Hair length, facial attractiveness, personality attribution: A multiple fitness model of hairdressing

Multiple Fitness Model states that attractiveness varies across multiple dimensions, with each feature representing a different aspect of mate value. In the present study, male raters judged the attractiveness of young females with neotenous and mature facial features, with various hair lengths. Results revealed that the physical appearance of long-haired women was rated high, regardless of their facial attractiveness being valued high or low. Women rated as most attractive were those whose face displayed neotenous features in the center of the face (large eyes, small nose) and sexual maturity features, such as long head hair at the periphery. Furthermore, desirable psychological and social traits were attributed to individuals with different hairstyles: male raters associated long hair with the image of a determined, intelligent, independent, and healthy individual, whereas short hair was associated with characteristics such as honest, caring, emotional, and feminine. The possible relationships between attractiveness ratings of scalp hair and perceived social and psychological traits are discussed

Feelings and motives underlying Machiavellian behavioural strategies; narrative reports in a social dilemma situation

T his study explored the reasons and motives underlying the decisions of individuals with strong Machiavellian attitudes (High Machs). One hundred and fifty undergraduate students completed the Mach-IV test, and their contributions to, financial success in and narrative reports of a public goods game were analysed. High Machs contributed less to the public good and gained more benefit than Low Machs. Analysis of the narrative reports showed that High Machs used significantly fewer verbs referring to emotional involvement and first person plural verb forms, than did Low Machs. This study confirmed previous findings that High Machs have a cool and rational character and a proself orientation and showed that their lack of group orientation may account for their low cooperation in social dilemmas. The results of narrative content analysis provide a new perspective on the motives and values behind High Machs' decisions and success in different fields of social life

Emotional Intelligence Not Only Can Make Us Feel Negative, but Can Provide Cognitive Resources to Regulate It Effectively: An fMRI Study

Neuroscientists have formulated the model of emotional intelligence (EI) based on brain imaging findings of individual differences in EI. The main objective of our study was to operationalize the advantage of high EI individuals in emotional information processing and regulation both at behavioral and neural levels of investigation. We used a self-report measure and a cognitive reappraisal task to demonstrate the role of EI in emotional perception and regulation. Participants saw pictures with negative or neutral captions and shifted (reappraised) from negative context to neutral while we registered brain activation. Behavioral results showed that higher EI participants reported more unpleasant emotions. The Utilization of emotions scores negatively correlated with the valence ratings and the subjective difficulty of reappraisal. In the negative condition, we found activation in hippocampus (HC), parahippocampal gyrus, cingulate cortex, insula and superior temporal lobe. In the neutral context, we found elevated activation in vision-related areas and HC. During reappraisal (negative-neutral) condition, we found activation in the medial frontal gyrus, temporal areas, vision-related regions and in cingulate gyrus. We conclude that higher EI is associated with intensive affective experiences even if emotions are unpleasant. Strong skills in utilizing emotions enable one not to repress negative feelings but to use them as source of information. High EI individuals use effective cognitive processes such as directing attention to relevant details; have advantages in allocation of cognitive resources, in conceptualization of emotional scenes and in building emotional memories; they use visual cues, imagination and executive functions to regulate negative emotions effectively

Cross-cultural perception of trustworthiness : the effect of ethnicity features on evaluation of faces' observed trustworthiness across four samples

Funding: Hungarian Scientific Research Council (Nr.101762) (TB)People are able to recognize faces from their own ethnic group more easily than faces from other ethnicities. Ethnicity information also easily activates perceptual biases; therefore, the goal of the present study was to examine how ethnicity characteristics affect trustworthiness decisions. We compared the trustworthiness judgments of four samples (two Caucasian and two Asian) to facial images varying along both – trustworthiness level (high, medium and low) and ethnicity (African, Caucasian, South Asian and East Asian). Results showed that trust perception generalized across face ethnicity. More importantly, we found differences in the trustworthiness judgments of other-ethnicity faces between the four samples. Only Caucasian participants showed a bias pro own-ethnicity, especially Hungarian participants when judging medium or low trustworthy looking faces. On contrary, the two Asian samples showed no such bias. Further investigation of the positive own-ethnicity bias suggested that for Hungarian participants, when there are no positive facial expression cues to evaluate, negative ethnicity stereotypes can influence social judgments of faces. Furthermore, this positive bias was highlighted as increased vigilance towards differences in facial cues conveying trustworthiness in other ethnicities coupled with a reduced ability to detect such cues in own-ethnicity faces.PostprintPeer reviewe

The Machiavellians' "Cool Syndrome": They Experience Intensive Feelings but Have Difficulties in Expressing Their Emotions

Abstract Previous studies clearly show that Machiavellian thinking and behavior are characterized by some kind of cold attitude; a tendency to be detached from the emotional features of a particular situation. However, very little is known what this cold-minded attitude means, and the presence or absence of which characteristics can lead to emotional detachment. Machiavellianism was found to have significant relationships with Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism. Surprisingly, our study indicated that Machiavellians -contrary to the widespread conception -show more emotional instability: they may experience strong emotions and easily lose their coolness in various situations. However, we also found that they cannot express their emotions as subtly and precisely as others. We argue that this is exactly the deficit that can create the best condition for deceiving others. If Machiavellian persons have a difficulty in expressing their own emotions, they can easily disguise their true intentions from their partners

Helping-at-the-nest and sex-biased parental investment in a Hungarian Gypsy population

N.B. Professor Dunbar is now based at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oxford

Abusing Good Intentions

The present study aims to understand how Machiavellians switch from one kind of response to another in different circumstances to maximize their profit. We set up a specific experimental paradigm that involved both a cooperative and competitive version of a public goods game. We found that Machiavellianism accounts for the total amount of money paid by the players (N = 144) across five rounds in the cooperative but not in the competitive game. Compared with the others, individuals with higher scores on Mach scale contributed less to the public goods in the cooperative condition, but no difference was found in the competitive condition. Finally, this relationship was influenced by the sequence of the games. These results indicate that Machiavellians skillfully evaluate social environments and strive to exploit those with abundant contributions to public goods

Preference for faces resembling opposite-sex parents is moderated by emotional closeness in childhood

Several studies have found that individuals select partners who resemble their parents. The evidence for this effect seems stronger in relation to opposite-sex than same-sex parents, although the ultimate-level biological explanations put forward to explain these preferences do not seem to require that they need to be built on the appearance of the opposite-sex parent, rather than any other immediate family member. We set out to revisit this question, while assessing face preferences rather than partner choice. Face preferences might uncover more subtle effects than partner choice, as they can elucidate preferences in an unconstrained environment. We presented participants with faces manipulated to resemble their mother, father or self, but did not find that they selected these faces as more suitable for relationships than control faces. However, consistent with previous work, participants who reported less childhood rejection by their opposite-sex parent selected faces that resembled that parent significantly more frequently than control faces. Taken together with previous work, opposite-sex parental faces seem more important than same-sex parental faces in shaping partner preferences, and childhood relationships seem to modify potential attraction to parent-resembling faces. Despite some inconsistent findings, this effect has been detected across the different methodologies used to assess preferences

Compete and Compromise: Machiavellianism and Conflict Resolution

The aim of our present study was to examine Machiavellians’ conflict management styles that have been neglected in previous research. One hundred eighty three participants completed the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument and the Mach-IV test. A positive correlation was found between the scores on the Mach scale and the scores on the Competing and Compromising subscales, while a negative correlation was found between Mach scores and Avoiding and Accommodating scores. These results coincide with findings on the Machiavellians’ assertive, opportunistic and flexible strategies. Using the adequate problem solving strategies, Machiavellians can successfully adapt to the requirements of a given situation, and change tactics when necessary.peerReviewe