Tandem androgenic and psychological shifts in male reproductive effort following a manipulated “win” or “loss” in a sporting competition

© 2018, The Author(s). Male-male competition is involved in inter- and intrasexual selection, with both endocrine and psychological factors presumably contributing to reproductive success in human males. We examined relationships among men’s naturally occurring testosterone, their self-perceived mate value (SPMV), self-esteem, sociosexuality, and expected likelihood of approaching attractive women versus situations leading to child involvement. We then monitored changes in these measures in male rowers (N = 38) from Cambridge, UK, following a manipulated “win” or “loss” as a result of an indoor rowing contest. Baseline results revealed that men with heightened testosterone and SPMV values typically had greater inclinations toward engaging in casual sexual relationships and a higher likelihood of approaching attractive women in a hypothetical social situation. As anticipated, both testosterone and SPMV increased following a manipulated “victory” and were associated with heightened sociosexuality, and increased expectations toward approaching attractive women versus individuals who would involve them in interacting with children after the race. SPMV and self-esteem appeared to mediate some of the effects of testosterone on post-race values. These findings are considered in the broader context of individual trade-offs between mating and parental effort and a model of the concurrent and dynamic androgenic and psychological influences contributing to male reproductive effort and success

Addressing our inner salmon in an evolutionary framework for psychopathology

Life history theory is an elegant instrument for describing major differences in patterns of life history traits across plant and animal taxa (Charnov, 1993; Roff, 1992, 2002; Stearns, 1992). Typical life history traits discussed in the classic evolutionary biology literature include size at birth, growth pattern, age of sexual maturation, size at maturity, age of first reproduction, number and sex ratio of offspring produced, age and size-specific reproductive investments, age and size-specific mortality schedules, and length of lifespan (see Stearns, 1992). A basic assumption of the classic optimality approach to life history theory is that, given adequate genetic variation, the evolution of species has involved natural selection of optimal combinations of these traits. However, genetic and other constraints, and trade-offs have reduced the set of possible combinations. Life history theory predicts trade-offs between energetic investment in growth, maintenance, and reproduction across species, of which a trade-off between the main constituents of reproductive investment, mating and parental effort, may be the most common (McGlothlin, Jawor, & Ketterson, 2007). It is easy to see how if organisms possess finite resources that trade-offs affecting life history traits would necessarily evolve over evolutionary time. If the “pie of finite resources” is divided up between life history traits, taking a large slice of one type of trait leaves less of the pie to be divided into other forms of investment. Among vertebrate species, for example, salmon have very different life histories than primate species. Their life history consists of relatively rapid growth, early maturation and first reproduction, small size, little parental care, and the production of a high number of offspring, followed immediately by death in semelparous species,eclipsing a postreproductive period. In contrast, the life history of human beings consists of relatively slow development, late puberty and first reproduction, iteroparity, large body size, low number of offspring, followed by high parental investment (extended to grandparental investment) and a long life span, including a female postreproductive period

Martin Daly and Margo Wilson: founders of evolutionary psychology

Canadian academics whose scholarly contributions and leadership roles in the Human Behavior and Evolution Society and its flagship journal were significant in the emergence of evolutionary psychology

Adaptive significance of low levels of self-deception and cooperation in depression

Consciousness and self-awareness, juxtaposed by the ability to self-deceive, are legacies of our evolutionary heritage. As a purposive outgrowth of modularity, self-deception may serve to isolate threatening thoughts from consciousness and facilitate cooperation. The primary goal of the present investigation was to determine if individuals with depression exhibit both low levels of self-deception and cooperation. Relationships between the tendency to self-deceive and the conscious attributions typical of depression or promoting cooperation were also examined. Eighty undergraduate participants completed measures of self-deception, impression management, depression, and attributional styles. Cooperation was assessed by responses to social dilemmas based on the prisoner's dilemma game. Results indicated that, as expected, high self-deceivers cooperated more and exhibited lower levels of depression than low self-deceivers. Self-deception scores were significantly associated with several attributional styles but independently predicted depressive symptomology. That individuals with depression displayed both reduced levels of self-deception and cooperation is discussed in light of several models of the evolutionary significance of depression, especially E. H. Hagen's bargaining model of depression [The functions of postpartum depression. Evolution and Human Behavior, 20, 325–359, 1999; Depression as bargaining: The case postpartum. Evolution and Human Behavior, 23, 323–336, 2002; The bargaining model of depression. In P. Hammerstein (Ed.), Genetic and cultural evolution of cooperation (pp. 95–123). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003]

A brief narrative on development, subconscious processes, mating behaviour, and history of evolutionary psychology

[Extract] Herbert Spencer (1861), who first coined the phrase "survival of the fittest" to describe Darwin's theory of natural selection asked, "What knowledge is of most worth?" For Spencer, the answer was "science" - basic scientific knowledge was paramount to advancing human insight, society, and happiness. According to Spencer, "Necessary and eternal are its truths, all Science concerns all mankind for all time." (p. 53). In particular, he thought an understanding of the "science of life" or biology was crucial and that all other sciences, including chemistry, physics, and geology, be regarded as a key to the science of life. In Spencer's terms, perhaps nowhere does the value of understanding the science of life apply more aptly than to the field of psychology. The study of psychology and its applications have received great momentum and insight through the integration of the most powerful theory of life - evolutionary theory - and this is witnessed in the very rapid increase in interest and research in the modern field of evolutionary psychology

Selfish genes, developmental systems and the evolution of development

Development is a gene's chosen route to perpetuity. By building and developing phenotypes, genes have been able to exploit uncharted niches that a simple naked replicator could not. An organism's life history is an evolved solution for inhabiting a niche more successfully than any other competing organism. Niches are not constant, but have opened up through geological time, providing organisms opportunities to infiltrate them. Some niches have become extinct, trapping species and leaving their embalmed remains in the paleontological record. Others have been modified over time, drawing along with them species that have managed to keep up with the changes. At any one point in history, even established, well-functioning niches are not static-they change, as with the seasons. In order to fully exploit a niche, organisms must not only evolve to infiltrate them, but they must change over time within them. Thus, natural selection has created a unique complement of genes for each species whose expression necessarily varies over time. Hence, capsules of inert selfish genes are not the ultimate focus of selection, but developmental patterns of gene expression entrenched in dynamic life cycles. Moreover, organisms do not just track or respond to changes within the environment; they act on niches, altering them and pushing their boundaries as an outcome of their own developmental processes. In this sense, organisms are not solely products of selective forces in the environment; rather, they forge their own niches from the inside out, constrained by characteristics in the physical world in which niches are necessarily embedded. Like balloons self-expanding in confined spaces of different shapes, phylogeny involves the creation of organisms that exist at the boundaries of internal and external pressures. Phylogeny is simultaneously an inside-out and outside-in process of development-and so is ontogeny. If organisms are conglomerates of adaptive solutions to developmental problems, some of these have\ud been of their own making as they pushed forward the frontiers of their niches

Call Me Daddy: How Long-term Desirability Is Influenced by Intention for Fatherhood

One of the most important decisions an individual can make involves investing in a mating relationship. For women, the process of mate selection can be time-intensive and fraught with costs and dangers. However, these risks can be minimised by attending to relevant social information and modelling the mate choices of others. The propensity of imitating another’s mate choices is referred to as mate copying. Most research has focused on this behaviour in non-humans, but evidence of its existence in humans is emerging. The current study sought to determine conditions that modify a man’s desirability. The present study examined 267 women’s evaluations of men depicted in silhouetted images who varied in terms of their intentions for fatherhood and relationship history. Results showed that a man’s desirability as a long term mate was enhanced if he wished to become a father, and/or if he had a previous relationship experience, indicating he had been formerly chosen or preferred. These findings add to the existing body of knowledge on mate copying and attention to social information by demonstrating how women incorporate social learning and innate evolutionary predispositions to facilitate decision-making and behaviour relating to mate selection

I want what she's having: evidence of human mate copying\ud

A variety of non-human females do not select male partners independently. Instead they favor males having previous associations with other females, a phenomenon known as mate copying. This paper investigates whether humans also exhibit mate copying and whether consistent positive information about a man's mate value, and a woman's age and self-perceived mate value (SPMV), influence her tendency to copy the mate choices of others. Female university students (N = 123) rated the desirability of photographed men pictured alone or with one, two, or five women represented by silhouettes. In accordance with the visual arrays, men were described as currently in a romantic relationship; having previously been in one, two, or five relationships; or not having had a romantic relationship in the past 4 years. Women generally rated men pictured with one or two previous partners as more desirable than those with none. Men depicted with five previous partners, however, were found to be less desirable. Younger, presumably less experienced women had a greater tendency to mate copy compared with older women, but high SPMV did not predict greater levels of mate copying. The findings reaffirmed and expanded those suggesting that women do not make mate choices independently

Enhancement of self-perceived mate value precedes a shift in men's preferred mating strategy

Seventy-three participants (40 women, 33 men) completed questionnaires concerning their self-perceived mate value (SPMV) and preferred mating strategy in two separate sessions, with baseline measures collected during the first stage. At the commencement of the second testing session, participants were provided with a fictitious positive assessment of their worth as a mate in an attempt to manipulate their SPMV upward. It was hypothesized that higher SPMV and the endorsement or pursuit of casual sexual activity would be positively related in men and that raising men's SPMV would increase the bias toward this mating strategy. A strong relationship between SPMV and mating strategy was not expected in women, nor was increasing SPMV expected to alter women's mating strategy. As predicted, high baseline levels of SPMV were positively related with the endorsement of casual sexual activity in men, and an elevation in men's SPMV following the manipulation was associated with the increased choice of this mating strategy. Moreover, it appeared that the rise in SPMV specifically, rather than an increase in global self-esteem, was related to the shift in mating strategy. Little evidence was found to suggest that baseline SPMV or increases to SPMV were related to women’s endorsement or pursuit of casual versus more committed sexual relationships