... Luxury products and services are often chosen by consumers to signal their status in a social hierarchy to others (Griskevicius et al., 2007;Sundie et al., 2011;Veblen, 1899). High status can provide numerous positive outcomes such as more mating opportunities (Batten, 1992;Buss, 1989Buss, , 1994Saad, 2007), greater social influence (Lefkowitz, Blake, & Mouton, 1955;Oldmeadow, Platow, Foddy, & Anderson, 2003), stress reduction, better health, and a longer life expectancy (Marmot, 2005). Furthermore, conspicuous consumption can lead to receiving preferential treatment and financial benefits (Nelissen & Meijers, 2011). ...
In line with recent research suggesting that testosterone may only be related to decisions under specific conditions, we show that testosterone is associated with conspicuous consumption only when intrasexual competition is high. In three studies, we provide empirical evidence that prenatal and circulating testosterone are only related to conspicuous consumption when intrasexual competition is high. These findings are in line with recent literature that posits that testosterone is only related to particular decisions or behavior when status is at stake. In Study 1, we find that masculinized digit ratios (an indicator of high prenatal testosterone exposure) are only related to greater conspicuous consumption preferences for men that score high on an intrasexual competitiveness trait measure. In Study 2, we find that masculin-ized digit ratios are associated with greater conspicuous consumption preferences, but only among men who are primed with an intrasexual competition recall task. Finally, the purpose of Study 3 was to test if similar effects held when measuring circulating testosterone. We show that baseline levels of circulating testosterone are associated with greater conspicuous consumption preferences, but only after men are primed with intrasexual competition. Overall, we identify intrasexual competition as a crucial precondition for relationships between testosterone (prenatal and circulating) and conspicuous consumption to emerge. We argue that men with masculin-ized digit ratios and men with high circulating testosterone may be more likely to choose conspicuous products as a status-signaling strategy in the mating market if they are inherently intrasexually competitive or when they encounter an intrasexually competitive situation.
... Wherever relevant, I will include data on my non-heteronomative subjects, though it is possible that some individuals self-identified as binary to protect themselves against cultural stigma. 2. Albeit, neo-evolutionism suggests that the bonobos, our closest primate relatives, live in female-centered polyamorous networks (Hrdy, 1999) and in certain environments, women are prone to select multiple partners, especially as it provides them with options should their monogamous relationship lack genetic fitness (Baker, 2006;Batten, 2008;Le Cunff, 2018). 3. Nicolas Lala is a FB alias of an active member of the Paris poly group. ...
Multiple sexual partnerships can be viewed as networks in order to assess the nature of links between lovers and metamours (lover’s lovers) as well as the larger population. In such non-monogamous networks, where participants share sex, friendship, ideas, and economic resources, there exists a vast web of nodes connected in much more intimate and complex ways than one finds in the mono-normative landscape. This study explored gender dynamics in network centrality on a sample of 62 polyamorists in Paris, France using participant-observation, informal and structured interviews, and social network analysis. Though evolutionary psychology and pornographic film tend to reinforce heteronormative stereotypes of males as central social actors with multiple sexual partners and women as sexually passive, feminist theorists have argued for a more “agentic female sexual subjectivity”. My data showed that cis- and trans-women, with a strong sense of family and skills in interpersonal communication, score highest on network metrics of density/degree, homophily, indirectedness, and transitivity. The network data also indicate high modularity and endogamy with clustering tendencies for both cis-men and cis- and trans-women linked to kink, atypical intelligence, sexual and gender non-conformity, and mitigating factors of socioeconomic advantage and racial privilege.
... Darwin's (1871) foundational work The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex still rewards careful and repeated reading. Accessible introductions to sexual selection in humans include Batten (1992), Buss (1994), H. Fisher (1992, Daly and Wilson (1988), Ridley (1993), and Wright (1994). ...
... The sexes are in conflict rather than in cooperation; these male behaviors subvert female choice (Batten 1994). ...
Why is sex equality so hard to achieve? Social cooperation between women and men in various domains of life is assumed to be a fundamental and necessary building block of society, but proves hard to secure on terms of equality. One answer is that feminist quests for equality in private and public life are a form of misguided social engineering that ignores natural sex difference. This chapter examines arguments that nature and culture constrain feminist law reform. Appeals to nature argue that brain science and evolutionary psychology find salient differences between women and men, limiting what social engineering can achieve in fostering sex equality or reforming family law. Appeals to culture argue that constructions of masculinity and femininity are tenacious; challenging them threatens women’s and men’s sense of identity and causes resistance to equality. Contemporary society may espouse a commitment to a “gender neutral society,” but men’s and women’s “unofficial desire” (as Harvey Mansfield puts it) stands in the way. I discuss three examples of cultural resistance: the debate about egalitarian marriage, work/life conflict, and popular novels and films about heterosexual romance. Often at work in discussions about sex inequality is the notion of a proper equilibrium between the sexes that is upset when sex roles change or differences are minimized. However, even as critiques of feminist social engineering invoke nature and culture, problems posed by nature feature as a reason to embrace social engineering in the form of the social institution of marriage: Marriage is fundamental, yet fragile. I illustrate this by examining arguments (in case law and the marriage movement) against allowing same-sex couples to marry. The chapter then considers how feminist or female-centered work in evolutionary science challenges the presentation of nature and evolution in popularizing accounts and in public policy arguments. This work cautions about the politics of prehistory, or how certain gender biases or stereotypes may shape the study of human origins and impose a “paleolithic glass ceiling.”
... men (see reviews in Batten, 1992;Betzig, 1997;Buss, 1994;Cashdan, 1996;Cunningham, Druen, & Barbee, 1997;Ellis, 1992;Gangestad & Simpson, 2000;Miller & Todd, 1998;Thornhill & Gangestad, 1996). Later work called attention to variation in mate preferences due to additional factors, such as the duration of the relationship. ...
Women's mate choice criteria were examined experimentally in the contexts of long-term and extra-pair mateship scenarios. In long-term mateships, women may benefit by pairing with males who provide material resources and assistance in child rearing. In contrast, in extra-pair mateships, women may benefit in other ways, with such benefits outweighing the potential costs imposed by a primary mate who discovers the relationship. One benefit, or evolutionary function, of extra-pair mateships may be to replace a primary mate, in which case mate preferences should look similar across long-term and extra-pair contexts. However, another function of extra-pair mateships may be to obtain high quality gametes (Le., “good genes”), in which case women should be differentially attracted to cues of heritable phenotypic quality, such as physical attractiveness. By using detailed verbal and pictorial descriptions of men and requiring participants to trade off physical attractiveness for good character (i.e., being a good cooperator and parent), it was possible to determine whether women's criteria for partners varied across experimental contexts. Findings suggest that extra-pair mateships may have served the evolutionary function of obtaining “good genes,” because attractiveness was more important in extra-pair mateships to the detriment of good character. This effect was maintained even when characteristics of the female participants (age, parity, marital experience) were covaried. In addition, the preference for physical attractiveness was specific to the sexual context; it did not generalize, in a second experiment, to choices among short-term male coworkers.
... The field of ethology is replete with examples wherein courtship involves males offering gifts to their prospective mates (cf. Batten, 1992). For instance, the use of food in exchange for sexual access is common among baboons, our nearest cousins in the ape family (cf. ...
With evolutionary psychology used as the theoretical framework, two aspects of gift giving among young adults are investigated: (a) sex differences in motives for giving gifts to a romantic partner, and (b) the allocation of gift expenditures among various relations, including romantic partners, close friends, close kin, and distant kin members. As per the evolved sex differences in mating strategies, it is proposed and found that men report tactical motives for giving gifts to their romantic partners more frequently than women. Also, there are no sex differences in situational motives for giving gifts. In addition, women are aware that men use tactical motives more often; whereas men think that these motives are employed equally by both sexes. With regard to gift expenditures it is found that, for kin members, the amount spent on gifts increases with the genetic relatedness (r value) of the particular kin. When all relations (kin and nonkin members) are included, the allocation of gift expenditures were the highest to romantic partners, followed by those to close kin members and then to close friends. The latter finding is explained via the importance attached to the evolved psychological mechanisms linked to each of the above relations, namely, reproductive fitness (for partners), nonreproductive fitness (for close kin members), and reciprocal altruism (for close friends). © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
... This idea predicts that the presence of psychopathy alone places postpubertal daughters (as well as all other women) at risk. Because father– daughter sexual behavior confers much greater reproductive costs to the daughter than to the father (Haig, 1999; Shepher, 1983 ), perhaps a more specific incest avoidance mechanism resides only in females (as is the case in several other species; Batten, 1994). This idea is consistent with findings that mother– son sexual intercourse is extremely rare and that many postpubertal female victims leave home as early as possible to escape from an incestuous father (Finkelhor, 1986 ). ...
Child molesters who target their own children have been described as low risk and not pedophilic. Men who had molested a daughter or stepdaughter (n = 82) were compared to 102 molesters whose only female victims were extrafamilial. Men who offended against their own daughters had less deviant sexual age preferences and were less likely to commit new violent and sexual offenses. However, the father-daughter molesters exhibited an average absolute phallometric preference for prepubertal children and had a violent recidivism rate of 22% in a follow-up of less than 5 years. Actuarial risk assessment instruments (the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide and the Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide; V. L. Quinsey, G. T. Harris, M. E. Rice, and C. A. Cormier, 1998) worked as well for intrafamilial child molesters as for other sex offenders.
... Currently, sexual selection is one of the fastest-growing and most exciting areas of evolutionary biology and animal behavior. Recent biological work permeates the journals Batten (1992), Buss (1994), H. Fisher (1992), Daly and Wilson (1988), Ridley (1993), and Wright (1994). It is important to understand the peculiar history of sexual selection theory because virtually all of 20th century psychology, anthropology, paleontology, prirnatology, and cognitive science, as well as the social sciences and humanities, developed without recognizing that sexual selection could have played any important role in the evolution of the human body, the human mind, human behavior, or human culture. ...
The application of sexual selection theory to human behavior has been the greatest success story in evolutionary psychology, and one of the most fruitful and fascinating developments in the human sciences over the last two decades. Ironically, this development would have seemed absurd only twenty years ago. At that time, many biologists considered sexual selection through mate choice to be Darwin's least successful idea: if not outright wrong, it was at most a minor, uninteresting, even pathological evolutionary process. At that time, any "Darwinization" of the human sciences would have had to rely on natural selection theory, which bears much less directly on human social, sexual, and cultural behavior. Instead, something remarkable happened: sexual selection theory was revived over the last two decades through the combined efforts of researchers in theoretical population genetics, experimental behavioral biology, primatology, evolutionary anthropology, and evolutionary psychology. Today, although natural selection theory serves as the conceptual and rhetorical foundation for evolutionary psychology (see Tooby & Cosmides, 1990, 1992), sexual selection theory seems to guide more actual day-to-day research (see Buss, 1994; Ridley, 1993; Wright, 1994). This chapter reviews the current state of sexual selection theory, and outlines some applications to understanding human behavior. Sexual selection theory has been revived so recently that, while extraordinary opportunities exist for further research, many old misconceptions persist. These include the mistaken ideas that sexual selection:(1) always produces sex differences,(2) does not operate in monogamous species,(3) is weaker than natural selection, and(4) had nothing to do with the evolution of human intelligence, language, or creativity. One goal of this chapter will be to dispel some of these myths, and to bring evolutionary psychology up to date with respect to the biological literature on sexual select
The subject of the study is the ratio of indicators of success in career and interpersonal relationships of spouses in patriarchal and egalitarian families. The purpose of the study was to determine the direction and nature of changes in marital relations in situations of career growth of one of the spouses. To conduct the study, we used: the questionnaire "Communication in the family" (Yu.E. Alyoshina, L.Ya. Gozman, E.M. Dubovskaya), the methodology "Role expectations and claims in marriage" (A.N. Volkova), the methodology "Distribution of roles in the family" (Yu.E. Alyoshina, L.Ya. Gozman, E.M. Dubovskaya), a test questionnaire of satisfaction with marriage (V.V. Stolin, G.P. Butenko, T.L. Romanova, Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University), the method "Life Line" Golovakha E.I., Kronik A.A., adapted for the purposes of the study - measuring attitudes to career growth, methods of qualitative and quantitative data processing were also used. The sample of the study is represented by a group of men and women aged 35 to 40 years, in the number of 12 people who have been married for 10-15 years. Based on the conducted research, it can be concluded that traditional patriarchal families are not characterized by high social activity, focus on career development of both spouses, a high level of trusting communication and mutual understanding. As a result of the correlation analysis, it was found that there are a large number of correlations between various spheres of family relations, satisfaction with marriage and career success. Thus, the data obtained will increase the level of consistency of family values and the role adequacy of spouses, which will reduce the number of conflicts arising in the family and will contribute to the harmonization of family relations and thereby increase the level of satisfaction with marriage by spouses.
Cilj ovoga preglednog rada bio je istražiti učinke tjelesne aktivnosti u poboljšanju i očuvanju seksualne funkcije u zdravih te smanjenju simptoma u osoba s već dijagnosticiranim jednim ili više poremećaja seksualne funkcije. Pregledni rad uključio je 50 znanstvenih djela objavljenih na engleskom jeziku u periodu od 1998. do 2016. godine. Rezultati upućuju da umjerena i intenzivna tjelesna aktivnost mogu značajno poboljšati seksualnu funkciju. Aerobna i ukupna tjelesna aktivnost značajno poboljšavaju erektilnu funkciju u muškaraca sa ili bez utvrđenih poremećaja seksualne funkcije. Tjelesna aktivnost poboljšava seksualnu funkciju u zdravih žena uključujući seksualno uzbuđenje, lubrikaciju, sposobnost postizanja orgazma i smanjenje dispareunije. Rezultati sugeriraju učinkovitost treninga mišića zdjelična dna u poboljšanju seksualne funkcije u muškaraca s erektilnom disfunkcijom te u poboljšanju seksualne funkcije u žena s utvrđenim jednim ili više poremećaja seksualne funkcije iz skupine pobuđenosti, orgazma, lubrikacije i dispareunije. Redovita tjelesna aktivnost indirektno poboljšava seksualnu funkciju i mehanizmima prevencije kardiovaskularnih i metaboličkih bolesti koje spadaju u važne čimbenike uzroka poremećaja seksualne funkcije.
Ključne riječi: tjelesno vježbanje, seksualno zdravlje, poremećaj seksualne funkcije, erektilna disfunkcija, pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT)
Feminists have often been among the most outspoken critics of sociobiology, maintaining that sociobiology is inherently sexist and that it is used to uphold patriarchy. This article examines the latest research by scholars—many of them women—who have used a sociobiological approach to expand our understanding of female behavior. It shows that sociobiology recognizes complexity in human reproductive behavior and that members of both sexes employ a variety of reproductive strategies, depending upon their environments. Women are not necessarily sexually passive within the sociobiological paradigm, and they are not “naturally” parents; moreover, men clearly play a necessary and significant role in parenting. Women do have reproductive interests that are separate from those of men, and these interests clash. Despite these conflicts of reproductive interest, however, men and women can develop cooperative relationships to achieve their mutual goal of raising children to maturity. Patriarchy is not—within the sociobiological paradigm—a natural order between males and females. Sociobiology also does not suggest that women should be restricted to parenting roles; indeed, sociobiological research can provide the basis for greater freedom for both men and women in reproduction and resource acquisition.
Donor insemination is the most common type of assisted reproductive technology that healthy women use to achieve pregnancy. An increasing proportion of these women are single and their choices of sperm donors are likely to reflect criteria other than those of matching donor attributes to marital-type partners. I present work done to examine how women chose sperm donors. In the first paper, women’s preferences for hypothetical sperm donors were compared to those for men in other potentially reproductive contexts, specifically long-term mates and extra-pair partners (i.e., sexual partners other than primary mates). As might be anticipated, there was heavy emphasis on health and physical attributes, but women weer surprisingly concerned with the sperm donor’s “good character”, even though they believed that these character attributes were not genetically transmissible. These results suggested that these women who assessed attributes in donors used some of the decision-making processes that are normally associated with long-term mate choice. In the second paper, women’s preferences for hypothetical sperm donors and long-term mates were examined in a Norwegian’s preferences were remarkably similar to those of the Canadian women, and again suggested that women’s preferences for sperm donors were influenced by their mate choice criteria. In the third paper, clinical and experimental work was reviewed that suggested that information and choices should be made available to women who use donor insemination. The literature on donor insemination remains devoid, however, of information on how women choose donors in clinical settings. In the final paper, we examined how both single women and women with partners chose sperm donors in a clinical setting, by identifying information that predicted their choices. As found in earlier experiments, women used information about health, and there was some evidence that they used information related to desirable attributes in mates. These results were then compared to information that predicted experimental subjects’ hypothetical choices of donors. Findings from this comparison suggested that these subjects used some of the same criteria as the donor insemination clients, and that results obtained in experimental studies of mate and donor selection can provide insight into women’s choices of sperm donors.
Psychologists, academics, and the public often find evolutionary studies irrelevant to what they take for granted, e.g., eating
disorders are about self-esteem, not mating strategies. This (nonevolutionary) explanation derives from the “symbolization
model”: eating disorders are symbols of underlying distressful mind-sets involving low self-esteem. Evolutionists counter
that evolutionary theory can unify all of psychology, e.g., eating disorders are about mating, not mere symbols of ego-identity
problems. That evolutionary explanation derives from the “reproductive suppression model”: eating disorders are extreme forms
of evolved adaptations for postponing reproduction to increase lifetime reproductive success. The two models yield different
kinds of explanations. Because relevance is relative to the kind of explanation, evolutionary theory cannot unify all psychology
theory (symbolic explanation has a place) but it is relevant to and can unify most psychological phenomena. Yet evolutionary
explanations that posit functions without considering causes of behavior lose explanatory power and persuasive power. Causes
of eating disorders include: lack of desire to develop sexual traits, dislike of one’s body size and shape, striving to meet
demanding physical standards, fear of becoming fat, desire to conform, and seeing control as a virtue.
An evolutionary perspective on physical attractiveness suggests that individuals find those characteristics associated with reproductive success attractive. Theory and existing data consistent with this view link perceptions of physical attractiveness to traits such as symmetry, status, and reproductive value. Here, we take this evolutionary perspective global to ask how do Chinese men and women rate the sexual beauty of East Asian compared with Caucasian models? We enlisted 74 Chinese men and women from Hohhot, a northern city, and Chengdu, a southern city, to rank photos of both Chinese and Caucasian male and female models obtained from Chinese magazines. We also elicited emic accounts for the ratings as complementary source of qualitative data. Results revealed that Chinese women ranked Caucasian male and female models as more attractive. Chinese men, however, did not differentially rank East Asian and Caucasian women, though they did rank Caucasian men as being more attractive. We suggest that, while an evolutionary novelty, a process of globalization can still be linked to potentially adaptive preferences for physical attractiveness, and call for more research in this vein.
Sex differences in subjective distress were observed when men and women were asked to imagine their partners being emotionally or sexually unfaithful. Additional sex-linked "violations of trust," such as threats to the couples' economic security or threats to a partner's attractiveness, also were investigated. In Study 1 (60 men, 60 women) and Study 2 (45 men, 43 women), women were more distressed than men by emotional infidelity and by other female-linked violations (e.g., partner losing a job), and men were more distressed than women by sexual infidelity and by other male-linked violations (e.g., partner gaining a considerable amount of weight). Study 3 (30 men, 30 women) examined the possibility that the sex differences in distress reflected within-sex learned relationships among the violations rather than evolved sexual strategies. An evolutionary perspective, in contrast to the alternative analysis, provided parsimonious explanations of the sex differences in subjective distress to emotional and sexual infidelity, and to the other sex-linked violations of trust.
Dating and courtship through personal advertisements have been studied only in an extremely limited fashion. Few researchers have sought information about the responses ad placers have received, and only one has placed a bogus ad in order to receive and examine responses. I placed ads in four personal columns in part to determine the relative importance of attractiveness and occupational/financial success in attracting potential dating partners. Men are far more influenced by looks and women, by success. So much is this the case that it is entirely possible that for some men, lower socioeconomic attributes among women are actually seen as desirable. Men are more likely to see dates with more desirable partners as their courtship entitlement; that is, they are more likely to put themselves forward as potential dates for my (fictive) ad placers when, an independent panel of judges determined, they would not be deemed sufficiently desirable partners for them. Moreover, men are more likely to be minimalists and blitzers in personals-generated courtship, that is, to put forth little effort, and to answer more than one ad. I suggest that a sense of inappropriate entitlement constitutes a form of role overreach — that is, is a feature of the masculine role that clashes with the gender role of women.
Male and female students participated in an experiment designed to test specific hypotheses fromsexual strategies theory (Buss & Schmitt, 1993) regarding their preferences for certain personal and physical traits in a potential mate. Participants
distributed 50 points among a number of trait-pairs. The items consisted of a consensually valued trait-pair, “biologically
relevant” trait-pairs, and a reference to ethnic and cultural similarity. In Condition 1 participants distributed the points
among the trait-pairs without any additional information about the potential mate; Condition 2 participants distributed the
points after being asked to assume the potential mate possessed some biologically relevant traits. Males, compared to females,
assigned more points to trait-pairs signalling highreproductive value, and females, compared to males, assigned more points to trait-pairs signalling highresource potential. Male and female participants in Condition 2, compared to control participants, distributed more points among the opposite
genders’ preferred traits. Discussion focused on speculation that assuming a potential mate possessed biologically relevant
traits increases the desirability of other traits related to the solution of common and genderspecific long-term mating problems.
Men and women were asked to imagine a romantic partner being sexually unfaithful and/or emotionally unfaithful. Three hypotheses
regarding gender differences in subjective distress to sexual and emotional infidelity, and in the inferences linking the
infidelities were tested. The results indicated that more men than women were distressed by imagining a partner enjoying passionate
sexual intercourse with another person, and more women than men were distressed by imagining a partner forming a deep emotional
attachment to another person. Asking another group of women and men to imagine a partner committing both infidelities at the
same time, and then to indicate which component of the combined infidelity was the most distressing, produced the same sexual
asymmetries. The prediction that men will infer from a partner's sexual infidelity the co-occurrence of emotional infidelity
and that women will infer from a partner’s emotional infidelity the co-occurrence of sexual infidelity was not supported.
An evolutionary perspective, rather than an alternative analysis emphasizing the different inferences men and women draw from
sex and love, provided a satisfactory explanation of the sexual asymmetries in the cues to jealousy.
Keywords: arginine vasopressin, paternal behavior, preference test, cingulate cortex, oxytocin. Thesis (Ph. D.)--North Carolina State University. Includes bibliographical references. Includes vita.
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