Christopher D. Watkins

Perceived facial adiposity conveys information about women's health.

Although several prominent theories of human facial attractiveness propose that some facial characteristics convey information about peoples health, empirical evidence for this claim is somewhat mixed. While most previous research into this issue has focused on facial characteristics such as symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism, a recent study reported that ratings of facial adiposity (i.e., perceptions of fatness in the face) were positively correlated with indices of poor physical condition in a sample of young adults (i.e., reported past health problems and measures of cardiovascular fitness). These findings are noteworthy, since they suggest that perceived adiposity is a potentially important facial cue of health that has been overlooked by much of the previous work in this area. Here, we show that ratings of young adult womens facial adiposity are (1) better predicted by their body weight than by their body shape (Studies 1 and 2), (2) correlated with a composite measure of their physical and psychological condition (Study 2), and (3) negatively correlated with their trait (i.e., average) salivary progesterone levels (Study 3). Together, these findings present further evidence that perceived facial adiposity, or a correlate thereof, conveys potentially important information about womens actual health.

Experimental evidence that women speak in a higher voice pitch to men they find attractive

Abstract Although humans can raise and lower their voice pitch, it is not known whether such alterations can function to increase the likelihood of attracting preferred mates. Because men find higher-pitched womens voices more attractive, the voice pitch with which women speak to men may depend on the strength of their attraction to those men. Here, we measured voice pitch when women left voicemail messages for masculinized and feminized versions of a prototypical male face. We found that the difference in womens voice pitch between these two conditions positively correlated with the strength of their preference for masculinized versus feminized male faces, whereby women tended to speak with a higher voice pitch to the type of face they found more attractive (masculine or feminine). Speaking with a higher voice pitch when talking to the type of man they find most attractive may function to reduce the amount of mating effort that women expend in order to attract and retain preferred mates.

Correlated male preferences for femininity in female faces and voices.

Sexually dimorphic physical traits are important for mate choice and mate preference in many species, including humans. Several previous studies have observed that womens preferences for physical cues of male masculinity in different domains (e.g., visual and vocal) are correlated. These correlations demonstrate systematic, rather than arbitrary, variation in womens preferences for masculine men and are consistent with the proposal that sexually dimorphic cues in different domains reflect a common underlying aspect of male quality. Here we present evidence for a similar correlation between mens preferences for different cues of femininity in women; although men generally preferred feminized to masculinized versions of both womens faces and voices, the strength of mens preferences for feminized versions of female faces was positively and significantly correlated with the strength of their preferences for feminized versions of womens voices. In a second study, this correlation occurred when men judged womens attractiveness as long-term, but not short-term, mates, which is consistent with previous research. Collectively, these findings (1) present novel evidence for systematic variation in mens preferences for feminine women, (2) present converging evidence for concordant preferences for sexually dimorphic traits in different domains, and (3) complement findings of correlations between womens facial and vocal femininity.

Opposite-sex siblings decrease attraction, but not prosocial attributions, to self-resembling opposite-sex faces

Contextual cues of genetic relatedness to familiar individuals, such as cosocialization and maternal–perinatal association, modulate prosocial and inbreeding-avoidance behaviors toward specific potential siblings. These findings have been interpreted as evidence that contextual cues of kinship indirectly influence social behavior by affecting the perceived probability of genetic relatedness to familiar individuals. Here, we test a more general alternative model in which contextual cues of kinship can influence the kin-recognition system more directly, changing how the mechanisms that regulate social behavior respond to cues of kinship, even in unfamiliar individuals for whom contextual cues of kinship are absent. We show that having opposite-sex siblings influences inbreeding-relevant perceptions of facial resemblance but not prosocial perceptions. Women with brothers were less attracted to self-resembling, unfamiliar male faces than were women without brothers, and both groups found self-resemblance to be equally trustworthy for the same faces. Further analyses suggest that this effect is driven by younger, rather than older, brothers, consistent with the proposal that only younger siblings exhibit the strong kinship cue of maternal–perinatal association. Our findings provide evidence that experience with opposite-sex siblings can directly influence inbreeding-avoidance mechanisms and demonstrate a striking functional dissociation between the mechanisms that regulate inbreeding and the mechanisms that regulate prosocial behavior toward kin.

Sociosexuality Predicts Women’s Preferences for Symmetry in Men’s Faces

Although men displaying cues of good physical condition possess traits that are desirable in a mate (e.g., good health), these men are also more likely to possess antisocial characteristics that are undesirable in a long-term partner (e.g., aggression and tendency to infidelity). How women resolve this trade-off between the costs and benefits associated with choosing a mate in good physical condition may lead to strategic variation in women’s mate preferences. Because the costs of choosing a mate with antisocial personality characteristics are greater in long- than short-term relationships, women’s sociosexuality (i.e., the extent to which they are interested in uncommitted sexual relationships) may predict individual differences in their mate preferences. Here we investigated variation in 99 heterosexual women’s preferences for facial symmetry, a characteristic that is thought to be an important cue of physical condition. Symmetry preferences were assessed using pairs of symmetrized and original (i.e., relatively asymmetric) versions of 10 male and 10 female faces. Analyses showed that women’s sociosexuality, and their sociosexual attitude in particular, predicted their preferences for symmetry in men’s, but not women’s, faces; women who reported being more interested in short-term, uncommitted relationships demonstrated stronger attraction to symmetric men. Our findings present new evidence for potentially adaptive variation in women’s symmetry preferences that is consistent with trade-off theories of attraction.

Cues to the sex ratio of the local population influence women's preferences for facial symmetry

In nonhuman species, increasing the proportion of potential mates in the local population often increases preferences for high-quality mates, while increasing the proportion of potential competitors for mates intensifies within-sex competition. In two experiments, we tested for analogous effects in humans by manipulating pictorial cues to the sex ratio of the local population and assessing women’s preferences for facial symmetry, a putative cue of mate quality in humans. In both experiments, viewing slideshows with varied sex ratios tended to increase preferences for symmetry in the sex that was depicted as being in the majority and tended to decrease preferences for symmetry in the sex that was depicted as being in the minority. In other words, increasing the apparent proportion of a given sex in the local population increased the salience of facial cues of quality in that sex, which may support adaptive appraisals of both potential mates’ and competitors’ quality. This effect of sex ratio was independent of (i.e. did not interact with) an effect of cues to the degree of variation in the attractiveness of individuals in the local population, whereby the degree of variation in men’s, but not women’s, attractiveness modulated symmetry preferences. These findings demonstrate that symmetry preferences in humans are influenced by cues to the sex ratio of the local population in ways that complement both the facultative responses that have been observed in many other species and theories of both intersexual and intrasexual selection. Crown Copyright 2011. Published on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Individual differences in women's perceptions of other women's dominance

Recent research on mens dominance perception suggests that the extent to which men perceive masculine men to be more dominant than relatively feminine men is negatively correlated with measures of their own dominance. In the current studies, we investigated the relationship between indices of womens own dominance and their perceptions of other womens facial dominance. Womens own height and scores on a dominance questionnaire were negatively correlated with the extent to which they perceived masculine women to be more dominant than relatively feminine women. In follow–up studies, we observed similar individual differences when (i) women separately judged other womens social and physical dominance, suggesting that individual differences in womens dominance perceptions generalize across two different types of dominance judgment and (ii) we assessed the perceivers’ dominance indirectly by using a questionnaire that measures the extent to which women view interactions with other women in competitive terms. These findings present new evidence that the extent to which people perceive masculine individuals to be more dominant than relatively feminine individuals is negatively correlated with measures of their own dominance and suggest that competition and conflict among women may have shaped individual differences in womens dominance perception. Copyright

Priming concerns about pathogen threat versus resource scarcity: dissociable effects on women’s perceptions of men’s attractiveness and dominance

Previous experimental work suggests flexibility in women’s mate preferences that appears to reflect the advantages of choosing healthy mates under conditions of pathogen threat and of choosing prosocial mates under conditions of resource scarcity. Following this work, we used an established priming paradigm to examine the effects of priming women’s concerns about pathogen threat versus resource scarcity on their judgments of men’s facial attractiveness and dominance. We found that women reported stronger attraction to masculine men when their concerns about pathogens were activated than when their concerns about resource scarcity were activated. In contrast, we found that women were more likely to ascribe high dominance to masculine men when their concerns about resource scarcity were activated than when their concerns about pathogens were activated. This latter result may reflect the greater importance of identifying men who pose a substantial threat to women’s resources and personal safety when resources are scarce and violence towards women is particularly common. Together, these findings suggest a double dissociation between the effects of pathogen threat and resource scarcity on women’s perceptions of the attractiveness and dominance of masculine men, potentially revealing considerably greater specialization (i.e., context specificity) in the effects of environmental threats on women’s perceptions of men than was apparent in previous research.

Reported Sexual Desire Predicts Men’s Preferences for Sexually Dimorphic Cues in Women’s Faces

Recent studies investigating the relationship between sexual desire and sexual attraction have found that heterosexual women’s reported sexual desire is positively correlated with their reported attraction to both own- and opposite-sex individuals, but that heterosexual men’s reported sexual desire is positively correlated with their reported attraction to opposite-sex individuals only. These findings have led to the proposal that sexual desire is a generalized energizer of sexual attraction in heterosexual women (i.e., influences women’s attraction to both men and women), but only energizes heterosexual men’s sexual attraction to women. Here we show that heterosexual men’s scores on the Sexual Desire Inventory-2 were positively correlated with their preferences for exaggerated sex-typical shape cues in opposite-sex, but not own-sex, faces. Together with previous research showing that heterosexual women’s reported sexual desire is positively correlated with their preferences for exaggerated sex-typical shape cues in both own- and opposite-sex faces, our findings present novel converging evidence for sex-specific relationships between sexual desire and attractiveness judgments of own- and opposite-sex individuals.

'Eavesdropping' and perceived male dominance rank in humans

Effects of social learning on mate preferences have been observed in a wide range of animal species, including humans. However, it is not known whether social learning also influences other important aspects of social perception in humans. We investigated whether ‘eavesdropping’, a form of social learning whereby observers extract information about individuals’ qualities by observing their interactions with others, influences men’s perceptions of the dominance of potential rivals. We found that observing the responses of other individuals modulates the perceived dominance of aggressors. Observers rated aggressors’ dominance higher when they had previously observed others responding to the aggressor in a fearful, intimidated manner than when they had observed others responding to the aggressor in an angry, aggressive manner. By contrast with this finding for rated dominance, observing identical interactions did not affect observers’ perceptions of the trustworthiness of the aggressors. The effect of observing others’ responses on the perceived dominance of aggressors demonstrates that eavesdropping influences perceptions of dominance rank among men, which would be adaptive if it reduces the costs (e.g. risk of serious injury and/or loss of resources) that may be associated with acquiring knowledge of others’ dominance rank via exclusively self-reliant learning. While previous research on social learning and sexual selection has focused on intersexual interactions (i.e. mate choice copying effects), our findings suggest that eavesdropping may also influence sexual selection for male traits via intrasexual competition.