Men’s Perception of Raped Women: Test of the Sexually Transmitted Disease Hypothesis and the Cuckoldry Hypothesis

Rape is a recurrent adaptive problem of female humans and females of a number of non-human animals. Rape has various physiological and reproductive costs to the victim. The costs of rape are furthermore exaggerated by social rejection and blaming of a victim, particularly by men. The negative perception of raped women by men has received little attention from an evolutionary perspective. Across two independent studies, we investigated whether the risk of sexually transmitted diseases (the STD hypothesis, Hypothesis 1) or paternity uncertainty (the  cuckoldry hypothesis, Hypothesis 2) influence the negative perception of raped women by men. Raped women received lower attractiveness score than non-raped women, especially in long-term mate attractiveness score. The perceived attractiveness of raped women was not influenced by the presence of experimentally manipulated STD cues on faces of putative rapists. Women raped by three men received lower attractiveness score than women raped by one man. These results provide stronger support for the cuckoldry hypothesis (Hypothesis 2) than for the STD hypothesis (Hypothesis 1). Single men perceived raped women as more attractive than men in a committed relationship (Hypothesis 3), suggesting that the mating opportunities mediate men’s perception of victims of rape. Overall, our results suggest that the risk of cuckoldry underlie the negative perception of victims of rape by men rather than the fear of disease transmission

Effects of keeping animals as pets on children's concepts of vertebrates and invertebrates

Looking after pets provides several benefits in terms of children's social interactions, factual and conceptual knowledge about these animals. In this study we investigated effects of rearing experiences on children's factual knowledge and alternative conceptions about animals. Data obtained from 1541 children and 7705 drawings showed very strong bias towards rearing vertebrates and a general ignorance of invertebrates. Experiences with rearing animals significantly contributed to children's knowledge about animal’ internal organs. Children who reported keeping two or more animals acquired better scores in our study than children keeping only one or no animals. Moreover, the misclassification of invertebrates was not influenced by children’s experiences of keeping animals. Although girls showed better knowledge about the anatomy of animals and actually kept more animals than did boys, they also more frequently misclassified invertebrates by drawing bones inside the bodies of the animals, hence allocating them to the vertebrates. We propose that science activities with animals should be more focused on rearing invertebrates and improving children’s attitudes and knowledge about them

Preferences for spicy foods and disgust of ectoparasites are associated with reported health in humans

Infectious diseases that influence human survival are responsible for the evolved emotional, cognitive and behavioural strategies that reduce the risk of disease transmission. The preference for spices in foods of contemporary humans was thought to be an antipathogen strategy that could reduce disease transmission. We investigated the possible associations between reported health and anti-pathogen strategies in a sample of Slovak high school students. We found that the reported consumption of spices and ectoparasite avoidance was positively associated with the total number of reported illnesses in the last year and hand washing was negatively associated with this. This means that immunologically compromised people prefer spices more and avoid contact with disease-relevant insect vectors more than their healthier counterparts. Females engaged in anti-pathogen behaviours more than males, but consumed spicy foods less frequently, suggesting their evolutionary role in the maternal investment to their offspring or different susceptibility to certain diseases. Our results suggest that people vulnerable to diseases are more disgust sensitive and prefer foods with antimicrobial properties more than healthy people, supporting an idea that human emotions and behaviour are influenced by the threat of parasites

Contigo o sin ti: ¿la satisfacción de pareja y la violencia dirigida a la pareja influyen en la presencia de la pareja en la fotografía del perfil en Facebook de una mujer?

Social network sites (SNSs) provide new opportunities for online self-presentation of millions of users. The cover profile photograph (CPP) along with written information regarding relationship status is a central component of online self-presentation, although their associations with actual romantic relationships are not clear. We investigated relationships between the presence of a current romantic partner on the CPP and the displayed relationship status and partner satisfaction, partner-directed violence and women’s intrasexual competition with peers. A total of 28 % of the 158 women with a Facebook profile and being involved in a romantic relationship had their romantic partners on their CPP. As predicted, women with their partners on the CPP were more satisfied with their romantic relationship than others. Furthermore, women who did not have their partner on the CPP tended to conceal or lie in their displayed mating status suggesting that this may be a strategy how to attract another potential mate. The partner-directed violence and intrasexual competition hypotheses were not supported. Overall, the CPP and an honestly displayed relationship status is an expression of relationship satisfaction amongst women. Las redes sociales (RS) proporcionan nuevas oportunidades para la auto-presentación on line de millones de usuarios. La fotografía del perfil (FDP), junto con información escrita sobre estado civil es un componente central de la auto-presentación en línea, a pesar de su relación con las relaciones románticas reales no son claras. Se investigaron las relaciones entre la presencia de una pareja romántica actual en el FDP y el estado de la relación y satisfacción de la pareja, la violencia dirigida a la pareja y la competetividad intrasexual de las mujeres con sus iguales. Un total de 28% de  158 mujeres con un perfil en Facebook involucradas en una relación romántica tenían a sus parejas sentimentales en su FDP. Como se predijo, las mujeres con sus parejas en su FDP estaban más satisfechas con su relación romántica que otras. Por otra parte, las mujeres que no tienen su pareja en su FDP tendían a ocultar o mentir sobre su estado civil lo que sugiere que esto puede ser una estrategia para atraer a otra pareja potencial. Las hipótesis sobre violencia y competencia intrasexual no fueron confirmadas. En general, el FDP y un status de relación que se muestra sinceramente es una expresión de satisfacción en la relación de pareja de las mujeres

Slovakian students' knowledge of and attitudes toward biotechnology

This study examined university students' knowledge of and attitudes (N = 378) toward biotechnology in Slovakia, a conservative country where the distribution of genetically engineered products are banned by law. We found a significant positive correlation between attitudes and the level of knowledge; however, although students enrolled in biology courses have better knowledge of biotechnology, their attitudes toward genetic engineering were similar than those of students who do not study biology. Females showed poorer knowledge and lower acceptance of genetically engineered products than did males. Overall, Slovakian students have poor knowledge and numerous misunderstandings about what genetic engineering means, which suggests that science curriculum with respect to this topic should be greatly re-evaluated and teaching strategies should be improved accordingly

High school students' attitudes towards spiders: a cross-cultural comparison

Spiders are traditionally considered to be among the least popular of animals. Current evidence suggests that a negative attitude towards spiders could be influenced by both cultural and evolutionary pressures. Some researchers suggest that science education activities could positively influence students' perceptions of spiders. Their evidence is, however, ambivalent. Using a five-point score Likert-type questionnaire in which the items were developed in a similar way to four of Keller’s categories of attitude (scientistic, negativistic, naturalistic, and ecologistic) towards invertebrates, we compared the level of knowledge of and attitudes towards spiders of high school students from two countries, Slovakia (n = 354) and South Africa (n = 382). The students represented different cultures and followed dissimilar science education curricula. Only among the Slovakian students there was a statistically significant, but low correlation between knowledge and attitude (r = .30). The Slovakian students had less fear of spiders. The South African students scored higher in the categories of scientistic, naturalistic and ecologistic attitudes. Comparison of attitude towards spiders of indigenous Africans from coeducational Catholic schools revealed that, South African students have greater fear of spiders than Slovakian students, supporting the biological preparedness hypothesis. This hypothesis predicts a greater fear of spiders in South Africa than in Europe since several South African spiders possess venoms that are dangerous to humans. The results of this study are discussed from science education, cultural and evolutionary perspectives

With or without you: does partner satisfaction and partner-directed violence influence the presence of a partner on women's Facebook cover profile photographs?

Título: Contigo o sin ti: ¿la satisfacción de pareja y la violencia dirigida a la pareja influyen en la presencia de la pareja en la fotografía del perfil en Facebook de una mujer? Resumen: las redes sociales (RS) proporcionan nuevas oportunidades para la auto-presentación on line de millones de usuarios. La fotografía del perfil (FDP), junto con información escrita sobre estado civil es un componente central de la auto-presentación en línea, a pesar de su relación con las relaciones románticas reales no son claras. Se investigaron las relaciones entre la presencia de una pareja romántica actual en el FDP y el estado de la relación y satisfacción de la pareja, la violencia dirigida a la pareja y la competetividad intrasexual de las mujeres con sus iguales. Un total de 28% de 158 mujeres con un perfil en Facebook involucradas en una relación romántica tenían a sus parejas sentimentales en su FDP. Como se predijo, las mujeres con sus parejas en su FDP estaban más satisfechas con su relación romántica que otras. Por otra parte, las mujeres que no tienen su pareja en su FDP tendían a ocultar o mentir sobre su estado civil lo que sugiere que esto puede ser una estrategia para atraer a otra pareja potencial. Las hipóte-sis sobre violencia y competencia intrasexual no fueron confirmadas. En general, el FDP y un status de relación que se muestra sinceramente es una expresión de satisfacción en la relación de pareja de las mujeres. Palabras clave: Facebook; satisfacción de pareja; retención de pareja; fotografía de perfil; estado civil; insultos dirigidos a la pareja; competitividad intrasexual. Abstract: Social network sites (SNSs) provide new opportunities for online self-presentation of millions of users. The cover profile photograph (CPP) along with written information regarding relationship status is a central component of online self-presentation, although their associations with actual romantic relationships are not clear. We investigated relationships between the presence of a current romantic partner on the CPP and the displayed relationship status and partner satisfaction, partner-directed violence and women's intrasexual competition with peers. A total of 28 % of the 158 women with a Facebook profile and being involved in a romantic relationship had their romantic partners on their CPP. As predicted, women with their partners on the CPP were more satisfied with their romantic relationship than others. Furthermore, women who did not have their partner on the CPP tended to conceal or lie in their displayed mating status suggesting that this may be a strategy how to attract another potential mate. The partner-directed violence and intrasexual competition hypotheses were not supported. Overall, the CPP and an honestly displayed relationship status is an expression of relationship satisfaction amongst women

A TURKISH EXPERIENCE

Biotechnology has a considerable importance in Turkish biology curriculum. This study was designed to explore or indicate Turkish high school and university students' knowledge and attitudes toward biotechnology. A total number of 352 high school and 276 university students were invited to the study. The Biotechnology Knowledge Questionnaire (BKQ) with 16 items and Biotechnology Attitude Questionnaire (BAQ) with 37 items were used as data collection instruments. The statistically significant correlation was observed between the level of biotechnology knowledge and the subdimensions of attitudes toward biotechnology. We found no statistically significant difference between high school and university students' knowledge of biotechnology. In contrast, university students showed more positive attitudes toward biotechnology than did high school students. However, the effect of gender was equivocal; therefore, it did not support a ''gender paradox'' hypothesis. Our results suggest that although students' appreciation of (agricultural) biotechnology is relatively positive, the understanding of biotechnology processes is superficial and attitudes toward shopping genetically modified products are therefore negative. The possible impact of current science and biology curriculum, and also biotechnology news given in media on Turkish students' views of biotechnology is discussed