At the crossroads of conspicuous and concealable: what race categories communicate about sexual orientation

We found that judgments of a perceptually ambiguous social category, sexual orientation, varied as a function of a perceptually obvious social category, race. Sexual orientation judgments tend to exploit a heuristic of gender inversion that often promotes accuracy. We predicted that an orthogonal social category that is itself gendered, race, would impact both sexual orientation categorizations and their accuracy. Importantly, overlaps in both the phenotypes and stereotypes associated with specific race and sex categories (e.g., the categories Black and Men and the categories Asian and Women) lead race categories to be decidedly gendered. Therefore, we reasoned that race categories would bias judgments of sexual orientation and their accuracy because of the inherent gendered nature. Indeed, both gay and straight perceivers in the United States were more likely to judge targets to be gay when target race was associated with gender-atypical stereotypes or phenotypes (e.g., Asian Men). Perceivers were also most accurate when judging the sexual orientation of the most strongly gender-stereotyped groups (i.e., Asian Women and Black Men), but least accurate when judging the sexual orientation of counter-stereotypical groups (i.e., Asian men and Black Women). Signal detection analyses confirmed that this pattern of accuracy was achieved because of heightened sensitivity to cues in groups who more naturally conform to gendered stereotypes (Asian Women and Black Men). Implications for social perception are discussed.     

Stereotypes Possess Heterogeneous Directionality: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration of Stereotype Structure and Content

We advance a theory-driven approach to stereotype structure, informed by connectionist theories of cognition. Whereas traditional models define or tacitly assume that stereotypes possess inherently Group → Attribute activation directionality (e.g., Black activates criminal), our model predicts heterogeneous stereotype directionality. Alongside the classically studied Group → Attribute stereotypes, some stereotypes should be bidirectional (i.e., Group ⇄ Attribute) and others should have Attribute → Group unidirectionality (e.g., fashionable activates gay). We tested this prediction in several large-scale studies with human participants (N_Combined = 4,817), assessing stereotypic inferences among various groups and attributes. Supporting predictions, we found heterogeneous directionality both among the stereotype links related to a given social group and also between the links of different social groups. These efforts yield rich datasets that map the networks of stereotype links related to several social groups. We make these datasets publicly available, enabling other researchers to explore a number of questions related to stereotypes and stereotyping. Stereotype directionality is an understudied feature of stereotypes and stereotyping with widespread implications for the development, measurement, maintenance, expression, and change of stereotypes, stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.     

Sex (similarities and) differences in friendship jealousy

Friendships provide material benefits, bolster health, and may help solve adaptive challenges. However, a recurrent obstacle to sustaining those friendships—and thus enjoying many friendship-mediated fitness benefits—is interference from other people. Friendship jealousy may be well-designed for helping both men and women meet the recurrent, adaptive challenge of retaining friends in the face of such third-party interference. Although we thus expect several sex similarities in the general cognitive architecture of friendship jealousy (e.g., it is attuned to friend value), there are also sex differences in friendship structures and historical functions, which might influence the inputs of friendship jealousy (e.g., the value of any one friendship). If so, we should also expect some sex differences in friendship jealousy. Findings from a reanalysis of previously-published data and a new experiment, including both U.S. student and adult community participants (N = 993), provide initial support for three predicted sex differences: women (versus men) report greater friendship jealousy at the prospective loss of best friends to others, men (versus women) report greater friendship jealousy at the prospective loss of acquaintances to others, and men's (but not women's) friendship jealousy is enhanced in the context of intergroup contests.     

The framing effect when evaluating prospective mates: an adaptationist perspective

Sex differences in the framing effect within the mating domain (and the underlying negativity bias) were investigated. In three separate studies, men and women evaluated eight prospective mates, each of which was described using either positively or negatively framed attribute information. The key difference between the three studies was the temporal context of the relationship for which the mates were considered (long-term versus short-term) and the quality of mates that were presented to the participants (high quality versus low quality). Overall, women exhibited larger framing effects than men (and in three of the four experimental conditions), and this sex difference was driven by women's greater sensitivity to negatively framed information. This robust sex effect is a manifestation of the greater vigilance that women show within the mating domain (consistent with parental investment theory). At the attribute level, women displayed stronger framing effects than men in 10 of the 11 cases where significant results were found, and these were on attributes that accord with evolutionary principles (e.g., women exhibited larger framing effects for Earning Potential and Ambition while men yielded a larger effect in only one instance for Attractive Face). Finally, the sex differences in framing effects became stronger when evaluating short-term mates as compared to long term ones (in accord with the general guiding principles of Sexual Strategies Theory). The current paper situates the framing effect within an adaptationist framework and proposes, that in many instances, the pattern with which individuals succumb to it is an instantiation of ecological rationality.     

Cooperation and conflict: The behavioral ecology of the sexual division of labor

When it comes to subsistence, men and women in almost all societies do it differently. One long-standing explanation for this sexual division of labor is that men and women pair up to provision offspring and specialize in subsistence activities in order to maximize household productivity. This model of cooperative parental provisioning has generally been supported by the proposal that both male and female reproductive success is maximized by provisioning current offspring rather than deserting them in order to seek new mating opportunities. But recent analyses of bird behavior have often failed to support this premise. We now know that among many species conflicting reproductive strategies between males and females often result in less than optimal compromises with regard to mating and parenting. This new focus on the role of sexual selection in creating compromise and conflict between the sexes has the potential to illuminate many puzzling aspects of human partnerships between men and women. To demonstrate its potential, I compare the explanatory power of a cooperative provisioning model of sex difference in human foraging and food sharing with a model incorporating conflicting reproductive goals.     

Adaptive attentional attunement: evidence for mating-related perceptual bias

Substantial evidence suggests that physical attractiveness plays an important role in shaping overt mating preferences, judgments, and choices. Relatively few studies, however, have investigated the hypothesis that perceivers are attuned to signs of attractiveness at early, lower-order stages of social perception. In the current research, a visual cueing task was used to assess biases in attentional disengagement—the extent to which people's attention becomes “stuck” on particular social stimuli. Findings indicate that, consistent with some evolutionary theories, perceivers of both sexes exhibited attentional attunement to attractive women, but not attractive men. Additional findings suggest that this bias was pronounced in sexually unrestricted men and in women who felt insecure about a current romantic relationship. This research provides novel evidence for adaptive, lower-order perceptual attunements in the domain of human mating.     

Person (mis)perception: functionally biased sex categorization of bodies

Social perception is among the most important tasks that occur in daily life, and perceivers readily appreciate the social affordances of others. Here, we demonstrate that sex categorizations are functionally biased towards a male percept. Perceivers judged body shapes that varied in waist-to-hip ratio to be men if they were not, in reality, exclusive to women, and male categorizations occurred more quickly than female categorizations (studies 1 and 4). This pattern was corroborated when participants identified the average body shapes of men and women (study 2) and when we assessed participants'' cognitive representations (study 3). Moreover, these tendencies were modulated by emotion context (study 4). Thus, male categorizations occurred readily and rapidly, demonstrating a pronounced categorization bias and temporal advantage for male judgements.     

Distracted by the Unthought – Suppression and Reappraisal of Mind Wandering under Stereotype Threat

Previous research has found that subtle reminders of negative stereotypes about one’s group can lead individuals to underperform on stereotype-relevant tests (e.g., women in math, ethnic minorities on intelligence tests). This so called stereotype threat effect can contribute to systematic group differences in performance that can obscure the true abilities of certain social groups and thereby sustain social inequalities. In the present study, we examined processes underlying stereotype threat effects on women’s math performance, specifically focusing on the role of suppression of mind wandering (i.e., task-irrelevant thinking) in stereotype threat (ST) and no threat (NT) situations. Based on a process model of stereotype threat effects on performance, we hypothesized that women under stereotype threat spontaneously suppress mind wandering, and that this suppression impairs performance. An alternative regulation strategy that prevents suppression (i.e., reappraising task-irrelevant thoughts as normal) was predicted to prevent stereotype threat effects on performance. We manipulated stereotype threat (ST vs. NT) and cognitive regulation strategy (suppression, reappraisal, or no strategy) and measured women’s performance on a math and a concentration task (N = 113). We expected three groups to perform relatively more poorly: Those in ST with either no strategy or suppression and those in NT with a suppression strategy. We tested the performance of these groups against the remaining three groups hypothesized to perform relatively better: those in NT with no strategy or reappraisal and those in ST with reappraisal. The results showed the expected pattern for participants’ math performance, but not for concentration achievement. This pattern suggests that ineffective self-regulation by suppressing mind wandering can at least partly explain stereotype threat effects on performance, whereas a reappraisal strategy can prevent this impairment. We discuss implications for the understanding of processes underlying stereotype threat effects and the benefits of reappraising subjective experience under threat.     

Democrats and Republicans Can Be Differentiated from Their Faces

Background

Individuals'' faces communicate a great deal of information about them. Although some of this information tends to be perceptually obvious (such as race and sex), much of it is perceptually ambiguous, without clear or obvious visual cues.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Here we found that individuals'' political affiliations could be accurately discerned from their faces. In Study 1, perceivers were able to accurately distinguish whether U.S. Senate candidates were either Democrats or Republicans based on photos of their faces. Study 2 showed that these effects extended to Democrat and Republican college students, based on their senior yearbook photos. Study 3 then showed that these judgments were related to differences in perceived traits among the Democrat and Republican faces. Republicans were perceived as more powerful than Democrats. Moreover, as individual targets were perceived to be more powerful, they were more likely to be perceived as Republicans by others. Similarly, as individual targets were perceived to be warmer, they were more likely to be perceived as Democrats.

Conclusions/Significance

These data suggest that perceivers'' beliefs about who is a Democrat and Republican may be based on perceptions of traits stereotypically associated with the two political parties and that, indeed, the guidance of these stereotypes may lead to categorizations of others'' political affiliations at rates significantly more accurate than chance guessing.     

Mortality and age differences in marriage.

Data from the 1971 census population were used to evaluate the effects of age differences of married partners on mortality rates. Different age groups were isolated to highlight the association between mortality and age of spouse for specific ages of married men and women. Men married to much younger or to older women exhibited a higher mortality rate than men married to women who were only a few years younger than themselves. A similar trend was observed among women married to much younger or much older men compared with those whose spouses were a few years older or of similar ages as themselves. Trends for other age groups (women aged 60-69 years, men below 40, and women below 30) did not exhibit a clear pattern. Although statistical biases within age groups may in part account for the differences in the findings, the trend which emerged from the analysis suggests that lower morbidity is associated with the most common age combinations (husbands same age or slightly older than wives). Other factors could also account for the differences (e.g., selection of healthy partners in 1st marriages, differences in lifestyles between married and single).     

Self-control and honesty depend on exposure to pictures of the opposite sex in men but not women

Research has shown that viewing stimuli that induce mating or sex motivation can push men towards greater impulsivity, a manifestation of lower self-control. Recent advances in research on the connection between self-control and moral behavior indicate that low self-control is associated with increased dishonesty. From an evolutionary perspective, when mating motivation is activated, men may behave in dishonest ways by projecting characteristics in line with women's mate preferences to enhance their sexual attractiveness. We tested the possibility that exposure to pictures of sexually appealing women would engender lower self-control, leading men to behave dishonestly. The results showed that a state of lower self-control was observed in males who viewed women rated high on sexual attractiveness but not in males who viewed women rated low on sexual attractiveness or in females who viewed men (Experiment 1). Compared with control participants, male participants exposed to pictures of sexy women were less likely to return excess money received for participating (Experiment 2) and more likely to cheat in a matrix task (Experiments 3 and 4). State self-control mediated the link between exposure to sexual stimuli and dishonest behavior in men (Experiments 2 and 4). For men whose mating motivation is heightened by exposure to sexual stimuli, dishonesty appears to be a tactic for projecting characteristics preferred by women (e.g., large economic resources).     

Testosterone levels and their associations with lifetime number of opposite sex partners and remarriage in a large sample of American elderly men and women

Testosterone (T) has been argued to modulate mating and parenting behavior in many species, including humans. The role of T for these behaviors has been framed as the challenge hypothesis. Following this hypothesis, T should be positively associated with the number of opposite sex partners a male has. Indeed research in humans has shown that T is positively related to the number of opposite sex partners a young man has had. Here we test, in both men and women, whether this relationship extends to the lifetime number of sex partners. We also explored whether or not T was associated with current marital status, partnership status and whether or not the participant remarried. Using a large sample of elderly men and women (each sample n > 700), we show that T is positively and sizably associated with the number of opposite sex partners in men. When controlling for potential confounding variables such as educational attainment, age, BMI, ethnicity, specific use of a medication and time of sampling this effect remained. For women, the relationship between T and number of opposite sex partners was positive but did not prove to be robust. In both men and women there was no evidence for an association between T and current marital status and partnership status (being in a relationship or not). However, remarriage was positively associated with T, but only in males. Results are discussed with reference to the literature on T and sex partners, remarriage and more broadly the challenge hypothesis.     

Environmental threat influences preferences for sexual dimorphism in male and female faces but not voices or dances

During evolution, humans faced the trade-off between preferences for feminine and masculine traits which are presumably connected to parental care, and genetic quality or provisioning abilities, respectively. Recent research has shown that environmental factors influence preferences for femininity/masculinity in potential mates. However, studies mainly focus on women's preferences for isolated cues in men. We examined the influence of pathogen and resource threat on women's and men's preference for femininity/masculinity in opposite sex unmanipulated faces, voices, and dances. Three hundred seventy (206 women) students, aged 18–35 years, from universities across the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, were primed with newspaper-like articles on either pathogen threat (Aedes aegypti, and its mosquito-borne diseases) or resource threat (=economic crisis), and compared to a control-priming condition (lions poisoned in a Kenyan Reserve). Participants were randomly assigned to rate attractiveness of the stimuli in one of the mating strategies (i.e., short-term or long-term relationship context). After each priming article, participants rated attractiveness of pre-rated masculine and feminine stimuli of the opposite sex in a standalone-rating design. The environmental threats and the control-priming conditions were shown in a random sequence. We found that the environmental threat and the mating strategies had no systematic effect on preferences for faces, voices and behavior, suggesting that different modalities can cue to different individual qualities and can be used differently according to the environmental context and relationship strategy. The environmental threat only had a weak effect on preferences for facial femininity-masculinity: women found feminine male faces more attractive under pathogen threat, while men found feminine female faces more attractive under resource threat. This is in contrast to some previous studies, and shows that effect of ecological factors on human psychology should be submitted to a more rigorous scrutiny. The mating strategies only interacted with voice attractiveness: women rated male voices as more attractive after being primed with any type of environmental threat when considering long-term relationship context, while in men this was true when considering short-term relationship. Finally, feminine dance videos were perceived as attractive under environmental threat, irrespective of sex, type of environmental threat or mating strategy.     

Predictors of Fat Stereotypes among 9‐Year‐Old Girls and Their Parents

Objective:To assess familial links in fat stereotypes and predictors of stereotypes among girls and their parents. Research Methods and Procedures:Fat stereotypes were assessed using a questionnaire developed for this study. Participants indicated the extent to which they agreed with nine statements about thin people (e.g., thin people are smart) and the same statements about fat people (e.g., fat people are smart). Predictors of fat stereotypes that were examined include weight status (BMI; girls and parents), education (parents), income (parents), self‐investment in physical appearance (parents), maladaptive eating attitudes (girls), and parenting practices and peer interactions focused on body shape and weight loss (girls). Results:Girls and parents exhibited fat stereotypes. Fathers who were more educated and had a higher family income were more likely to endorse fat stereotypes, as were mothers and fathers with a high investment in their physical appearance. Although no associations were found between girls’ and parents’ fat stereotypes, girls were more likely to endorse fat stereotypes when interactions with parents and peers focused on body shape and weight loss. Girls were also more likely to endorse fat stereotypes when they reported higher levels of maladaptive eating attitudes. No associations were found between weight status and fat stereotypes. Discussion:Although there was no association between girls’ and parents’ fat stereotypes, girls were more likely to express negative attitudes about obesity and obese persons when parenting practices and interactions with peers promoted a lean body type, suggesting that there may be an implicit link between the lean ideal and fat stereotypes.     

Mobility and Navigation among the Yucatec Maya

Sex differences in range size and navigation are widely reported, with males traveling farther than females, being less spatially anxious, and in many studies navigating more effectively. One explanation holds that these differences are the result of sexual selection, with larger ranges conferring mating benefits on males, while another explanation focuses on greater parenting costs that large ranges impose on reproductive-aged females. We evaluated these arguments with data from a community of highly monogamous Maya farmers. Maya men and women do not differ in distance traveled over the region during the mate-seeking years, suggesting that mating competition does not affect range size in this monogamous population. However, men’s regional and daily travel increases after marriage, apparently in pursuit of resources that benefit families, whereas women reduce their daily travel after marriage. This suggests that parental effort is more important than mating effort in this population. Despite the relatively modest overall sex difference in mobility, Maya men were less spatially anxious than women, thought themselves to be better navigators, and pointed more accurately to distant locations. A structural equation model showed that the sex by marital status interaction had a direct effect on mobility, with a weaker indirect effect of sex on mobility mediated by navigational ability.     

Visceral fat area cutoff for the detection of multiple risk factors of metabolic syndrome in Japanese: the Hitachi Health Study

The relationships between metabolic risk factors and abdominal fat distribution determined using computed tomography (CT) are poorly defined in large populations. We investigated the cutoff values of the visceral fat area (VFA) to detect subjects with multiple risk factors of metabolic syndrome (MS) by sex and age groups, and attempted to examine whether sex- and age-specific cutoff values are needed. The subjects of this study were 11,561 Japanese men and women who participated in the Hitachi Health Study, received CT examination, and answered questionnaires on lifestyles between 2004 and 2009. VFA and waist circumference were measured using CT. The VFA cutoff values yielding an 80% sensitivity for the detection of multiple risk factors of MS were typically smaller among men under the age of 40 years (<40 years vs. ≥40 years; 86.4 cm(2) vs. 103.9 cm(2)). The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve of VFA for the detection tended to decrease according to age (P = 0.056 and P = 0.020 for trends in men and women). Age- and sex-specific cutoff values are needed. The sensitivity of the subjects under the age of 40 years is relatively smaller (70.0% for men and 60.0% for women) compare to other age groups when the same cutoff value is used regardless of age (e.g., cutoff value calculated to correspond to 80% sensitivity for subjects of all ages). Therefore, a smaller VFA cutoff point should be used among men under the age of 40 years.     

Sex and age differences in preferences and tactics of mate attraction: Analysis of published advertisements

Using the theoretical perspective of evolutionary biology, 13 hypotheses were generated concerning sex and age differences in human mate preferences and tactics of mate attraction. Classified “lonely hearts” advertisements (N = 1,000) from a nationally circulated, fortnightly magazine were content-analyzed. Men, more than women, sought cues to reproductive value (i.e., physical appearance and youth), whereas women, more than men, sought cues revealing an ability to acquire resources (i.e., actual and potential financial security and older men). Women also sought to ascertain a man's willingness to provide resources (in the form of time, emotions, money, and status) in a relationship. Both sexes offered those traits sought by the opposite sex. Men were more promiscuously inclined than women, favoring casual relationships and being more likely to be married, whereas women sought long-term monogamous relationships. These differences support evolutionary predictions based on concepts of sexual selection, parental investment, and reproductive capacities and confirm the use of personal advertisements as a valuable method of research.     

More than just a pretty face: men's priority shifts toward bodily attractiveness in short-term versus long-term mating contexts

Studies of physical attractiveness have long emphasized the constituent features that make faces and bodies attractive, such as symmetry, skin texture, and waist-to-hip ratio. Few studies, however, have examined the reproductively relevant cues conveyed by faces and bodies as whole units. Based on the premise that fertility cues are more readily assessed from a woman's body than her face, the present study tested the hypothesis that men evaluating a potential short-term mate would give higher priority to information gleaned from her body, relative to her face, than men evaluating a potential long-term mate. Male and female participants (N=375) were instructed to consider dating an opposite sex individual, whose face was occluded by a “face box” and whose body was occluded by a “body box,” as a short-term or long-term mate. With the instruction that only one box could be removed to make their decision about their willingness to engage in the designated relationship with the occluded individual, significantly more men assigned to the short-term, compared to the long-term, mating condition removed the body box. Women's face versus body information choice, in contrast, was unaffected by the temporal dimension of the mating condition. These results suggest that men, but not women, have a condition-dependent adaptive proclivity to prioritize facial cues in long-term mating contexts, but shift their priorities toward bodily cues in short-term mating contexts.     

Trade-offs in low-income women’s mate preferences

A sample of 460 low-income women completed a mate preference questionnaire and surveys that assessed family background, life history, conscientiousness, sexual motives, self-ratings (e.g., looks), and current circumstances (e.g., income). A cluster analysis revealed two groups of women: women who reported a strong preference for looks and money in a short-term mate and commitment in a long-term mate, and women who reported smaller differences across mating context. Group differences were found in reported educational levels, family background, sexual development, number of children, and motives for having sex. Implications for understanding individual differences in women’s mate-preference trade-offs are discussed.     

Multiple mating of male and female codling moth (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in apple orchards treated with sex pheromone

Studies were conducted with codling moth, Cydia pomonella L., to evaluate the mating status of male and female moths in apple, Malus domestica (Borkhausen), orchards treated with and without sex pheromone dispensers. Laboratory studies first examined the effect of multiple mating of male and female moths on female fecundity and egg fertility. Females that had mated three times had a significantly higher fecundity than singly mated moths. Sequential mating by male moths had no effect on the fecundity of female moths or egg fertility. However, male moth age did impact female fecundity, with significantly fewer eggs laid after mating with virgin 1- versus 3-d-old males. The mean size of the first spermatophore transferred by males was significantly larger than all subsequent spermatophores. Classifying spermatophores based on size was used in field sampling to categorize the mating status of the female's partner. The proportion of mated females with small spermatophores (partner had previously mated) was significantly higher in treated versus untreated orchards. The proportion of female moths caught in traps baited with pear ester that were virgin was low (相似文献