Scoring system
Celeste Vaughan Curington, Ken-Hou Lin & Jennifer Hickes Lundquist
American Sociological Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
The U.S. multiracial population has grown substantially in the past decades, yet little is known about how these individuals are positioned in the racial hierarchies of the dating market. Using data from one of the largest dating websites in the United States, we examine how monoracial daters respond to initial messages sent by multiracial daters with various White/non-White racial and ethnic makeups. We test four different theories: hypodescent, multiracial in-betweenness, White equivalence, and what we call a multiracial dividend effect. We find no evidence for the operation of hypodescent. Asian-White daters, in particular, are afforded a heightened status, and Black-White multiracials are treated as an in-between group. For a few specific multiracial gender groups, we find evidence for a dividend effect, where multiracial men and women are preferred above all other groups, including Whites.
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Marcelo Vinhal Nepomuceno et al.
Journal of Consumer Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
While hormones have been shown to impact a wide range of behaviors, little is known regarding their influence on consumer behavior. The current research examines the association between digit ratios and courtship-related consumption. Digit ratios (2D:4D and rel2) are indicators of prenatal testosterone exposure and are assessed by measuring finger length. In Study 1, masculinized digit ratios (low digit ratios, high prenatal testosterone) in men were associated with greater courtship-related consumption to acquire mates, and this association was stronger for men with high mating confidence. In women, feminized digit ratios (high digit ratios, low prenatal testosterone) were associated with greater courtship-related consumption to acquire mates. In Study 2, men with masculinized digit ratios engaged in greater courtship-related consumption by offering romantic gifts as a means of retaining mates. In women, feminized digit ratios were associated with greater romantic gift giving. Our findings suggest that high prenatal testosterone in men leads to greater courtship-related consumption, whereas low prenatal testosterone leads to greater courtship-related consumption in women.
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Is pornography consumption associated with condom use and intoxication during hookups?
Scott Braithwaite et al.
Culture, Health & Sexuality, forthcoming
Abstract:
In order to examine whether pornography consumption is associated with risky sexual behaviour among emerging adults, we examined two large samples of those who reported hooking up in the past 12 months (combined n = 1216). Pornography use was associated with a higher likelihood of having a penetrative hookup; a higher incidence of intoxication during hookups for men (but a lower incidence of intoxication during hookups for women); increasing levels of intoxication during hookups for men but decreasing levels of intoxication for women; and a higher likelihood of being in the riskiest category of having a penetrative hookup, without a condom, while intoxicated. For each of these outcomes, our point estimates for Study 2 fell within the 95% confidence intervals from Study 1. Controlling for trait self-control, binge drinking frequency, broader problematic patterns of alcohol use, openness to experience, and attitudes toward casual sex did not change the pattern of results. Implications for interventions to reduce sexual risk are discussed.
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Lady in Red: Hormonal Predictors of Women’s Clothing Choices
Adar Eisenbruch, Zachary Simmons & James Roney
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent evidence supports the idea that women use red clothing as a courtship tactic, and results from one study further suggested that women were more likely to wear red on days of high fertility in their menstrual cycles. Subsequent studies provided mixed support for the cycle-phase effect, although all such studies relied on counting methods of cycle-phase estimation and used between-subjects designs. By comparison, in the study reported here, we employed frequent hormone sampling to more accurately assess ovulatory timing and used a within-subjects design. We found that women were more likely to wear red during the fertile window than on other cycle days. Furthermore, within-subjects fluctuations in the ratio of estradiol to progesterone statistically mediated the within-subjects shifts in red-clothing choices. Our results appear to represent the first direct demonstration of specific hormone measurements predicting observable changes in women’s courtship-related behaviors. We also demonstrate the advantages of hormonal determination of ovulatory timing for tests of cycle-phase shifts in psychology or behavior.
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Milaine Alarie & Jason Carmichael
Journal of Marriage and Family, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using data from the National Survey of Family Growth, the authors considered the prevalence of the “cougar” phenomenon and the characteristics of middle-aged women who reported having sexual relationships with younger men in the past 12 months. They found that roughly 13% of sexually active women between ages 35 and 44 had slept with a man who was at least 5 years younger. Contrary to conventional assumptions, the results show that women with low incomes and those who self-identify as “other race” (not White or Black) are more likely to be in an age-hypogamous sexual relationship. Relative to all other relationship statuses, previously married women are the most likely to choose younger partners. Finally, the results suggest that age-hypogamous relationships are not simply “flings”; a majority of them last at least 2 years, and a sizable share of “cougars” are married to their younger partners. These results highlight the need to reconsider our conventional understanding of women's sexual relationships at midlife.
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Experiences during specific developmental stages influence face preferences
Tamsin Saxton
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Much research has documented how people’s face preferences vary, but we do not know whether there is a specific sensitive period during development when some individual differences in face preferences become established. This study investigates which specific developmental phases may be instrumental in forming individual differences in face preferences in adulthood. The study design is based on the established finding that people tend to be attracted to facial features that resemble those of their other-sex parent, particularly if they report a close childhood relationship with that parent. Accordingly, if individual differences in adult facial preferences (specifically, preferences for faces that resemble one’s parents) are formed during specific developmental stages, then only the quality of the parental relationship in those stages should predict adult preferences for facial features that resemble one’s parents. Adult participants reported the emotional support received from their parents during three different developmental phases and at the current time, and they reported the hair and eye colour of their ideal and actual partner, and their parents and selves. The study found that a woman’s retrospectively reported greater emotional support from her mother or father after menarche predicted significantly stronger preferences for partners whose eye colour was closer to that of the parent. In contrast, emotional support prior to menarche predicted greater dissimilarity between the eye colour of the parent and a woman’s preferred partner. These results indicate a possible interplay of positive and negative sexual imprinting that may arise from adaptations to promote optimal outbreeding. The study also found that parental hair colour, and in particular maternal hair colour, predicted women’s preferences for hair colour in a partner, although this may have been driven by ethnic group matching. The results of the study suggest that experiences during specific childhood and adolescent developmental periods may have longstanding effects on individual differences in human facial preferences.
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Examining gender specificity of sexual response with concurrent thermography and plethysmography
Jackie Huberman & Meredith Chivers
Psychophysiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Men's genital responses are significantly greater to sexual stimuli of their preferred gender compared to their nonpreferred gender (gender-specific), whereas androphilic (i.e., sexually attracted to men) women's genital responses are similar to sexual stimuli depicting either women or men (gender-nonspecific). This gendered pattern of genital response has only been demonstrated using vaginal photoplethysmography (VPP) in women and primarily penile plethysmography (PPG) in men. These measures assess different aspects of genital vasocongestion, thereby limiting comparisons between genders. Thermography is a newer sexual psychophysiology methodology that measures genital vasocongestion via temperature change and is better suited to assess sexual response between genders because the dependent measure, change in genital temperature, is similar for women and men. Further, previous studies have assessed gender specificity of sexual response across relatively short sexual stimuli, allowing only the examination of initial phases of sexual response. We examined gender specificity of sexual arousal by measuring women's and men's genital responses to lengthier stimuli with concurrent thermography and VPP/PPG. Gynephilic men (i.e., sexually attracted to women; n = 27) and androphilic women (n = 28) viewed 10-min films depicting men masturbating, women masturbating, and a nonsexual film, and reported feelings of sexual arousal while genital responses were assessed. Across measures, men's sexual responses were gender-specific and women's responses were gender-nonspecific, indicating that the gender difference in gender specificity of arousal is robust to methodology and stimulus duration. These findings replicate previous research, extend knowledge of gendered sexual response, and highlight the utility of multimethod approaches in sexual psychophysiology.
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Jennifer Katz & Monica Schneider
Sex Roles, May 2015, Pages 451-461
Abstract:
Sexual compliance involves willing consent to unwanted sex. The current study examined experiences and correlates of compliant sex with casual partners. Guided by sexual script theory, feelings about first partnered sex and sexual self-perceptions were identified as possible correlates of compliance. Potential moderating effects of gender also were explored. Sexually active heterosexual undergraduates (N = 258) in the northeastern U.S. responded to self-report measures of desire, pleasure, and emotional discomfort associated with first partnered sex, sexual self-awareness, sexual refusal efficacy, and compliance with vaginal and oral sex. About a third of the sample reported complying with casual sex at least once. Overall, very few participants who complied with a casual partner also complied with a committed partner. More women than men complied with giving oral sex to a casual partner; there were no gender differences in compliance with either vaginal sex or receiving oral sex. Emotional discomfort with first partnered sex was positively associated with compliant casual sex only among women. Although women reported less desire and pleasure associated with first partnered sex than men, neither desire nor pleasure from first sex were associated with casual compliance for either gender. Refusal efficacy was negatively associated with compliant casual sex for both women and men. The implications of these findings for future research and educating college students about compliance and its correlates are discussed.
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Internal consistency predicts attractiveness in biological motion walkers
Malte Klüver, Heiko Hecht, Nikolaus Troje
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Why do some people appear attractive to us while others don't? Evolutionary psychology states that sexual attractiveness has evolved to assess the reproductive qualities of a potential mate. Past research in the field has identified a number of traits that can be linked directly to qualities such as immuno-competence, developmental stability, and fertility. The current study is motivated by the hypothesis that attractiveness is determined not just by individual, independent traits, but also by whether or not their pattern is internally consistent. Exploiting the domain of biological motion, we manipulate internal consistency between anthropometry and kinematics of a moving body. In two experiments, we varied internal consistency by using original point-light walkers (high internal consistency) and hybrid walkers, generated by combining anthropometric and kinematic data from different walkers (low internal consistency). As predicted, we found a significant link between internal consistency and sexual attractiveness, suggesting that internal consistency signals health and mate quality.
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Urszula Marcinkowska, Samuli Helle & Minna Lyons
Personality and Individual Differences, November 2015, Pages 369–373
Abstract:
Although the Dark Triad personality (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) has been researched widely, only few studies have investigated women's preferences for men who present high and low Dark Triad features. With an on-line two-alternative forced choice questionnaire we investigated the interaction between preferences of 1962 Finnish women for facial stimuli that differed in the intensity of the Dark Triad traits, accounting for mating context, contraceptive use, and sexual openness (sociosexuality). Among non-contraceptive-using women, unrestricted sociosexuality was positively correlated with preference for high narcissistic male faces, whereas in contraceptive-using women, sociosexuality correlated negatively with preference for high Machiavellian male faces. We suggest that i) facial cues to Dark Triad traits are detectable by women, but ii) their effect on the judgments of attractiveness may vary depending on sociosexuality and contraceptive use, and that iii) preference for narcissism follows similar variation trends as masculinity preference, depending on sociosexuality and the use of hormonal contraception.