one na ocenę i weryfikację obecne wciąż funkcjonujących stereotypów, szczególnie dotyczących tatuaży i piercingu.
Krzysztof Borysławski
Evolutionary psychology, in spite of its undeniable successes, could not get rid of basic meta-theoretical problems that loaded it since its emergence: demand for exclusiveness, lack of falsification, uncertainty of evolutionary environment. Evolutionary psychology has been going through a profound re-organization: instead of searching for adaptive patterns, it focuses on studying proximate mechanisms. I think, the way of preventing the production of speculations and increasing the validity of evolutionary approach is to intensively concentrate on the mediating mechanisms. The logic of adaptationism is perceived as a basis in our interpretations but not as an exclusive ultimate explanation. The recent results show that the predictions concerning the related physiological and psychological processes could be successfully tested with empirical data. Furthermore, evolutionary psychology has achieved a profound self-restraint, that is tended to get rid of its initial wish to explain everything and to give the „final” answer to each problem. Therefore, evolutionary psychology became a valuable and authentic member of the psychological sciences.
Many have been obsessed with the women in Prince’s life since his purple reign began in the early 1980s. Following his shocking passing, special tribute publication and countless websites featured articles on the women in Prince’s life. However, mainstream media presentations of “Prince’s women” have focused heavily on White, Latina, and mixed-race women. Black women, who are an undeniable part of Prince’s legacy, have been almost nonexistent in these publications. The exclusion of these women from Prince discourse has served to perpetuate hegemonic notions of feminine beauty while also contributing to a persistent misconception that Prince practiced colorism. However, to accept this belief, one most ignore the numerous Black women of all hues with whom Prince associated. Therefore, this article seeks to add these women to ongoing Prince discourse. In doing so, it seeks to challenge assumptions regarding his relationship with Black women and to interrogate why these assumptions are so readily accepted. Finally, in dismantling the narrative of colorism that has dogged Prince’s life and work, this article intends to situate Prince’s support of Black women as an indisputable example of his love of not only Black women but of his own Blackness and the Black community.
Despite the generally low level of inter-population genetic differentiation in humans as compared with great apes, it has long been acknowledged that there is a considerable amount of geographic variations in human phenotypes, for example, skin pigmentation, cranial morphology, and soft-tissue facial morphology, to name but a few. Indeed, recent studies have suggested that the extent of inter-population diversity in some human phenotypes is greater than expected from random drift alone. Such an excess of phenotypic diversity is often attributed to adaptation to local environment. However, this account is valid only if populations differ in some ecological aspects that elicit differential selection acting on a given phenotypic feature. Another long-standing hypothesis is the sexual selection hypothesis, which claims that phenotypic diversity arises and/or is maintained owing to variations in preference for mating partners. In this paper, we explore the plausibility of the sexual selection hypothesis by means of computer simulations, in which the inter-population diversity of a quantitative trait is evaluated against the expectation from random drift, using the QST-FST comparison. As possible driving factors of sexual selection, we consider two types of mate-choice preference: preference for the population average and preference for a culturally-transmitted arbitrary trend. Our simulations suggest that sexual selection can, under certain circumstances, maintain and/or generate a detectable amount of inter-population phenotypic diversity, even when populations are ecologically identical and loosely connected to each other by mutual migration. Since mating decisions in humans are considerably affected by social learning, human mate-choice preference may be more readily diversified between populations than in other animals. We suggest, therefore, that some of the observed human phenotypic variations may be better understood as a product of cultural, rather than ecological, diversification.
[published in Hungarian]
In the last years several research reports have been published which studied the effect of parental appearance on the social preferences of adults. The current study aims at investigating whether parental models are used by children in their social relations.
In our study we used a computer software to manipulate composite faces so as to resemble the parents of the participating children (between 3 and 14 years). The images were arranged into pairs and the children were asked to choose the one they find more attractive from each pair. The children's relation with their parents was assessed with the Düss-tale test and the IPPA questionnaire.
In the age group of the 11-14 years old children we found that high scores on the maternal alienation subscale (i. e., good relation with the mother) increased the likelihood of choosing a peer resembling the participant's mother. That was particularly true for boys. Similarly, in the group of boys between 3-6, and 7-10 years, good relation with the mother increased the chance of preferring a mother-resembling face to controls. In contrast, in this age group good parental relation decreased girls preference for maternal faces.
Conclusions
These results suggest that experiences in childhood affect children's face preferences, which may be maintained in adulthood, too, influencing interpersonal decisions. This may manifest, for instance, in a bias for parent-resembling people in various social relations, such as mate-choice. We assume that evolutionary causes stand in the background, but the differences we found in our study between the age groups indicate that constraints of cognitive maturation might also crucially contribute to the development of these preferences.
Faces are an important cue to multiple physiological and psychological traits. Human preferences for exaggerated sex typicality (masculinity or femininity) in faces depend on multiple factors and show high inter-subject variability. To gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying facial femininity preferences in men, we tested the interactive effect of family structure (birth order, sibling sex-ratio and number of siblings) and parenthood status on these preferences. Based on a group of 1304 heterosexual men, we have found that preference for feminine faces was not only influenced by sibling age and sex, but also that fatherhood modulated this preference. Men with sisters had a weaker preference for femininity than men with brothers, highlighting a possible effect of a negative imprinting-like mechanism. What is more, fatherhood increased strongly the preference for facial femininity. Finally, for fathers with younger sisters only, the more the age difference increased between them, the more femininity preference increased. Overall our findings bring new insight into how early-acquired experience at the individual level may determine face preference in adulthood, and what is more, how these preferences are flexible and potentially dependent on parenthood status in adult men.
Freud's assumption that the Oedipal relationship plays an important part in shaping the future character of mate choice needs a scientific reconsideration that, in turn, requires setting an empirically testable explanation. The authors hypothesize that the close physical and emotional attachment between the mother and her son includes a sexual imprinting-like mechanism that influences the processing of childhood experiences. Here they present a set of experiments showing that adults prefer long-term partners who resemble the mental representation of their parent of the opposite sex. Furthermore, mating preferences were found to be shaped in the process of attachment; those mothers were most frequently used as mental models for their sons' mate choice who provided more emotional warmth and less avoidance to their sons during childhood. The implications of the study's results for the contemporary interpretation of Freudian theory are discussed.
This article reviews recent developments in experimental facial attractiveness research. It outlines the important social consequences of facial attractiveness in social life and briefly reviews the structural factors associated with attractiveness in both sexes taking a theoretical perspective largely influenced by evolutionary biology. The study discusses individual differences in preferences from this theoretical perspective. Attractiveness is also affected by aspects of the face that are manifestly not static. Facial motion and expression involve changing configurations of the face and the execution of specific, discrete gestures that are likely to contribute to attractiveness and yet are largely neglected in the current literature. It shows how an evolutionary viewpoint is also useful when considering attractiveness judgments when expressive or dynamic cues are present in stimuli.
In the light of the theory of evolution, parental impacts, like other environmental stimuli, are hypothesized to be processed by children's evolved psychological mechanisms. Various behavioural algorithms, decision rules, learning programs, and epigenetic rules transform input from the family context into behavioural output that presumably solved adaptive problems in evolutionarily relevant environments. This is why evolved physiological and psychological processes, considered as proximate mechanisms, are so crucial in the evolutionary explanations of human behaviour. This article clarifies the specific ways in which these mechanisms channel behavioural acts into adaptive decisions. A central task is to gain insights into the details of socialisation: how children process the information that comes from their parents and how this shapes adaptive patterns and states during development.
Anecdotally, spouses are often said to resemble one another. This study investigates the effects of similarity between participants
and stimuli on judgements of facial attractiveness: does “like prefer like”? Using computer graphic techniques, opposite sex
facial stimuli were generated from subjects' photographs. Experiment 1 showed a correlation between attractiveness and similarity
but the effect can be explained by the attractiveness of average faces. Beyond this, there was a trend for individual subjects
to rate opposite sex images with a similar face shape to their own face as more attractive than other subjects. Experiment
2 allowed subjects to interactively manipulate an opposite sex facial image along a continuum from a self-similar shape, through
an average face shape, to a face with opposite characteristics. No significant preferences for self-similar or opposite characteristics
were found. Preferences for average faces are stronger than preferences for self-similar faces.
Out of the necessity of having an abbreviated form of the EMBU, a measure of perceived parental rearing behaviour, a short form (s-EMBU) consisting of three scales (rejection, emotional warmth and protection) with, respectively, 7, 6 and 9 items (plus 1 unscaled item) was developed from the original 81-item version. The factorial and/or construct validity and reliability of this s-EMBU were examined among samples of 2373 students from Italy, Hungary, Guatemala and Greece. The data were presented for the four national groups separately. The 23-item s-EMBU is recommended as a reliable functional equivalent to the 81-item early EMBU. Attention was drawn to the need for further research to explain some of the observed cross-national differences in the correlations between parental rearing styles and personality.
Sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists emphasise that mate choice is based on Darwinian natural selection for individual fitness. This chapter refers to this as the individual imperative. These multiple features of the environment that determine individual success or failure the chapter refers as the collective imperative. In addition, the chapter discusses the assortative mating of couples and touches on the complex interactions between individual mate selection and human social ecology. It presents the genetic argument for human mate assortment then refers to experimental data, suggesting that the social perceptions of couples by others influence the mate assortment process. This social-preceptual influence extends to incestual relations where mate assortment is extreme. Finally, the chapter generalises the findings to a more formal theory of individual and social influences on human mate selection.
Most of the evidence for long-range aspects of imprinting concerns the early establishment of sexual preferences, usually referred to as “sexual imprinting.” As with filial imprinting, most data are available for certain species of birds. They can be divided into two groups: intraspecific sexual imprinting and interspecific sexual imprinting. The chapter discusses the four main criteria that are the characteristic for imprinting: (1) it can take place only during a restricted time period of the individual's life, the sensitive period, (2) it is irreversible— that is, it cannot be forgotten, (3) it involves learning of supra-individual, species-specific characters, (4) it may be completed at a time when the appropriate reaction itself is not yet performed. The amount of generalization found in sexual imprinting cannot be explained due to inability to discriminate between individuals, because it has been proved, for example, in zebra finches-that after pair formation the birds may well develop a definite individual preference for a particular female. The establishment of sexual preferences through imprinting seems to be independent of conventional sexual reward. The chapter surveys some other contexts in which juvenile experience has been proved to exert a crucial influence on adult behavior, and also discusses: (1) the significance of the early determination of sexual preferences for the general concept of imprinting and (2) the biological function and possible evolutionary consequences of sexual imprinting.
This study, based on questionnaires given to 732 subjects, uses an integrative approach with a focus on evolutionary (life-history) explanations. In accordance with Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper’s theoretical model of socialisation (1991), we claim that experiences during childhood trigger variations in the life cycle and shift developmental trajectories as adaptive answers to different environmental conditions. Unfavourable family conditions constitute an unpredictable and unstable environment that make children susceptible to adopting opportunistic mating strategies rather than parenting strategies. Based on Chisholm’s statement (1993) that high stress in the family provides cues for local death rates, we argue that mortality rates may have a significant effect on reproductive decisions, even in post-industrial societies. We report that length of schooling, date of the ” rst marriage, and fertility were associated with the subjects’ family conditions, such as parental affirmation, emotional atmosphere, parent-subject conflicts, and parental relations. Women growing up in unfavourable family circumstances ”nish schooling and marry earlier, and this shift in developmental trajectory is likely to lead to the higher number of children measured among these women. Men, on the other hand, do not show such a difference in reproductive output, which may be due to their increased involvement in sexual competition. Remarkably, significant correlation has been found between life-history strategy and mortality rates; those coming from unfavourable environments have more deceased sisters and brothers than others. It is possible that individual differences in mating and parenting behaviour are still contingent, among others, on local death rates.
The social preferences of captive, juvenile golden-mantled ground squirrels,Spermophilus lateralis, were studied as a first step towards explaining the development of kin-differential behaviour, which occurs frequently in the genusSpermophilus. There groups of young (four litters/group) were reared in the laboratory and then transferred as juveniles at about 36 days of age to an outdoor, semi-natural environment in which social interactions between juveniles were recorded. In group 1, littermates (young born to a common dam) were reared together until behavioural observations began. In groups 2 and 3, pups were cross-fostered between dams shortly after birth to examine how rearing (together or apart) and relatedness (littermates or non-littermates) affected juveniles' social interactions in the semi-natural environment. Social interactions were recorded for a 9-14-day period beginning when juveniles reached about 37 days of age, which coincides with when they would come above ground for the first time in nature. In all three groups, juveniles' social preferences were manifested most clearly in social play. In group 1, littermates (reared together) played together about twice as often as non-littermates (reared apart) on a per pair basis, which suggests that a shared rearing environment influenced the development of social preferences. In groups 2 and 3 in which pups had been cross-fostered, play-bout frequencies were ordered (high to low): littermates reared together>non-littermates reared together>littermates reared apart>non-littermates reared apart, and statistical analysis revealed that both rearing and relatedness contributed to this ordering. The sex of a pair also affected play-bout frequencies (M-M>M-F>F-F) independently of rearing and relatedness. Results fromS. lateralisare compared with studies on other congeners, including parallel work onS. beldingi, in an effort to link interspecific differences in ecology and social organization to differences in the developmental systems that underlie the extent of kin favouritism in ground squirrels.
Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper (1991) predicted that early childhood stress or conflict in the family environment would be associated with childhood behavioural symptoms, early puberty, and early, less discriminate reproductive behaviour. A cross-sectional self-report survey of childhood family life and adolescent development was carried out with 357 university students aged 18 to 24 from Toronto, Canada. In women, earlier menarche was associated with more parental marital conflict in early childhood (birth to age 7), more parental marital unhappiness throughout childhood (birth to age 11), more independence from mother or father in late childhood (age 8 to 11), less anxiousness or internalising symptoms (anxiousness/depression) in late childhood (age 8 to 11), earlier age at dating men, and more boyfriends. In men, earlier spermarche was associated with father absence (birth to before spermarche), more stress in quality of family life, parental marital unhappiness, and parental marital conflict in early childhood (birth to age 7), more independence from mother or father in late childhood (age 8 to 11), earlier age at dating women, more girlfriends, and earlier age at sexual intercourse. These ndings are generally consistent with the Belsky et al. (1991) view that childhood psychosocial stresses affect puberty and reproductive life history, though they do not preclude alternative accounts.
Assortative mating in human and other animal species is reviewed. Assortive mating is most often positive (between individuals sharing phenotypic similarity), occurs on a variety of normal and abnormal traits, strengthens the mating bond, and increases fertility. These results can best be understood if it is assumed that natural selection operates to increase genetic homology between mates and between parents and off-spring. The outcome of selection for positive assortment is to increase the genetic relatedness among family members, thus facilitating communication and altruism and increasing inclusive fitness without an additional reproductive effort. The opposing evolutionary vector is to restrict excessive homozygosity and consequent inbreeding deppression by minimizing matings between individuals of greatest similarity (e.g., members of nuclear families). The result of these opposing evolutionary vectors is a negative relationship between the degree of positive assortative mating and heritability (h2): individuals gravitate toward those of similar but not identical phenotypic (and genetic) similarity. Individuals may assess their own and their potential mates' homozygosity and mate so as to maximize genetic homogamy and still avoid excessive inbreeding. Early imprinting and learning within the family unit act as the proximate mechanisms to establish the criteria for optimal mate selection. Predictions that follow from this model are advanced, and several problems are discussed. Laboratory and field work with animals will be especially valuable in advancing our understanding of assortative mating.
Fifty-seven families (57 fathers, 56 mothers, 52 sons, and 52 daughters) from Minia, Egypt, were administered 12 Educational Testing Service tests of specific cognitive abilities and the Comrey Personality Scales. No significant sex or generational differences were found for cognitive abilities. On the CPS, parents were found to be significantly more conforming than offspring, and large sex differences were found on the masculinity-femininity scale. For the cognitive tests, spouse correlations (median r = 0.69), parent-offspring correlations (median r = 0.54), and sibling correlations (median r = 0.59) were found to be considerably higher than those found for American samples. Spouse correlations (median r = 0.42), parent-offspring correlations (median r = 0.23), and sibling correlations (median r = 0.33) on the Comrey scales were also higher than for American samples. These results were discussed in terms of the influence of arranged marriages and greater social stratification in Egypt.
Noting that beyond the individual variations among humans, there is a body of mental abilities common to every human being, this book examines the debate among researchers about the extent to which humans are "preprogrammed," and suggests a new scientific psychology of human development. By examining experimental data obtained from adults, newborns, and animals, the book suggests that while human cognitive capacities are clearly very versatile, they are also very specific. It proposes that like other animals, humans are able to adapt in astonishing ways to new situations and needs, but only in certain areas and within certain limits. Although they can endlessly acquire new knowledge, they do so only within a restricted framework. Although cognitive skills can evolve, they can do so only within the confines of a relatively narrow genetic envelope, which imparts to members of the species a fixed core of aptitudes that everyone possesses. The chapters of the book are as follows: (1) "Explaining Our Behavior"; (2) "Seeing and Hearing"; (3) "The World and Its Objects"; (4) "Self and Others"; (5) "The Biological Foundations of Language"; and (6) "Conclusion: Human Nature and the Cognitive Sciences." (Contains nearly 300 entries.) (AA)
The Psychoanalytic theory of mate selection postulates resemblance between a man's wife and his mother and between woman's husband and her father. Ethnicity of fathers and mothers was compared to ethnicity of spouses. The Ss were 577 brides and 403 grooms of mixed ethnic parentage married twice while living in Hawaii. Repeated observations of the same Ss revealed that parental images were probably important even after prolonged interactions with persons of the opposite sex. The data seemed to support the psychoanalytic theory of mate selection for both sexes.
Administered the Bentler Psychological Inventory, the Bentler Interactive Psychological Inventory, the Sexual Behavior Inventory, and a background questionnaire to 77 newly married couples. Four yrs later these couples were followed up to determine their marital status and satisfaction (the Locke and Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale and a rating scale of 19 potential marital problem areas). Findings indicate that (a) correlational similarity as well as mean differentiation between partners was higher in the still-married group than the divorced group; (b) accuracy of self-perception was marginally reflective of marital success; (c) living together before marriage had no apparent effect on the outcome of marriage; (d) divorced couples appeared to face qualitatively different problems than married couples; and (e) longitudinal prediction of marital adjustment was possible. It is suggested that variation in marital outcome is most accurately predicted from personality and not demographic variables, based largely on data from women. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
As a supplement to my textbook on animal behavior, this new text on human ethology is based on the latter half of my life's work. The findings on animal ethology are only occasionally cited in this work and then only to the extent that they contribute to the understanding of ethological concepts.
I hope that this first text on human ethology presents itself as a unified work, even though not every area could be treated with equal depth. For example, a branch of ethology has developed in the past decades which places particular emphasis on ecology and population genetics. This field, known as sociobiology, has enriched discussion beyond the boundaries of behavioral biology through its stimulating, and often provocative, theses. I will discuss some of its contributions when appropriate in this volume, but, of course, cannot cover this new field in depth.
This work offers a biological point of view for discussion and includes data from my own cross-cultural work and research from the staff of our institute. It confirms, above all else, the astonishing unity of mankind and paints a basically positive picture of how we are moved by the same passions, jealousies, friendliness, and active curiosity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Describes recent work on the theoretical and empirical issues relevant to animal kin recognition and outlines 4 mechanisms by which kin might be identified: (1) spatial distribution, (2) association, (3) phenotype matching, and (4) recognition alleles. It is suggested that kin recognition is usually based on spatial distribution or direct association during rearing. Phenotype matching is proposed as an additional mechanism that could facilitate recognition between relatives who have not previously associated with each other. (65 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Much clinical and ethnographic evidence suggests that humans, like many other organisms, are selected to avoid close inbreeding because of the fitness costs of inbreeding depression. The proximate mechanism of human inbreeding avoidance seems to be precultural, and to involve the interaction of genetic predispositions and environmental conditions. As first suggested by E. Westermarck, and supported by evidence from Israeli kibbutzim, Chinese sim-pua marriage, and much convergent ethnographic and clinical evidence, humans negatively imprint on intimate associates during a critical period of early childhood (between ages 2 and 6).
There is also much evidence that, like other social animals, humans do not seek to maximize outbreeding, but rather to maintain an optimal balance between outbreeding and inbreeding. Close inbreeding reduces fitness through inbreeding depression, but some inbreeding brings the benefits of nepotism. For simple, stateless, horticultural societies, the optimal balance seems to be achieved by a combination of precultural inbreeding avoidance of relatives with an r ≤·25 and cultural rules of preferential marriage with kin with r ≥·25. Adjustment of the coefficient of inbreeding to other ecological settings seems to be largely cultural. An interactive model of “culture in nature” is presented, in which culture is seen as coevolving with genes to produce the maxiniization of individual inclusive fitness.
Infant crying is frequently quantified as a primary dependent variable in studies where the goal is to understand and soothe infant crying within the context of the parent–infant relationship. Through a historical review and an examination of studies and measurement techniques, the utility of quantifying infant crying is discussed. Although duration and timing of infant crying may be a practical concern for families and health professionals, the effectiveness of soothing interventions may not be best examined by attempts to measure unit reductions in infant crying. Rather, developing an understanding of infant crying within the context of parent–infant relationships may have more utility. Understanding infant crying in context may provide direction to the selection of soothing interventions and to more appropriate measures of the effectiveness of such interventions. ©1999 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.
A new theory of attraction and liking based on kin selection suggests that people detect genetic similarity in others in order to give preferential treatment to those who are most similar to themselves. There are many sources of empirical and theoretical support for this view, including (1) the inclusive fitness theory of altruism, (2) kin recognition studies of animals raised apart, (3) assortative mating studies, (4) favoritism in families, (5) selective similarity among friends, and (6) ethnocentrism. Specific tests of the theory show that (1) sexually interacting couples who produce a child are genetically more similar to each other in blood antigens than they are either to sexually interacting couples who fail to produce a child or to randomly paired couples from the same sample; (2) similarity between marriage partners is most marked in the more genetically influenced of sets of anthropometric, cognitive, and personality characteristics; (3) after the death of a child, parental grief intensity is correlated with the child's similarity to the parent; (4) long-term male friendship pairs are more similar to each other in blood antigens than they are to random dyads from the same sample; and (5) similarity among best friends is most marked in the more genetically influenced of sets of attitudinal, personality, and anthropometric characteristics. The mechanisms underlying these findings may constitute a biological substrate of ethnocentrism, enabling group selection to occur.
Adult male Japanese quail and, to a lesser extent, adult females were likely to approach a member of the opposite sex which they had not seen before in preference to one with which they grew up. However, they only did this if the group in which they were reared when young contained a particular number of the opposite sex: two females in the case of males and three males in the case of females. The result is explained in terms of the likelihood of the novel member of the opposite sex being slightly different from those with which the birds grew up. If the number of individuals of the opposite sex is small, a novel one is likely to be unacceptably strange, and if the number is high any novel bird from a limited laboratory stock is likely to resemble one or other of the familiar birds. A functional explanation for the quail's behaviour in terms of optical outbreeding is discussed.
Similar criteria may operate in mate choice and in mate retention. For example, United States couples tend to be similar, and the more similar they are, the happier and more stable their relationships are. Another widespread criterion is male dominance, which females in several primate species seem to find desirable in a mate. Defined in various ways, dominance seems to characterize men that women find desirable. Also, cross-cultural evidence suggests that attractiveness, particularly in women, enhances mate value. A survey of over 1000 British couples was undertaken to test the homogamy (similarity), male dominance, and female attractiveness hypotheses in that society. In 19 of 42 tests, homogamous couples tended to be significantly (p < 0.01) more satisfied. Couples, especially wives, were more satisfied if the husband dominated decision making, but excessive husband dominance reduced satisfaction. Husbands were more satisfied if the wife was moderately more attractive than they were. Unlike some previous U.S. studies, this one revealed no relationship between marital satisfaction and the husband's earning more than the wife, being better educated, or having wealthier parents. In addition to the homogamy hypothesis, the notion that dominant men gain attractive wives received qualified support. Economic factors may be less fundamental to marital satisfaction than these other variables.
In sexually dimorphic birds, morphological characteristics are assumed to play an important role in conspecific sex recognition. In spite of the limited evidence, most studies done so far support this assumption. Less attention has been given to the question of how adult birds may have acquired the ability to discriminate between the sexes. This study investigates the relationship between the early experience of young birds and their later competence in differentiating between male and female conspecifics. Young white zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, were reared by white parents. The white morph of this species lacks all sexually dimorphic markings, except for a difference in the intensity of the red coloration of the bill. Bill colour of the parents was manipulated by applying nail polish. As adults, males and females were tested for their preference in a series of two-choice tests. Males showed a clear preference for birds with the same bill colour as their mother, irrespective of the sex of the stimulus birds. Females, on the other hand, preferred males to females, but did not differentiate on bill colour. It can be concluded that in zebra finch males sex recognition is guided by morphological characteristics that have acquired their signal value during rearing. For females, other factors, such as behavioural cues, appear to be most important for sex recognition.
The stability of filial preferences of domestic chicks, Gallus gallus domesticus, was investigated. In a series of experiments, preferences were measured in simultaneous choice tests at the end of 3-day periods of exposure to conspicuous artificial objects. In experiments 1 and 2, day-old chicks were exposed to one of two coloured cylinders, followed by exposure to the alternative stimulus. The original preference was significantly reversed. After a third phase of the experiment, during which the chicks were isolated (experiment 1) or exposed to the two stimuli simultaneously (experiment 2), the preference changed significantly towards the first object. A significant preference for the first object was reacquired in only one combination of stimuli in experiment 2a. The results were similar for experiments 2b–2d, in which the period of exposure to the first (2b) and the second (2d) object was increased or when there was a period of isolation after exposure to the first object (2c). In all these experiments, the stimuli differeed only in the single dimension of colour. In experiment 3, the two stimuli used differed in colour, shape and pattern. Three days of exposure to one object, followed by 3 days exposure to the other object and 3 days to both objects simultaneously, led to a significant ‘resurfacing’ of a preference for the first stimulus, irrespective of which stimulus was presented first. These results confirm that the reversal of filial preferences need not be permanent and are consistent with, a ‘competitive exclusion’ model of imprinting.
This study was based on the Westermarck hypothesis, which maintains that the proximate mechanism for sibling incest avoidance is continued proximity in early childhood. Using a survey method, we compared university students reporting sibling incest with a matched sample of those reporting no such experience on measures of both early intimacy of the sibling pair (e.g., sleeping arrangements, practices regarding nudity) and early separations between them. Intimacy variables did not relate to incestuous behavior. Separation for more than a year during the first six years was significantly related to sexual activities which culminated in anal, oral, or attempted or actual genital intercourse (labeled consummatory behaviors), but this difference in regard to nonconsummatory sexual activities was in the opposite direction. It was suggested that previous interpretations of the Westermarck effect implying that early cohabitation produces sexual disinterest may require revision. Early association may function instead to provide a barrier to more mature, consummatory sexual activities and, hence, reduce procreative potential.
Two experiments explored the degree to which dating couples assort on physical and psychological traits. Experiment I demonstrates that 59 couples show similarities on a number of physical and non-physical (psychological) traits. Correlations are significantly different from randomized pairs and from zero when individuals rate the degree to which their partner shares similar traits. Correlations range from 0.35 to 0.66 for traits related to reproduction (i.e. interest in sex, marriage, and reproduction). Approximately equal levels of assortment occur for physical and psychological traits, and in short- and long-term relationships. Experiment II shows that subjects can reassort individual photographs of 12 dating couples presented in a random array significantly better than chance. The frequency with which the 50 subjects reassort couples is significantly correlated with the rated degree of similarity for those couples (r = 0.50). Moreover, attributions of reproductive potential are significantly related to judgments of couple similarity (r = 0.78 to 0.99).
Previous theoretical and empirical studies have shown that individuals may act to the benefit of others of similar genotype. We argue that the ability to discriminate among individuals of varying degrees of relatedness is prevalent in many species, and that the tendency to favor relatives can be considered a special case of a tendency to favor those of similar genotype. The phenomenon of assortative mating can be explained in this way, but new evidence capable of disproving this conjecture is not easily obtained. We have reanalyzed three previously reported studies of heritability and assortive mating in humans, and show that there is a greater degree of assortative mating on more highly heritable traits, in accordance with the prediction.
Dating and married couples show comparable levels of assortment for physical traits. Married couples, however, are more assorted on psychological traits. It is argued that both dating and married couples initially assort on physical similarity, but that couples who are similar on psychological traits are more likely to marry. Physical traits are apparently critical in initial partner selection; psychological traits are more important for long-term relationships. There is little evidence that couples become more similar in psychological traits over time, implying that existing similarities are due to initial assortment.
Increasing evidence suggests that both mating patterns and fecundity correlate with the genetic similarity of the interactants in plants, animals and humans. Direct evidence is reported here for this phenomenon in humans. Based on blood antigen analyses of nearly 1,000 cases of disputed paternity, it was found that the degree of genetic similarity within pairs predicts (1) whether the pair is sexually interacting or randomly generated, and (2) whether the pair produced a child together or not. Seven polymorphic marker systems (ABO, Rhesus (Rh), P, MNSs, Duffy (Fy), Kidd (Jk), and HLA) at ten loci across six chromosomes were examined. Sexually interacting couples were found to share about 50% of measured genetic markers, part way between mothers and their offspring who share 73% and randomly paired individuals from the same sample who share 43%. Moreover, in the cases of disputed paternity, degree of genetic similarity in the sexually interacting couple predicted male inclusion: males not excluded from paternity were 52% similar to their partners whereas those excluded were only 44% similar.
When we tested predictions from genetic similarity theory, we found that spouses assort on the basis of the more genetically influenced of cognitive tests. From our analysis of data from several studies employing 15 subtests from the Hawaii Family Study of Cognition and 11 subtests from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, we calculated positive correlations between assortive mating coefficients and estimates of genetic influence both between and within samples. Thus, estimates of genetic influence calculated on Koreans and Canadians predicted assortive mating in European Americans in Hawaii and California. These observations were weaker when the g loadings of the tests, on which the spouses assorted most, were partialled out. They confirm the robust nature of the phenomenon and suggest the epigenetic rules may incline people to detect and prefer genetically similar others as marriage partners.
The ability of an animal to discriminate between kin and non-kin (kin recognition) has been the subject of numerous recent investigations. Grafen (Anim. Behav., 1990, 39, 42–54) recently reported that the evidence in support of kin recognition is weak and the data illustrating a preference for kin to associate in the laboratory may be more consistently explained as species recognition. It is suggested here, however, that in many cases it may be impossible to distinguish between species recognition and kin recognition, but in some cases, kin recognition seems apparent. It is also emphasized that very little is known about the adaptive value of kin recognition.