Mental State Attribution and Body Configuration in Women

Body configuration is a sexually dimorphic trait. In humans, men tend to have high shoulder-to-hip ratios. Women in contrast, often have low waist-to-hip ratios (WHR); i.e., narrow waists and broad hips that approximate an hour-glass configuration. Women with low WHR’s are rated as more attractive, healthier, and more fertile. They also tend to have more attractive voices, lose their virginity sooner, and have more sex partners. WHR has also been linked with general cognitive performance. In the present study we expand upon previous research examining the role of WHR in cognition. We hypothesized that more feminine body types, as indexed by a low WHR, would be associated with cognitive measures of the female “brain type,” such as mental state attribution and empathy because both may depend upon the activational effects of estrogens at puberty. We found that women with low WHRs excel at identifying emotional states of other people and show a cognitive style that favors empathizing over systemizing. We suggest this relationship may be a byproduct of greater gluteofemoral fat stores which are high in the essential fatty acids needed to support brain development and cellular functioning. It is interesting to note that our findings suggest lower WHR females, who are more likely to be targeted for dishonest courtship, may be better at identifying disingenuous claims of commitment

Projected Hartree product wavefunctions. VI. Natural orbital CI expansions in nonsinglet cases

The NSO\u27s and NO\u27s have been determined for some wavefunctions for Li, Be1+, B2+, C3+ 2S, and Be 3S wavefunctions containing radial correlation. It is shown how the NO\u27s may be utilized to form rapidly converging CI expansions in general. The role of the NSO\u27s in this problem is discussed. ©1973 The American Institute of Physic

Atomic spectral-product representations of molecular electronic structure: metric matrices and atomic-product composition of molecular eigenfunctions

Recent progress is reported in development of ab initio computational methods for the electronic structures of molecules employing the many-electron eigenstates of constituent atoms in spectral-product forms. The approach provides a universal atomic-product description of the electronic structure of matter as an alternative to more commonly employed valence-bond- or molecular-orbital-based representations. The Hamiltonian matrix in this representation is seen to comprise a sum over atomic energies and a pairwise sum over Coulombic interaction terms that depend only on the separations of the individual atomic pairs. Overall electron antisymmetry can be enforced by unitary transformation when appropriate, rather than as a possibly encumbering or unnecessary global constraint. The matrix representative of the antisymmetrizer in the spectral-product basis, which is equivalent to the metric matrix of the corresponding explicitly antisymmetric basis, provides the required transformation to antisymmetric or linearly independent states after Hamiltonian evaluation. Particular attention is focused in the present report on properties of the metric matrix and on the atomic-product compositions of molecular eigenstates as described in the spectral-product representations. Illustrative calculations are reported for simple but prototypically important diatomic (H_2, CH) and triatomic (H_3, CH_2) molecules employing algorithms and computer codes devised recently for this purpose. This particular implementation of the approach combines Slater-orbital-based one- and two-electron integral evaluations, valence-bond constructions of standard tableau functions and matrices, and transformations to atomic eigenstate-product representations. The calculated metric matrices and corresponding potential energy surfaces obtained in this way elucidate a number of aspects of the spectral-product development, including the nature of closure in the representation, the general redundancy or linear dependence of its explicitly antisymmetrized form, the convergence of the apparently disparate atomic-product and explicitly antisymmetrized atomic-product forms to a common invariant subspace, and the nature of a chemical bonding descriptor provided by the atomic-product compositions of molecular eigenstates. Concluding remarks indicate additional studies in progress and the prognosis for performing atomic spectral-product calculations more generally and efficiently

The Science of Sex Appeal: An Evolutionary Perspective

Growing evidence shows that features we find attractive in members of the opposite sex signal important underlying dimensions of health and reproductive viability. It has been discovered that men with attractive faces have higher quality sperm, women with attractive bodies are more fertile, men and women with attractive voices lose their virginity sooner, men who spend more money than they earn have more sex partners, and lap dancers make more tips when they are in the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle. This paper highlights recent evidence showing that the way we perceive other people has been shaped by our evolutionary history. An evolutionary approach provides a powerful tool for understanding the consistency and diversity of mating preferences and behaviors across individuals and cultures. Keywords: evolutionary psychology, facial attractiveness, body configuration, voice, menstrual cycle, muscularity, body fat, dishonest signals A cursory glance at the women featured in popular men's magazines, such as Maxim or Playboy, suggests that men are attracted to young women with smooth skin, long soft hair, large eyes, slender bodies, long legs, curved hips, large pronounced breasts, rounded buttocks, and flat stomachs The pressure to be attractive can leave many people feeling dissatisfied with their appearance Why do so many people spend so much time, effort, and money on their appearance? Why do we find some people more attractive than others? If beauty is only skin deep, why should it matter how people look? What follows is a review of the science of sex appeal, targeting recent findings that illustrate the conceptual and heuristic value of an evolutionary perspective. 1 We first briefly outline how evolution shapes the way we process information about other people, and then focus on why we find certain faces, body types, and voices appealing. We show how an evolutionary perspective enables us to understand and predict ways that women's preferences for some of these traits shift across the menstrual cycle. We conclude with a discussion of how individuals have developed cultural and technological innovations to enhance certain aspects of their appearance. The Impact of Evolution It is important to understand that we do not experience the world or other people directly. Rather, our experience is a byproduct of sensory input acting on the nervous system. Our sensory receptors are evolved neurological mechanisms that convert mechanical, chemical, thermal, or electromagnetic energy into nerve impulses. These nerve impulses in turn activate evolved parts of the brain that translate these impulses into experience. The age-old question, "if a tree fell over in the woods and no one was there to hear it, would it make a noise?" has a clear and definitive answer from a neurobiological perspective. No doubt a felled tree would produce intense air borne vibrations, but in order to be "heard" or to make a "noise" these vibrations would have to impinge on an ear and trigger nerve impulses that activate relevant 1 In biological terms, traits that are more typical of women are considered "feminine" whereas traits that are more typical of males are considered "masculine." For example, testosterone "masculinizes" men's faces by making their jaws squarer, and estrogen "feminizes" women's faces by making their jaws more rounded