Big Love
Brooke Huibregtse et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The consistent association between adolescent sexual initiation (ASI) and risky adult sexual behavior (RASB) has sometimes been interpreted as causal, with the resulting assumption that delaying ASI will reduce RASB. Yet the ASI-RASB association might be better accounted by some third variable. We evaluated the causal role of ASI (initiation of oral, anal, or vaginal sex at or before age 16) on RASB in a longitudinal sample of 2173 twins (followed from age 11 to 24 or from 17 to 29) using two methods: discordant twin and propensity score design. The former controlled for unmeasured genetic and shared environmental factors while the latter controlled for measured non-shared environmental factors. We replicated the link between ASI and RASB reported previously, but results from the discordant twin and propensity score analyses suggested that this association is better explained by common genetic and/or environmental risk factors. These findings suggest that preventing ASI is unlikely to reduce RASB.
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Patterns of Racial-Ethnic Exclusion by Internet Daters
Belinda Robnett & Cynthia Feliciano
Social Forces, March 2011, Pages 807-828
Abstract:
Using data from 6070 U.S. heterosexual internet dating profiles, this study examines how racial and gender exclusions are revealed in the preferences of black, Latino, Asian and white online daters. Consistent with social exchange and group positions theories, the study finds that whites are least open to out-dating and that, unlike blacks, Asians and Latinos have patterns of racial exclusion similar to those of whites. Like blacks, higher earning groups including Asian Indians, Middle Easterners and Asian men are highly excluded, suggesting that economic incorporation may not mirror acceptance in intimate settings. Finally, racial exclusion in dating is gendered; Asian males and black females are more highly excluded than their opposite-sex counterparts, suggesting that existing theories of race relations need to be expanded to account for gendered racial acceptance.
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Happy guys finish last: The impact of emotion expressions on sexual attraction
Jessica Tracy & Alex Beall
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research examined the relative sexual attractiveness of individuals showing emotion expressions of happiness, pride, and shame compared with a neutral control. Across two studies using different images and samples ranging broadly in age (total N = 1041), a large gender difference emerged in the sexual attractiveness of happy displays: happiness was the most attractive female emotion expression, and one of the least attractive in males. In contrast, pride showed the reverse pattern; it was the most attractive male expression, and one of the least attractive in women. Shame displays were relatively attractive in both genders, and, among younger adult women viewers, male shame was more attractive than male happiness, and not substantially less than male pride. Effects were largely consistent with evolutionary and socio-cultural-norm accounts. Overall, this research provides the first evidence that distinct emotion expressions have divergent effects on sexual attractiveness, which vary by gender but largely hold across age.
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Effects of Menstrual Cycle Phase on Ratings of Implicitly Erotic Art
Jeffrey Rudski, Lauren Bernstein & Joy Mitchell
Archives of Sexual Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Women's perceptions of and responses to explicitly erotic stimuli have been shown to vary across the menstrual cycle. The present study examined responses to implicit eroticism. A total of 83 women provided reactions to paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe in 6 day intervals over the course of 1 month. Among freely cycling women (n = 37), 31% of their descriptions included sexual themes during the first half of their cycle, dropping to 9% of descriptions in the second half. In women using oral contraceptives (n = 46), there was no significant difference in descriptions across the cycle (13% in the first half vs. 17% in the second half). Results were discussed in terms of evolutionary psychology and social-cognitive perspectives on the relationships between hormonal fluctuations and sexuality.
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Humor in Romantic Contexts: Do Men Participate and Women Evaluate?
Christopher Wilbur & Lorne Campbell
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Several lines of research illustrate that humor plays a pivotal role in relationship initiation. The current article applies sexual selection theory to argue that humor production is a fitness indicator, allowing men to transmit information tacitly about their underlying qualities. And whereas prior research has emphasized women's appreciation of humor as a signal of interest, the focus here is on how women evaluate prospective suitors' humorous offerings. Two studies, including an ecologically valid study of online dating advertisements, provided evidence for men's production and women's evaluation of humor in romantic contexts. A third study revealed that women's evaluations of potential mates' humor are predictive of their romantic interest. Moreover, this article shows that preferences for and perceptions of humor are associated with preferences for and perceptions of intelligence and warmth, consistent with the argument that one function of humor is as a fitness indicator that provides information about underlying mate quality.
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Brandi Frisby et al.
Sex Roles, May 2011, Pages 682-694
Abstract:
Guided by Relational Framing and Parental Investment Theories, this investigation examined experimentally induced flirtatious interactions. United States undergraduates (N = 252) from the Mid-Atlantic region viewed a flirtatious interaction and rated a confederate on physical and social attraction, affiliation, dominance, and conversational effectiveness. Generally, it was hypothesized that different flirting motivations would lead to different evaluations of the flirters, and perceptions of flirters would vary based on gender. Results revealed that men were evaluated as more dominant and affiliative than women when flirting, but dominance in men was not perceived as attractive or conversationally effective. In addition, men's attraction to women increased significantly when women flirted for sexual motives, and women's attraction to men decreased significantly when men flirted for fun. Overall, the results provide mixed support for both theories.
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Preliminary Evidence that the Limbal Ring Influences Facial Attractiveness
Darren Peshek et al.
Evolutionary Psychology, April 2011, Pages 137-146
Abstract:
The limbal ring of the eye appears as a dark annulus where the iris meets the sclera. Both width and opacity of the limbal ring are influenced by iris pigmentation and optical properties of the region. With age the limbal ring becomes less prominent, making it a probabilistic indicator of youth and health. This raises the question: Are judgments of facial attractiveness sensitive to this signal in a potentially adaptive way? Here we show that the answer is yes. For male and female observers, both male and female faces with a dark and distinct limbal ring are rated as more attractive than otherwise identical faces with no limbal ring. This result is observed not just for upright faces but also for inverted faces, suggesting that the limbal ring is processed primarily as a local feature rather than as a configural feature in the analysis of facial beauty. We also discuss directions for future research that can clarify the role of the limbal ring in the visual perception of facial attractiveness.
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Anthony Little, Lisa DeBruine & Benedict Jones
Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 7 July 2011, Pages 2032-2039
Abstract:
Evolutionary approaches to human attractiveness have documented several traits that are proposed to be attractive across individuals and cultures, although both cross-individual and cross-cultural variations are also often found. Previous studies show that parasite prevalence and mortality/health are related to cultural variation in preferences for attractive traits. Visual experience of pathogen cues may mediate such variable preferences. Here we showed individuals slideshows of images with cues to low and high pathogen prevalence and measured their visual preferences for face traits. We found that both men and women moderated their preferences for facial masculinity and symmetry according to recent experience of visual cues to environmental pathogens. Change in preferences was seen mainly for opposite-sex faces, with women preferring more masculine and more symmetric male faces and men preferring more feminine and more symmetric female faces after exposure to pathogen cues than when not exposed to such cues. Cues to environmental pathogens had no significant effects on preferences for same-sex faces. These data complement studies of cross-cultural differences in preferences by suggesting a mechanism for variation in mate preferences. Similar visual experience could lead to within-cultural agreement and differing visual experience could lead to cross-cultural variation. Overall, our data demonstrate that preferences can be strategically flexible according to recent visual experience with pathogen cues. Given that cues to pathogens may signal an increase in contagion/mortality risk, it may be adaptive to shift visual preferences in favour of proposed good-gene markers in environments where such cues are more evident.
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Steven Young, Donald Sacco & Kurt Hugenberg
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the accessibility of disease concerns would be associated with a preference for faces high in symmetry, a cue to good health and pathogen resistance. Disease concerns (perceived vulnerability to disease) were measured as an individual difference in Experiment 1 and were situationally primed in Experiment 2. Across both studies, heightened disease sensitivity predicted a preference for symmetrical faces. Importantly, this increased preference for symmetrical faces when disease threats were salient did not generalize to non-face stimuli. These results suggest a domain-specific preference for symmetry in human faces, an adaptive response due to the ability of faces to signal resistance to infectious diseases in individuals and situations where disease is a salient threat.
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Shape and Significance of Feminine Beauty: An Evolutionary Perspective
Devendra Singh & Dorian Singh
Sex Roles, May 2011, Pages 723-731
Abstract:
Evolutionary and feminist perspectives on female beauty are compatible in some respects, such as the oppressive and destructive outcomes for women as a consequence of the importance attached to female beauty. The perspectives tend to differ on the issue of the origins of (some) beauty standards. Evolutionary scientists have proposed that beauty is a reliable cue for women's health and fertility. However, as the factors regulating health and reproductive capabilities cannot be directly observed, sexual selection has fashioned psychological adaptations to attend to bodily features that are correlated with health and fertility. It is proposed that people resonate to such bodily features and find them attractive. One such bodily feature in women is gynoid body distribution (i.e., female-normative body shape in which fat distribution is concentrated around hips and thighs). Gynoid body fat distribution is measured by the ratio of waist and hips circumferences (WHR). In this paper we summarize empirical evidence showing that WHR is an independent predictor for risks for major diseases, optimal hormonal profile, and reproductive capabilities. Next, we present findings from studies that demonstrate systematic variations in the size of WHR produce systematic changes in judgment of female attractiveness within diverse societies throughout the world. Such widespread appeal of low WHR suggests that people have evolved mental mechanisms to judge body features indicative of good health as attractive, meaning that some standards of beauty are not arbitrary or constructed. We conclude that a better understanding and appreciation of the beauty-health linkage can be empowering to women.
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Benedict Jones et al.
Biological Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent studies suggest that post-menopausal women demonstrate stronger preferences for feminine characteristics in male and female faces than do pre-menopausal women, potentially reflecting stronger preferences for healthy men and greater derogation of attractive women among more fertile women. A limitation of this work was that it assessed circum-menopausal women's face preferences using images of young adults only. Here, we found that post-menopausal women demonstrated stronger preferences for feminine characteristics in male and female peer-aged faces that did pre-menopausal women. These data present novel evidence for circum-menopausal variation in face perception and confirm that the circum-menopausal variation in face preferences observed previously was not an artefact of the young faces employed as stimuli.
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Virgil Zeigler-Hill & Erin Myers
Evolutionary Psychology, April 2011, Pages 147-180
Abstract:
The provision of information appears to be an important property of self-esteem as evidenced by previous research concerning the status-tracking and status-signaling models of self-esteem. The present studies examine whether there is an implicit theory of self-esteem that leads individuals to assume targets with higher levels of self-esteem possess more desirable characteristics than those with lower levels of self-esteem. Across 6 studies, targets with ostensibly higher levels of self-esteem were generally rated as more attractive and as more desirable relationship partners than those with lower levels of self-esteem. It is important to note, however, that this general trend did not consistently emerge for female targets. Rather, female targets with high self-esteem were often evaluated less positively than those with more moderate levels of self-esteem. The present findings are discussed in the context of an extended informational model of self-esteem consisting of both the status-tracking and status-signaling properties of self-esteem.
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Positive and negative preferences in human mate selection
Nicolas Gérard Vaillant & François-Charles Wolff
Review of Economics of the Household, June 2011, Pages 273-291
Abstract:
This paper focuses on preferences for specific characteristics in a potential partner using data from 1993 to 1999 provided by a French marriage bureau. We perform an econometric analysis of the various traits either sought or rejected in a potential partner, respectively by men and women. Our results are consistent with investment in marriage. On the one hand, men tend to reject vulgar and unfaithful women, meaning that they are likely to suffer serious fitness costs from infidelity. On the other hand, women dread meeting potential partners who are alcoholic, selfish or violent.
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Chuck Tate
Sex Roles, May 2011, Pages 644-657
Abstract:
Three studies (N = 329) using U.S. community samples examined the relative contributions of self-reported "sex," gender identity, and actual number of sexual partners to the question how many sexual partners individuals desire over the lifetime. In Study 1, the more "feminine" a participant identified, not self-reported sex, was significantly related to the desired number of sexual partners. Study 2a showed that a person's actual number of sexual partners also correlated with the desired number. In Study 3, Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) (Bem Psychological Review, 88: 354-364 1981) femininity scores and actual number of sexual partners significantly predicted desired number of sexual partners separately for men and women. These results suggest that non-evolutionary variables drive the "problem of number" in mate preference.
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Pamela Regan
Social Behavior and Personality, Spring 2011, Pages 563-576
Abstract:
The impact of 2 target audience characteristics on appearance modification was examined. Women participants were led to expect an interaction with an attractive or unattractive male or female target (randomly assigned). Female raters assessed the amount of cosmetics worn by participants both before the experimental manipulation and on the day that they returned for the anticipated interaction. It was revealed that women wore significantly more makeup when they anticipated an interaction with a highly attractive target, irrespective of sex, wore the same amount of makeup when anticipating meeting an unattractive woman, and wore significantly less makeup when expecting to meet an unattractive man. These findings are congruent with a self-presentational conceptualization of appearance and provide evidence that attractiveness and sex/gender are powerful social cues that elicit behavioral displays from others.
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Changes in estradiol predict within-women shifts in attraction to facial cues of men's testosterone
James Roney, Zachary Simmons & Peter Gray
Psychoneuroendocrinology, June 2011, Pages 742-749
Abstract:
Many studies have demonstrated that women express stronger attraction to androgen-related traits when tested near ovulation than when tested at other times in the cycle. Much less research, however, has directly addressed which hormonal or other physiological signals may regulate these temporal shifts in women's attractiveness judgments. In the present study, we measured women's preferences for facial cues of men's testosterone concentrations on two occasions spaced two weeks apart, while also measuring women's salivary estradiol and testosterone concentrations at each testing session. Changes in women's estradiol concentrations across sessions positively predicted changes in their preferences for facial cues of high testosterone; there was no such effect for changes in women's testosterone concentrations. For the subset of women who had a testing session fall within the estimated fertile window, preferences for high testosterone faces were stronger in the fertile window session, and change in estradiol from outside to inside the fertile window positively predicted the magnitude of the ovulatory preference shift. These patterns were not replicated when testing preferences for faces that were rated as high in masculinity, suggesting that facial cues of high testosterone can be distinguished from the cues used to subjectively judge facial masculinity. Our findings suggest that women's estradiol promotes attraction to androgen-dependent cues in men (similar to its effects in females of various nonhuman species), and support a role for this hormone as a physiological regulator of cycle phase shifts in mating psychology.
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Karolina Sylwester & Bogusław Pawłowski
Sex Roles, May 2011, Pages 695-706
Abstract:
In an attempt to explain gender differences in risk taking from an evolutionary perspective, this study examined the attractiveness of risk taking in potential mates. Questionnaire data from a sample of 352 primarily undergraduate students at Liverpool University, U.K., provided participants' ratings of physical, social and financial risk-taking and risk-avoiding profiles in terms of attractiveness for long- and short-term relationships. As well as showing a considerable variation in the ratings of different types of risk, we found that the relationship type affected male and female preferences in a similar fashion. Both genders rated risk avoiders as more attractive than risk takers in the context of long-term relationships. In contrast, for short-term relationships men and women preferred risk takers over risk avoiders.
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Brendan Zietsch et al.
Journal of Sexual Medicine, forthcoming
Introduction: The criteria for "female orgasmic disorder" (FOD) assume that low rates of orgasm are dysfunctional, implying that high rates are functional. Evolutionary theories about the function of female orgasm predict correlations of orgasm rates with sexual attitudes and behavior and other fitness-related traits.
Aim: To test hypothesized evolutionary functions of the female orgasm.
Methods: We examined such correlations in a community sample of 2,914 adult female Australian twins who reported their orgasm rates during masturbation, intercourse, and other sexual activities, and who completed demographic, personality, and sexuality questionnaires.
Main Outcome Measures: Orgasm rates during intercourse, other sex, and masturbation.
Results: Although orgasm rates showed high variance across women and substantial heritability, they were largely phenotypically and genetically independent of other important traits. We found zero to weak phenotypic correlations between all three orgasm rates and all other 19 traits examined, including occupational status, social class, educational attainment, extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, impulsiveness, childhood illness, maternal pregnancy stress, marital status, political liberalism, restrictive attitudes toward sex, libido, lifetime number of sex partners, risky sexual behavior, masculinity, orientation toward uncommitted sex, age of first intercourse, and sexual fantasy. Furthermore, none of the correlations had significant genetic components.
Conclusion: These findings cast doubt on most current evolutionary theories about female orgasm's adaptive functions, and on the validity of FOD as a psychiatric construct.
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Laramie Taylor
Communication Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Two laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the effect of exposure to varying media representations of partner availability on the traits women found desirable in potential romantic and sexual partners. In each study, after watching media narratives featuring either an abundance or scarcity of male prospective sexual partners, women indicated their interest in hypothetical sexual partners with characteristics typical of the Cad (e.g., aggressive, promiscuous) or Dad (e.g. devoted, upright) for long-term and short-term relationships. Viewing any romantic narrative caused a decline in interest in a partner with Cad traits, particularly for a short-term relationship. Viewing romantic narratives in which romantic relationships were framed in terms of male abundance caused women with short-term relationship goals to be less interested in a partner with Dad traits; viewing the male scarcity trailers caused a similar reduction for women with long-term relationship goals.
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Sharon Wretzel, Paul Visintainer & Laura Pinkston Koenigs
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: Sexual activity and sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates are high in adolescents. In this study, we sought to determine whether the initiation of a school-based condom availability program was associated with a decrease in STI rates.
Methods: We compared the rates of STIs in 15-19 year-olds reported to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for the 3 years before and after a condom availability program was introduced in Holyoke, MA, as compared with a similar city, Springfield, MA, which did not have such a program.
Results: Holyoke males, aged 15-19 years, showed a 47% decrease in the rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia infection combined over the 3 years after the implementation of the condom availability program, whereas similar aged males in Springfield had a 23% increase in the rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia infection. The difference in regression slopes in this period was significant (p < .01). Females, aged 15-19 years, from either Holyoke or Springfield, showed moderate, variable changes in rates of STIs after 2005; there was no significant difference in the regression slopes of STIs between Holyoke and Springfield.
Conclusions: Initiating a condom availability program in a city's high school was associated with a decrease in STI rates for 15-19 year-old males but not females.
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William Pedersen, Anila Putcha-Bhagavatula & Lynn Carol Miller
Sex Roles, May 2011, Pages 629-643
Abstract:
Sexual Strategies Theory (SST; Buss and Schmitt 1993) suggests that, typically, men more so than women are more likely to spend proportionately more of their mating effort in short-term mating, lower their standards in short-term compared to long-term mating, feel reproductively constrained, and seek, but certainly not avoid, sex if pregnancy is likely in short-term relationships. A series of 4 survey studies each containing hundreds of college student participants from the western portion of the United States were conducted to test these hypotheses. The findings are inconsistent with SST but are consistent with Attachment Fertility Theory (AFT; Miller et al. 2005) that argues for relatively few evolved gender differences in mating strategies and preferences.
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Nightlife young risk behaviours in Mediterranean versus other European cities: Are stereotypes true?
Amador Calafat et al.
European Journal of Public Health, June 2011, Pages 311-315
Background: Mediterranean lifestyle has long been hailed as protective against certain risk behaviours and diseases. Mediterranean drinking patterns of moderate alcohol consumption as part of daily life have often been assumed to protect young people from harmful alcohol consumption, in contrast to Northern European drinking patterns. Nightlife environments are strong related to alcohol and drugs use, and other health risk behaviours but few cross-national studies have been undertaken amongst young Europeans frequenting bars and nightclubs. This study aims to understand differences in nightlife risk-taking behaviours between young nightlife users from Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean cultures, including alcohol and illicit drug use, unprotected sex, violence and driving under the influence of alcohol.
Methods: A total of 1363 regular nightlife users aged 16-35 years were surveyed in nine European cities by means of a self-reported questionnaire. Sample selection was done through respondent driven sampling techniques.
Results: after controlling for demographic variables, no differences among the Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean samples were found in current alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, or cocaine use, neither in violent behaviours, but Northern people were more likely to get drunk [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.53], while Mediterranean were more likely to have unprotected sex (AOR = 2.01) and to drive drunken (AOR = 5.86).
Conclusion: Our data suggest that stereotypes are partially confirmed, and that Mediterranean lifestyle is protective for some risk behaviours (drunkenness, ecstasy and amphetamines current use), but not for all of them. Further research in depth is needed in order to clarify the relations between cultural patterns, social norms and nightlife risk behaviours assumed by the young people.
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Can Ambient Scent Enhance the Nightlife Experience?
Hendrik Schifferstein, Katrin Talke & Dirk-Jan Oudshoorn
Chemosensory Perception, forthcoming
Abstract:
Ever since smoking was prohibited in restaurants, bars, and clubs, undesirable smells that were previously masked by cigarette smoke became noticeable. This opens up opportunities to improve the dance club environment by introducing pleasant ambient scents that mask the unwanted odors and to allow competing clubs to differentiate themselves. A field study was conducted at three dance clubs using a 3 × 3 Latin square design with pre- and post-measurements of no-scent control conditions. The three scents tested were orange, seawater, and peppermint. These scents were shown to enhance dancing activity and to improve the evaluation of the evening, the evaluation of the music, and the mood of the visitors over no added scent. However, no significant differences were found between the three scents.
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Jennifer Downing et al.
European Journal of Public Health, June 2011, Pages 275-281
Background: Previous studies exploring risk-taking behaviour on holiday are typically limited to single nationalities, confounding comparisons among countries. Here we examine the sexual behaviour of holidaymakers of three nationalities visiting Ibiza and Majorca.
Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study design was used focusing on British, Spanish and German holidaymakers in the age range of 16-35 years. Overall, 3003 questionnaires were gathered at airports in Majorca and Ibiza from holidaymakers returning home.
Results: Of those surveyed, 71.1% were single (travelling without a current sexual partner) (Majorca, 74.3%; Ibiza, 68.0%). Overall, 34.1% of single holidaymakers had sex on holiday. Amongst single participants, factors associated with having sex on holiday were high levels of drunkenness, being Spanish and holidaying for over 2 weeks. Of those single and having sex on holiday, factors associated with multiple sexual partners were being male and age ≤19 years. Unprotected sex was predicted by being German and holidaying in Majorca, holidaying with members of the opposite sex and using four or more drugs on holiday. All sexual behaviours were predicted by a high number of sexual partners in the previous 12 months. Furthermore, single holidaymakers having sex abroad were more likely to prefer night-time venues facilitating casual sex and excessive alcohol consumption.
Conclusions: Casual sex encounters in youth holiday resorts may be commonplace and mediated through substance use. Further focused public health efforts, including in bars/nightclubs, are needed to prevent sexual risk-taking which can increase the likelihood of poor sexual health outcomes and associated factors such as regretted sex.
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Menstrual Cycle and Facial Preferences Reconsidered
Christine Harris
Sex Roles, May 2011, Pages 669-681
Abstract:
Two previous articles reported that women prefer less feminized male faces during the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle, supposedly reflecting an evolved mating strategy whereby women choose mates of maximum genetic quality when conception is likely. The current article contends this theory rests on several questionable assumptions about human ancestral mating systems. A new empirical test also was conducted: 853 adults, primarily from North America, evaluated facial attractiveness of photos. The study included more complete evaluation of ovulatory status and a greater number (n = 258) of target women than past research. The results did not suggest any greater preference for masculine faces when fertilization was likely. The article concludes with general comments about evolutionary theorizing and interpersonal relationships.
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Female voice frequency in the context of dominance and attractiveness perception
Barbara Borkowska & Boguslaw Pawlowski
Animal Behaviour, forthcoming
Abstract:
Human voice pitch is sexually dimorphic and therefore conveys important information about its owner's sex. Since people often associate voice pitch with age, body size, attractiveness and, in the case of men, level of dominance, it is assumed that voice pitch signals biological condition. We tested (1) how female voice pitch is related to perceptions of dominance and (2) whether female voice pitch correlates linearly with its attractiveness assessment. We recorded five vowels {A [a], E [var epsilon], I [i], O [open o (phonetic symbol)], U [u]} and measured the voice fundamental frequency (F0) of 58 young women. The following voices of four women were selected: low (184.6 Hz), medium (223.7 Hz), high (261.9 Hz) and very high (310.3 Hz). Each of these voices was lowered and raised by 20 Hz. The modified voices and the original voices were rated for attractiveness by men, and were rated for dominance by both men and women. We found that women with lower voices were perceived as more dominant and that this relationship was linear. An interaction between the sexes in the dominance assessment indicates that women are more sensitive than men to the dominance cues present in female voices. We also found that, contrary to other studies, the relationship between female voice pitch and its attractiveness is not linear. Higher pitched voices were assessed as more attractive up to an optimal pitch; female voices above ca. 280 Hz were rated as less attractive. We suggest that female voices that have too high a pitch sound babyish and are associated with sexual immaturity.