Developmental Study on Leg-to-Body Ratio Preferences

Only a few studies have tested developmental differences in perception of human body attractiveness and none investigated development of Leg-to-Body Ratio (LBR) preferences. The aim of the current study was to determine whether preferences for LBR are congenital and present among children in their early childhood, or whether they are rather acquired in the course of socialization, or/and because of biological and hormonal changes. In the study participated 450 Polish people from Lower Silesia and Opole Province, whose age ranged from 3 to 20 years. They were asked to choose figurine they found the most attractive from a set of male and female figurines of various LBRs. It was found that children below 8 years of age did not prefer any particular LBR and starting from about 9 years of age, preferences towards the legs of average length emerged. Importantly, the LBR higher than the average was not perceived as the most attractive until the age of 15 years. Therefore, we have empirically confirmed that LBR preferences change during development

Does blindness influence trust? A comparative study on social trust among blind and sighted adults

Although blind individuals must often rely on others to navigate their physical environment, recent studies concerning differences between blind and sighted persons in attributing social traits to others based on nonvisual cues remain inconclusive. Here we examined whether blind and sighted individuals vary in their level of social trust in others. One hundred and twenty-four healthy men and women participated in the study, including 32 congenitally blind, 27 late blind, and 65 sighted adult controls. We measured levels of social trust represented by two independent convictions, that people are exploitative, or dishonest. Linear mixed models showed no significant differences between sighted, late blind and congenitally blind individuals, indicating that visual deprivation does not predict level of trust in others. For both blind and sighted participants, the belief that people are exploitative was stronger than the belief that people are dishonest

Human Body Odour Composites Are Not Perceived More Positively than the Individual Samples

It is well established that composite facial images are perceived as more attractive compared with individual images, suggesting a preference for heterozygosity. Similarly, there is evidence that preferences for body odours might be linked to heterozygosity. Here, we tested whether blending individual body odours into composites would follow a similar pattern as observed in the perception of faces. We collected axillary odour samples from 38 individuals, which were subsequently assessed individually and as composites of two (N=19) or four (N=9) body odours regarding their pleasantness, attractiveness and intensity. We found no significant differences between mean ratings of individual odour samples or composites of two or four odour samples. Our results indicate that, in contrast to faces, composite body odours are not rated as more attractive. Composite body odours retain similar hedonic perceptual qualities as individual odours, thus highlighting differences in visual and chemosensory perceptual mechanisms

Can blind persons accurately assess body size from the voice?

Vocal tract resonances provide reliable information about a speaker’s body size that human listeners utilize for biosocial judgments as well as speech recognition. Although humans can accurately assess men’s relative body size from the voice alone, how this ability is acquired remains unknown. In the present study we test the prediction that accurate voice-based size estimation is possible without prior audiovisual experience linking low frequencies to large bodies. Ninety-one healthy congenitally or early blind, late blind, and sighted adults (aged 20-65) participated in the study. On the basis of vowel sounds alone, participants assessed the relative body sizes of male pairs of varying heights. Accuracy of voice-based body size assessments significantly exceeded chance and did not differ among participants who were sighted, congenitally blind, or lost their sight later in life. Accuracy increased significantly with relative differences in physical height between men, suggesting that both blind and sighted participants utilized reliable vocal cues to size (i.e., vocal tract resonances). Our findings demonstrate that prior visual experience is not necessary for accurate body size estimation. This capacity, integral to both nonverbal communication and speech perception, may be present at birth or may generalize from broader cross-modal correspondences

The Second to Fourth Digit Ratio and Age at First Marriage in Semi-Nomadic People from Namibia

The second to fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) is used as a potential marker for prenatal androgen exposure. It is associated with many behavioral and biological variables, including fertility and sexual behavior. However, direct association between 2D:4D and reproductive success—in populations where no contraceptives are used—has not been investigated. Here, we present a study conducted among the semi-nomad Himba population living in northern Namibia. 2D:4D ratios were calculated for a sample of this population (N = 99; 60 women, 39 men), and the results were correlated with age, marital status, age at first marriage, number of children, and number of marriages. As found in the majority of previous studies, males had lower 2D:4D ratios than females. The 2D:4D ratio did not correlate with number of children. Females and males with a more masculine 2D:4D were married earlier and were more likely to have a husband or wife. We suggest that mating preferences for females with masculine 2D:4D are related to masculinity of phenotypic and personality traits of such women, which are beneficial in harsh environmental conditions and/or higher facial masculinity, which influences the perceived age of an individual. At the same time, masculine (physically strong, dominant, and hardworking) males might gather resources necessary to marry their first wife earlier

Who uses emoticons? Data from 86 702 Facebook users

Emoticons are graphical representations of emotions used in virtual communication. We explored patterns of emoticon use in a sample of 86 702 Facebook users (aged 16 to 60, 59% women).We analyzed the total number and type of emoticons posted to public Facebook feeds as a function of a user's gender, age and Big Five personality characteristics. In our sample, 90% of Facebook users employed emoticons. The most popular 15 emoticons represented 99.6% of all emoticons posted. Our results further showed that the frequency of emoticon usagewas predicted mainly by age and gender, explaining 16% of the variance, whereas user's personality scores explained b2%. These findings suggest that emoticon usage may assist in profiling user's demographic, but not necessarily psychological traits

Sex Differences in Human Olfaction: A Meta-Analysis

Although the view that women's olfactory abilities outperform men's is taken for granted, some studies involving large samples suggested that male and female olfactory abilities are actually similar. To address this discrepancy, we conducted a meta-analysis of existing studies on olfaction, targeting possible sex differences. The analyzed sample comprised n = 8 848 (5 065 women and 3 783 men) for olfactory threshold (as measured with the Sniffin Sticks Test; SST), n = 8 067 (4 496 women and 3 571 men) for discrimination (SST), n = 13 670 (7 501 women and 6 169 men) for identification (SST), and a total sample of n = 7 154 (3 866 women and 3 288 men) for works using University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). We conducted separate meta-analyses for each aspect of olfaction: identification, discrimination and threshold. The results of our meta-analysis indicate that women generally outperform men in olfactory abilities. What is more, they do so in every aspect of olfaction analyzed in the current study. However, the effect sizes were weak and ranged between g = 0.08 and g = 0.30. We discuss our findings in the context of factors that potentially shape sex differences in olfaction. Nevertheless, although our findings seem to confirm the “common knowledge” on female olfactory superiority, it needs to be emphasized that the effect sizes we observed were notably small

Alterations of gustatory sensitivity and taste liking in individuals with blindness or deafness

Food ingestion is crucial for an organism, and eating and drinking are multisensory, complex experiences affected by all functioning modalities. Still, little is known about gustatory perception in blindness and deafness. Empirical studies with this regard have been very scarce and the aim of the current study was to explore whether gustatory compensation may occur like the adjustments observed in other aspects of sensory processing, or if liking of various tastes is affected by blindness or deafness. We hypothesized a decreased gustatory sensitivity and lower liking of all tastes in subjects with hearing disabilities; expected outcomes in the group with blindness were less well justified by the mixed results reported to date. To address the relationship of gustatory sensitivity and taste liking with sensory impairments, we compared the gustatory acuity and liking of bitter, salty, sour and sweet tastes of 100 individuals with blindness and 74 people with deafness with matched control groups without sensory impairments. We found that deafness was associated with lower gustatory sensitivity toward the basic tastes and their decreased likeability, and that blindness predicted an increased sensitivity only towards the salty taste, and just among individuals with an early visual loss. Our results suggest that auditory and visual deficits may undermine food experience and may lead to altered taste liking. Reasons of these outcomes discussed in the current article vary from anatomy to social and economic decisions driving gustatory experience

Predatory journals recruit fake editor

An investigation finds that dozens of academic titles offered ‘Dr Fraud’ — a sham, unqualified scientist — a place on their editorial board. Katarzyna Pisanski and colleagues report