Jealousy as a Function of Rival Characteristics: Two large replication studies and meta-analyses support gender differences in reactions to rival attractiveness but not dominance

Jealousy is a key emotion studied in the context of romantic relationships. One seminal study (Dijkstra, P., & Buunk, B. (1998). Jealousy as a function of rival characteristics: An evolutionary perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24 (11), 1158–1166. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672982411003) investigated the interactions between a participant’s gender and their reactions to the attractiveness or dominance of a romantic rival. In a vignette-based study, it was found that women’s jealousy was more responsive than men’s to a rival’s attractiveness, whereas in contrast, the rival’s dominance evoked more jealousy from men than from women. Here, we attempt to replicate these interactions in two samples (N = 339 and N = 456) and present subsequent meta-analyses (combined Ns = 5,899 and 4,038, respectively). These meta-analyses showed a small, significant effect of gender on jealousy provoked by rival attractiveness, but no such response to rival dominance. We discuss the potential reasons for these findings and future directions for research on jealousy and rival characteristics

Evidence that androstadienone, a putative human chemosignal, modulates women’s attributions of men’s attractiveness

Considerable research effort has focused on whether specific compounds found within human body odor influence the behavior or physiology of other individuals. The most intensively studied is 4,16-androstadien-3-one, a chemical which is known to modulate mood and have activational effects in the sympathetic nervous system in a context-dependent manner, but whose action in mate-choice contexts remains largely untested. Here we present evidence that this androgen steroid may modulate women’s judgments of men’sattractiveness in an ecologically valid context. We tested the effects of androstadienone at a speed-dating event in which men and women interacted in a series of brief dyadic encounters. Men were rated more attractive when assessed by women who had been exposed to androstadienone, an effect that was seen in two out of three studies. The results suggest that androstadienone can influence women’s attraction to men, and also that research into the modulatory effects of androstadienone should be made within ecologically valid contexts

Olfaction scaffolds the developing human from neonate to adolescent and beyond

The impact of the olfactory sense is regularly apparent across development. The foetus is bathed in amniotic fluid that conveys the mother’s chemical ecology. Transnatal olfactory continuity between the odours of amniotic fluid and milk assists in the transition to nursing. At the same time, odours emanating from the mammary areas provoke appetitive responses in newborns. Odours experienced from the mother’s diet during breastfeeding, and from practices such as pre-mastication, may assist in the dietary transition at weaning. In parallel, infants are attracted to and recognise their mother’s odours; later, children are able to recognise other kin and peers based on their odours. Familiar odours, such as those of the mother, regulate the child’s emotions, and scaffold perception and learning through non-olfactory senses. During adolescence, individuals become more sensitive to some bodily odours, while the timing of adolescence itself has been speculated to draw from the chemical ecology of the family unit. Odours learnt early in life and within the family niche continue to influence preferences as mate choice becomes relevant. Olfaction thus appears significant in turning on, sustaining and, in cases when mother odour is altered, disturbing adaptive reciprocity between offspring and caregiver during the multiple transitions of development between birth and adolescence

Face and voice attractiveness judgments change during adolescence

Attractivenessjudgments are thought to underpin adaptive mate choice decisions. We investigated how these judgmentschange during adolescence when mate choice is becoming relevant. Adolescents aged 11–15 evaluated faces and voices manipulated along dimensions that affect adults' judgments of attractiveness and that are thought to cue mate value. Facial stimuli consisted of pairs of faces that were more or less average, more or less feminine, or more or less symmetric. The adolescents selected the more average, symmetric, and feminine faces as more attractive more often than chance, but judgments of some facial traits differed significantly with rater age and sex, indicating a role of development in judgments of facial cues. Vocal stimuli consisted of pairs of voices manipulated to raise or lower perceived pitch. The older but not younger girls selected the lower-pitched male voices as more attractive at rates above chance, while the younger but not older boys selected the higher-pitched female voices as more attractive. Controlling for rater age, increased pubertal development was associated with increased selection of lower-pitched boys' voices by girls and decreased selection of feminized male faces by boys. Our results are the first to demonstrate that adolescents show somewhat similar attractivenessjudgments to adults in age-matched stimuli and that age, sex, and pubertal development have measurable effects on adolescents' attractivenessjudgments. They suggest that attractivenessjudgments in humans, at least for some traits, are facultatively calibrated to the individual's life stage, only reaching adult values upon sexual maturity when mate choice decisions become relevant

Voice pitch preferences of adolescents: Do changes across time indicate a shift towards potentially adaptive adult-like preferences?

An evolutionary approach to attractiveness judgments emphasises that many human trait preferences exist in order to assist adaptive mate choice. Here we test an adaptive development hypothesis, whereby voice pitch preferences indicating potential mate quality might arise or strengthen significantly during adolescence (when mate choice becomes adaptive). We used a longitudinal study of 250 adolescents to investigate changes in preference for voice pitch, a proposed marker of mate quality. We found significantly stronger preferences for lower-pitched opposite-sex voices in the older age group compared with the younger age group (using different sets of age-matched stimuli), and marginally increased preferences for lower-pitched opposite-sex voices comparing within-participant preferences for the same set of stimuli over the course of 1 year. We also found stability in individual differences in preferences across adolescence: controlling for age, the raters who had stronger preferences than their peers for lower pitched voices when first tested, retained stronger preferences for lower-pitched voices relative to their peers about 1 year later. Adolescence provides a useful arena for evaluating adaptive hypotheses and testing the cues that might give rise to adaptive behaviour

Facebook Social Use and Anxiety: A Replication Attempt

The relationship between social media use and mental health remains under scrutiny by researchers, policy makers, and the general public. Recently, researchers have addressed whether Facebook use is beneficial to people with high social anxiety. The findings from such studies are mixed, partly due to differences in how variables are operationalised. A study by McCord et al (McCord, B., Rodebaugh, T. L., & Levinson, C. A., 2014. Facebook: Social uses and anxiety.  Computers in Human Behavior, 34, 23-27) suggested that the inclusion of a new variable, Facebook-centric social anxiety, helps explain the complex relationship between general social anxiety and frequency of usage of socially-interactive Facebook features. We undertook two studies (N=202 and N=542; majority British and non-student participants) with the aim of replicating McCord et al (2014), using the original measures (general social anxiety, Facebook-centric social anxiety, and frequency of usage of socially-interactive Facebook features). Replicating the original study, we found a significant positive association between general social anxiety and Facebook-centric social anxiety. However, unlike the original study, we did not find evidence that general social anxiety and Facebook-centric social anxiety interacted to predict frequency of usage of socially-interactive Facebook features. We discuss the implications for future research on social Facebook use

Facebook Social Use and Anxiety: A Replication Attempt

The relationship between social media use and mental health remains under scrutiny by researchers, policy makers, and the general public. Recently, researchers have addressed whether Facebook use is beneficial to people with high social anxiety. The findings from such studies are mixed, partly due to differences in how variables are operationalised. A study by McCord et al (McCord, B., Rodebaugh, T. L., & Levinson, C. A., 2014. Facebook: Social uses and anxiety. Computers in Human Behavior, 34, 23-27) suggested that the inclusion of a new variable, Facebook-centric social anxiety, helps explain the complex relationship between general social anxiety and frequency of usage of socially-interactive Facebook features. We undertook two studies (N=202 and N=542; majority British and non-student participants) with the aim of replicating McCord et al (2014), using the original measures (general social anxiety, Facebook-centric social anxiety, and frequency of usage of socially-interactive Facebook features). Replicating the original study, we found a significant positive association between general social anxiety and Facebook-centric social anxiety. However, unlike the original study, we did not find evidence that general social anxiety and Facebook-centric social anxiety interacted to predict frequency of usage of socially-interactive Facebook features. We discuss the implications for future research on social Facebook use

Women’s Preferences for Men’s Facial Masculinity and Anticipations of Grandparental Care Provision

Women vary in the extent to which they prefer facial masculinity in a male partner, and much research has focused on explaining this variation systematically, with reference to the significance of men’s facial masculinity. Masculine-faced men provide some benefits (either real or perceived) as a romantic partner, but are perceived as less investing as parents. Accordingly, we investigated whether a UK-based sample of women (n = 366) had stronger preferences for male facial masculinity if they anticipated that their own parents would provide more time, money, and emotional investment in future grandchildren (i.e. the women’s future offspring), thereby alleviating any potential shortfall from the child’s father. In line with our hypothesis, we found that women had stronger preferences for men’s facial masculinity if the women anticipated that their fathers would provide more financial investment in their future grandchildren. We also found that women anticipated time, money, and emotional investment from their parents (particularly their mother) in their role as grandparents; given existing research on grandparental investment, participants’ anticipations are likely to be at least somewhat realistic

Body odor quality predicts behavioral attractiveness in humans

Growing effort is being made to understand how different attractive physical traits co-vary within individuals, partly because this might indicate an underlying index of genetic quality. In humans, attention has focused on potential markers of quality such as facial attractiveness, axillary odor quality, the second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio and body mass index (BMI). Here we extend this approach to include visually-assessed kinesic cues (nonverbal behavior linked to movement) which are statistically independent of structural physical traits. The utility of such kinesic cues in mate assessment is controversial, particularly during everyday conversational contexts, as they could be unreliable and susceptible to deception. However, we show here that the attractiveness of nonverbal behavior, in 20 male participants, is predicted by perceived quality of their axillary body odor. This finding indicates covariation between two desirable traits in different sensory modalities. Depending on two different rating contexts (either a simple attractiveness rating or a rating for long-term partners by 10 female raters not using hormonal contraception), we also found significant relationships between perceived attractiveness of nonverbal behavior and BMI, and between axillary odor ratings and 2D:4D ratio. Axillary odor pleasantness was the single attribute that consistently predicted attractiveness of nonverbal behavior. Our results demonstrate that nonverbal kinesic cues could reliably reveal mate quality, at least in males, and could corroborate and contribute to mate assessment based on other physical traits