Men’s preferences for women’s breast size and shape in four cultures

The morphology of human female breasts typical for their permanent fat deposits appears to be unique among primates. It has been previously suggested that female breast morphology arose as a result of sexual selection. This is supported by evidence showing that women with larger breasts tend to have higher estrogen levels; breast size may therefore serve as an indicator of potential fertility. However, breasts become less firm with age and parity, and breast shape could thus also serve as a marker of residual fertility. Therefore, cross-culturally, males are hypothesized to prefer breast morphology that indicates both high potential and residual fertility. To test this, we performed a survey on men´s preferences for breast morphology in four different cultures (Brazil, Cameroon, the Czech Republic, Namibia). As stimuli, we used two sets of images varying in breast size (marker of potential fertility) and level of breast firmness (marker of residual fertility). Individual preferences for breast size were variable, but the majority of raters preferred medium sized, followed by large sized breasts. In contrast, we found systematic directional preferences for firm breasts across all four samples. This pattern supports the idea that breast morphology may serve as a residual fertility indicator, but offers more limited support for the potential fertility indicator hypothesis. Future studies should focus on a potential interaction between the two parameters, breast size and firmness, which, taken together, may help to explain the relatively large variation in women's breast sizes

Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others

Influence of indicators of masculinization on human attractiveness and sexuality

Homens geralmente são mais permissivos quanto ao sexo casual, sendo considerados mais irrestritos. Evolutivamente, essa estratégia sexual foi selecionada pelos homens apresentarem menor investimento parental e consequente maior investimento na competição e busca por parceiras, enquanto as mulheres, por apresentar alto investimento e sucesso reprodutivo relacionado à qualidade da prole, foram selecionadas para ser seletivas. Numa perspectiva proximal, o nível de hormônios masculinizantes pré-natais e da puberdade pode gerar essas diferenças intersexuais, assim como distinções intrassexuais, mas as evidências são ambíguas. Ademais, não está clara a conexão entre hormônios e julgamentos de si e realizados por terceiros quanto à atratividade. Avaliou-se a variação intersexual e intrassexual na sociossexualidade em função de indicadores anatômicos, cognitivo e psicológicos de masculinização e em função da autoavaliação e da avaliação feita pelo sexo oposto da atratividade. Participaram 54 mulheres (24,02 anos ± 4,86) e 51 homens (23,57 anos ± 3,89), estudantes da cidade de São Paulo, compreendendo diferentes cursos. Eles responderam voluntária e anonimamente a um questionário, contendo autoavaliações facial, corporal, vocal e comportamental quanto à feminilidade/masculinidade e atratividade; Inventário de Orientação Sociossexual-Revisado; e teste de rotação mental de Vandenberg, e mediu-se a taxa digital 2D:4D das duas mãos e as razões cintura/quadril feminina e cintura/ombro masculina. Ademais, as faces foram fotografadas e avaliadas quanto à atratividade: 27 mulheres (23,81 anos ± 3,87) avaliaram os rostos masculinos e 24 homens (23,66 anos ± 3,70) julgaram os femininos. As diferenças intersexuais foram: homens foram mais irrestritos, autodeclaram-se mais masculinos, foram mais masculinos cognitivamente e foram julgados como menos atraentes facialmente. Não houve diferença entre as razões 2D:4D e a atratividade autodeclarada. Nas variações intrassexuais femininas, apenas indicadores psicológicos se associaram com a sociossexualidade: mulheres mais irrestritas avaliaram sua voz como mais masculina e menos atraente. Ademais, mulheres cognitivamente mais masculinas foram julgadas como facialmente mais atraentes, participantes mais masculinas na razão 2D:4D avaliaram seu corpo como mais atraente, aquelas que se declararam mais atraentes também se julgaram como mais femininas e mulheres que avaliaram seu comportamento como mais feminino foram mais femininas na razão cintura/quadril. Nas variações intrassexuais masculinas, homens que se declararam mais atraentes, mais masculinos corporalmente, mais velhos e que tiveram razão 2D:4D mais feminina foram mais irrestritos. Demais, homens que foram julgados como mais atraentes se declararam mais atraentes facialmente e mais femininos em seu comportamento; taxa 2D:4D mais feminina se associou com rosto autodeclarado mais masculino; e participantes que se avaliaram como mais atraentes corporalmente tiveram ombros mais largos. Então, este projeto mostrou que parte da sociossexualidade masculina pode ser explicada por algumas medidas anatômicas e por indicadores de valor de conquista, enquanto apenas os indicadores psicológicos se relacionaram com sociossexualidade feminina. Porém, indicadores de masculinização não se relacionaram entre si nem com a sociossexualidade, como algumas medidas se associaram de forma oposta ao esperado e algumas relações foram contraditórias entre si. Isso indica que o desenvolvimento dos indicadores de masculinização e seus efeitos podem ser parcialmente independentes entre si. Novos estudos examinando essas associações e outras amostras brasileiras são necessáriosMen in general are more permissive on casual sex, for that reason they are considered more unrestricted. From an evolutionary perspective, this sexual strategy was selected because men have shown less parental investment and, for that reason, greater investment in competition and in search for partners. On the other hand, women were selected to be more selective due to their greater parental investment and reproductive success related to the offspring quality. From a proximate view, the level of prenatal and pubertal masculinization may cause these intersexual differences, as well as intrasexual variations, but the evidence is ambiguous. Moreover, it is not clear the relation among hormones and attractiveness (self-rated and evaluated by others). We assessed the inter- and intrasexual variation in the sociosexuality by using anatomical, cognitive, and psychological indicators of masculinization and the evaluation of attractiveness (self-rated and evaluated by others). Participants were 54 women (mean age = 24.02, SD = 4.86) and 51 men (mean age = 23.57, SD = 3.89), all students of Sao Paulo city, comprising different university courses. First, they answered, voluntarily and anonymously, a questionnaire that included facial, bodily, vocal, and behavioral self-reported femininity/masculinity and attractiveness; the revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory; and the Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test. Then we then measured the 2D:4D digit ratio of both hands, the female waist-to-hip ratio and the male waist-to-shoulder ratio. The participants faces were photographed and rated for attractiveness: 27 women (mean age = 23.81, SD 3.87) assessed the male faces, and 24 men (mean age = 23.66, SD 3.70) judged the female faces. The intersex differences we found were: men that were more unrestricted declared themselves as more masculine, their cognition was more masculine, and they were judged as less facially attractive. We found no differences between the 2D:4D ratio and the self-rated attractiveness. In the female intrasexual variations, we found that only the psychological indicators were associated with the sociosexuality: more unrestricted women rated their voices as more masculine and as less attractive. Moreover, women who were more cognitively masculine were judged as more facially attractive; participants who had more masculine 2D:4D evaluated their body as more attractive; women who rated themselves as more attractive also judged themselves as more feminine, females who evaluated their behavior as more feminine had more feminine waist-to-hip ratio. As for the male intrasexual variations: men who rated themselves as more attractive, more bodily masculine, older, and who had more feminine 2D:4D ratios were more unrestricted. Furthermore, men who were judged as more attractive declared themselves as more facially attractive and were more behavioral feminine; the more feminine 2D:4D ratios were associated with more masculine self-rated faces; and participants who evaluated themselves as more bodily attractive had wider shoulders. This study showed that part of the male sociosexuality might be explained by some anatomical measures and by the indicators of mate value, while only the psychological indicators might be related to the female sociosexuality. However, indicators of masculinization were not associated to each other or with the sociosexuality; some measures had opposite relations, and some associations were contradictory. This indicates that the development of the indicators of masculinizing and their effects may be partly independent. New studies are needed to examine those associations and other Brazilian sample

The influence of femininity/masculinity and environmental threats on preferences for potential romantic partners

Os humanos têm enfrentado a escolha entre preferências por traços femininos e masculinos, isto é, entre investimentos diretos (cuidado parental) e indiretos (qualidade genética) na reprodução, respectivamente, o que afeta a percepção de atratividade e indica qualidades biossociais. A FM é influenciada principalmente por hormônios reprodutivos, mas sua percepção é mediada por: 1) contextos biopsicossociais (autopercepção e percepção por terceiros), 2) múltiplos canais de informação (visual e vocal) e/ou 3) ameaças ambientais (patógenos e escassez de recursos). Estudos anteriores possuem limitações, como ausência de clareza quanto à associação entre autopercepção e percepção por terceiros da FM; incongruência nas informações das faces e vozes dos homens; e estudos focando principalmente nas preferências das mulheres por faces e vozes manipuladas digitalmente e usando um modelo de escolha forçada. Assim, examinamos: (a) possíveis associações entre percepções subjetivas (autopercepção e percepção por terceiros da FM e atratividade) e FM medida; (b) concordância na FM de mulheres e homens percebida por terceiros; e (c) influência de patógenos (PT) e escassez de recursos (ER) nas preferências pela FM no sexo oposto. Tiramos fotos faciais e gravamos vozes e danças de público-alvo de 41 mulheres e 38 homens e medimos o dimorfismo sexual da forma facial, a frequência fundamental vocal e o etograma das danças. Estes participantes também autoavaliaram sua FM e atratividade faciais, vocais e comportamentais. Posteriormente, 64 (43 mulheres) e 51 (28 mulheres) estudantes avaliaram respectivamente a FM e atratividade dos estímulos do público-alvo. Com as avaliações da FM escolhemos os cinco mais masculinos e os cinco mais femininos para cada estímulo, dentro de cada sexo. Finalmente, 370 estudantes (206 mulheres) leram um artigo de jornal da condição controle e um dos artigos da condição ambiental (PT ou ER); o artigo PT era sobre o Aedes aegypti, enquanto o artigo ER era sobre a crise econômica brasileira. Os participantes foram aleatoriamente designados para o contexto de relacionamento de curto ou longo prazo. Após cada artigo, os voluntários avaliaram a atratividade dos estímulos do público-alvo individualmente. Cada amostra conteve diferentes estudantes do estado de São Paulo com 18 a 35 anos. As percepções subjetivas das mulheres não refletiram as percepções dos terceiros nem as medidas objetivas. Todavia, a FM facial e 8 vocal delas se correlacionou, sugerindo concordância informacional. Diferentemente, as autoavaliações dos homens e as avaliações de terceiros quanto à FM e atratividade se correlacionaram. Ademais, o tom de voz mais masculino se associou com a FM autodeclarada e declarada por terceiros. Entretanto, as avaliações de terceiros quanto à FM facial e vocal não se relacionaram, indicando mensagens distintas. Além disso, no contexto de longo prazo, as mulheres preferiram um mosaico entre faces masculinas e vozes femininas após a ER. Os homens, por sua vez, preferiram vozes masculinas, sugerindo preferência por parceiros com maior acesso a recursos. Não houve efeito da condição PT no contexto de curto prazo, indicando a influência do modelo experimental. Finalmente, as danças não produziram qualquer efeito, sugerindo um desenvolvimento diferente das faces e vozesDuring evolution, humans faced the trade-off between preferences for feminine and masculine traits which are connected to direct (parental care) and indirect (genetic quality) investments into reproduction, respectively. Therefore, femininity-masculinity (FM) affects perceived attractiveness and indicates biosocial qualities. Physiological and morphological FM are primarily influenced by reproductive hormones; however, its perception can be mediated by: 1) biopsychosocial contexts (e.g. self- and other-perception), 2) multiple channels of information (e.g. visual and vocal information), and 3) environmental threats (e.g. pathogens and resource scarcity). However, previous studies show limitations. Firstly, it is unclear if self- and other-rated FM are associated. Secondly, results suggest that womens faces and voices present concordant information about their FM; however, mixed results are found for men. Finally, studies mainly focus on womens preferences for digitally manipulated male faces and voices in a forced-choice design. Thus, we examined: (a) possible associations between subjective perceptions (i.e. self- and other-rated FM and attractiveness), and measured FM; (b) whether womens and mens FM is concordantly perceived by third-party raters; and (c) the influence of pathogen threat (PT) and resource threat (RT) on womens and mens preference for FM in the opposite sex. We took facial photos, and recorded voices and dances of a target sample of 41 women and 38 men and we measured sexual dimorphism of facial shape, vocal fundamental frequency, and ethogram of videos. These participants also self-rated their facial, vocal, and behavioral FM and attractiveness. Later, 64 (43 women) and 51 (28 women) students independently rated facial, vocal and behavioral FM and attractiveness of the target sample, respectively. Finally, 370 (206 women) students were primed with newspaper-like articles on either PT (Aedes aegypti, and its mosquito-borne diseases) or RT (Brazilian economic crisis), and compared to a control condition (lions poisoned in a Kenyan Reserve). Participants were randomly assigned either for a short- or long-term relationship. After each priming article, participants rated attractiveness of the five most masculine and the five most feminine stimuli of the opposite sex of the target sample in a standalone-rating design. Each sample was independent and comprised students, aged 18-35 years, from universities across the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In women, results showed that 10 subjective perceptions did not reflect perceptions of others or objective measures. However, womens facial and vocal FM correlated positively, suggesting concordant information about mate quality. In contrast, mens self-rated FM and attractiveness correlated with third-party ratings, and male voice pitch correlated with self- and other-rated FM. Nevertheless, other-ratings on mens FM did not correlated, indicating multiple messages. Finally, for long-term context, women preferred a mosaic of mens masculine faces and feminine voices after primed with RT condition. Men, however, preferred masculine female voices, suggesting a preference for partners with easier access to resources. There was no effect of PT condition in short-term context, indicating the influence of the study design. Finally, no effect was found for dances, suggesting a different development than faces and voice

Homogamy preferences for cognitive sex-typicality in women

Homogamy has been suggested as crucial for human mate preferences and mate choice. People are attracted to and choose romantic partners that are similar to them in socio-demographic, physical, and psychological traits. However, only a few studies have shown homogamy in preferences for evolved sex-typical traits. Here, we have investigated male and female preferences for the level of cognitive masculinity-femininity (MF). We tested whether self-reported MF positively correlates with preferences for MF. One hundred men and one hundred women from Brazil filled in questionnaires on their own level of cognitive MF and preferred level of cognitive MF in their ideal partner. Half of the respondents were asked to indicate their preferences for long-term, and the other half for short-term relationships. We found a positive correlation between self-ascribed and preferred level of cognitive MF in women (P = 0.002), but no significant correlation in men (P = 0.309). There was no significant effect of the temporal context of the relationship, but there was a positive correlation between self-ascribed and preferred level of cognitive MF only in women answering about long-term partner. By subtracting the preferred from the selfascribed level of cognitive MF, we created a self-similarity index. We found that women desire potential mates more self-similar and more masculine than men (P < 0.001) and that in men there is greater variation in the self-similarity index than in women. Our results thus add to previous evidence on the role of homogamy in human mating, by showing preferences for self-similarity also in cognitive MF for women, especially for long-term partner preferences. Future studies should cross-culturally test whether the higher self-similar preference found in women is universal

Resumos concluídos - Saúde Coletiva

Resumos concluídos - Saúde Coletiv

Resumos concluídos - Saúde Coletiva

Resumos concluídos - Saúde Coletiv

Núcleos de Ensino da Unesp: artigos 2007

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Núcleos de Ensino da Unesp: artigos 2008

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq