How People Become Attractive to Prospective Mates: Strategies of Self-Promotion in the Greek Cultural Context

How People Become Attractive to Prospective Mates: Strategies of Self-Promotion in the Greek Cultural Context. Menelaos Apostolou, Yan Wang, Athina Gavriilidou. Evolutionary Psychology, October 4, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049211045271

Abstract: An important aspect of human mating is to appeal to prospective mates. Accordingly, the current research attempted to identify the strategies that people use in order to become more attractive as prospective intimate partners. More specifically, using open-ended questionnaires in a sample of 326 Greek-speaking participants, we identified 87 acts that people performed in order to become more attractive as mates. By using quantitative research methods in a sample of 2,197 Greek-speaking participants, we classified these acts into 16 different strategies. We found that, enhancing one's looks and becoming more pleasant, were among the most preferred strategies. Women were more likely than men to adopt strategies that involved looks, while men were more likely than women to adopt strategies that involved resource acquisition capacity. Moreover, age effects were found for most strategies. The identified strategies were classified into two broader domains, one aiming to develop and demonstrate fitness-increasing qualities, and the other to deceive about fitness-impairing traits.

Keywords: self-promotion strategies, mating strategies, mating, attraction

Discussion

By using a combination of qualitative research methods, we identified 87 acts that people were likely to perform in order to become more attractive as mates. Using quantitative research methods, we classified these acts in 16 different strategies. Among the most likely to be used ones, were to enhance one's looks and to become more pleasant. Women were more likely than men to adopt strategies which involved looks, while men were more likely than women to adopt strategies which involved demonstrating resource acquisition capacity. Moreover, age effects were found for most strategies. The identified strategies were classified into two broader domains, one aiming to develop and demonstrate fitness-increasing qualities, and the other to deceive about fitness-impairing traits.

As it was originally predicted, factors which indicated desirable character traits emerged, namely “Become more pleasant” and “Self-improvement.” About 80% of the participants indicated that they would try to look more pleasant, and about 57% that they would try to improve themselves, especially their character. Research on mate preferences indicates that, being kind and understanding, are highly valued in prospective partners (Buss, 2016); thus, we expected that a factor reflecting people's effort to appear more kind would emerge, but this was not the case. One possible explanation is that such effort was captured in other strategies. In particular, people indicated that they would do volunteer work, which classified under the “Increase intellectual capacity” factor. Furthermore, people who score low in kindness may try to keep it hidden (see O'Sullivan, 2008), which is captured by the “Keep undesirable traits hidden” factor. Future research could extend the current study by asking people to rate specifically if, in order to become more attractive to prospective mates, they would attempt to demonstrate kindness and understanding.

Moving on, also consistent with our original prediction, factors that reflected resource provision capacity emerged, namely “Increase social status,” “Spend money on someone I am interested in,” and “Showing off and exaggerating wealth.” Resource provision capacity was also captured in the “Increase intellectual capacity” and the “Show off abilities and talents” strategies, as intelligence, talents, and abilities predict this capacity. People indicated an increased willingness to use these strategies; for instance, about 54% of the participants indicated that they would be likely to demonstrate their abilities and talents, and more than half of the participants indicated that they would spend money on someone they were interested in. Yet, the “Showing off and exaggerating wealth” was not a preferred strategy, as only 5% of the participants indicated that they would use it.

In accordance to our original prediction, strategies emerged that relate to good looks, namely “Enhance looks,” “Lose weight,” “Drastic appearance changes,” and “Enhance social media profile.” The “Enhance looks” strategy was the most preferred one, with more than 84% of the participants indicating that they were likely to adopt it. Similarly, in order to become more attractive as mates, nearly 55% of the participants indicated that they would try to lose weight, and more than one in five that they would enhance their social media profile. These findings suggest that, in order to become more attractive as partners, people predominantly resorted to strategies aimed to enhance their looks. This conclusion is not surprising, given that looks summarize information about traits with high fitness value, including health, genetic quality and reproductive capacity. In addition, looks, as opposed to other traits, such as resource provision capacity, can be assessed in a few seconds, so in screening for desirable mates, it would be efficient for mate-seekers to start from looks, and if these satisfy them, to proceed in assessing other traits. This being the case, it would not be effective if people paid attention to demonstrating other qualities ignoring their looks, because prospective mates would not bother to assess them if looks did not appeal to them.

As we originally predicted, the “Develop similar interests” strategy, where people become more attractive to prospective mates by showing them that they are similar to them, emerged. Here, individuals would adopt hobbies and habits of prospective partners, they would show agreement with them, and they would show interest in what interests them. This strategy seems to involve deception, as people would engage for instance, in specific activities in order to be liked by prospective partners, and not necessarily because they were genuinely interested in such activities. Yet, this strategy did not classify under the deception domain, suggesting that people were genuinely interested in becoming more similar to prospective partners, and not to deceive them that they were similar. This strategy was also popular, with more than 40% of the participants indicating a willingness to use it.

We did not predict the emergence of the “Do more risky, physically demanding and unusual things” strategy. One interpretation of this strategy is that, it enables people to signal their capacities in a reliable manner. For instance, only people who have good physical capacities would risk doing physically demanding things. Thus, such actions may reliably signal to prospective mates that individuals have good physical qualities (see Zahavi and Zahavi, 1997; Miller, 2000).

Consistent with our original prediction, the extracted strategies classified into two broader domains, namely a domain where people would attempt to develop and demonstrate desirable qualities, and another domain where they would deceive about undesirable traits. Thus, in the former domain, people would attempt to increase and demonstrate their resources generating capacity by receiving more education, getting a job promotion and spending money on a prospective partner, while in the second domain, they would attempt to exaggerate their wealth and present their financial situation better than it actually is. Similarly, in the former domain people would attempt to improve their character and they would demonstrate that they have good personality traits, such as pleasantness, while in the second domain they would attempt to hide character and behavioral flaws, such as a psychological problem. In the former domain, people would enhance their appearance by looking after their body, improve their clothing and losing some weight, while in the second domain, they would deceive about their physical qualities by drastically altering their body through artificial means, such as a plastic surgery and liposuction.

Men value looks in an intimate partner more than women (Buss et al., 2001; Thomas et al., 2020). Accordingly, women were more willing than men to use strategies for enhancing their looks. In particular, they indicated a higher willingness to improve their appearance by looking after their skin, hair, by wearing clothes that flattered them and by losing weight. On the other hand, women value resource acquisition potential in a prospective partner more than men (Buss, 2016; Thomas et al., 2020). Accordingly, men were more likely to attempt to develop and demonstrate resource acquisition capacity, by buying gifts for someone they were interested in, and by increasing their social status. They gave also higher mean scores in showing off abilities and talents, and in demonstrating and exaggerating wealth; these differences approached but did not pass however the significance level. Previous research has also identified similar sex differences (Schmitt & Buss, 1996). The current research, by identifying the structure of self-promotion strategies, has more accurately identified the strategies in which the sexes diverge or converge. Moreover, the significance and the magnitude of these differences is contingent to the cultural context of the study (Bendixen & Kennair, 2015). Thus, future research could employ the identified factor structure, in order to examine how sex differences vary across different cultural contexts.

Age predicted most strategies. As indicated by the effect size, the largest effect was over the “Enhance looks” strategy, with younger participants indicating a higher willingness to use it than older ones. One possible explanation is that, as people get older, their looks deteriorate, so this is not their strongest selling point in the mating market; accordingly, they divert their limited resources in displaying other qualities, which have a positive association with age. Consistent with this interpretation, we found that older participants indicated a stronger willingness to show off wealth and social status. We also found that, younger participants were more willing to attempt to enhance their social media profile than older participants. One explanation is that, older generations may be less familiar with social media, and less likely to use them than younger generations (see Correa et al., 2010). In addition, older participants indicated that they were more likely to attempt to lose some weight in order to become more attractive to prospective mates. One reason is that, as people get older, metabolism changes and it is easier to get extra weight (Pontzer et al., 2021), which turns losing weight a strategy more likely to be used by older participants.

In most cases, sexual orientation did not predict the use of the identified strategies, suggesting that individuals of different orientations employ similar strategies in order to become more attractive as mates. However, our results need to be considered preliminary, because although our sample was large, it was not large enough to include many participants in all sexual orientation categories. Accordingly, the lack of significant effects may partially be due to our study not having sufficient power. Moving on, we asked participants to indicate their willingness to use self-promotion strategies assuming that they were single. We aimed to assess the general willingness to use such strategies; thus, if we did not do so, most participants who were in a relationship or married would indicate a low willingness to use self-promotion strategies, as they had already secured a mate. Consequently, the way the study was designed, explains why marital status did not emerge as a statistically significant predictor of self-promotion mating strategies.

Our research was designed to advance earlier work on self-promotion strategies, so it would be fruitful to compare our findings with past findings. More specifically, Schmitt and Buss (1996) came up with 31 such strategies, while our study extracted almost half this number. This difference is due to our use of dimension reduction techniques, which can provide a more accurate identification of the underlying factor structure. Furthermore, these techniques revealed an even broader two-domain structure. In addition, there were considerable similarities in the strategies identified by Schmitt and Buss (1996) and the ones we identified here, which were consistent with the evolutionary theoretical framework. Yet, there were also differences. One such difference was that Schmitt and Buss (1996) found several strategies including “Act Kind,” “Act Sensitive,” and “Act Helpful,” which demonstrate personality traits, such as kindness and understanding, but such strategies did not emerge here. One possible explanation is that this difference reflects a cultural difference. Another explanation is that Schmitt and Buss (1996) study investigated the acts that people do in order to become more attractive along with the acts that people do in order to attract prospective mates. The two are very similar but not completely overlapping. This difference can also explain why the strategies “Invoke Love,” “Make Proposition,” “Use Alcohol,” “Have Sex,” “Become Friends,” “Communicate Often,” and “Display Sexual Exclusivity” identified by Schmitt and Buss (1996) did not emerge here.

Furthermore, the “Enhance social media profile” strategy did not emerge in Schmitt and Buss (1996), as social media such as the Facebook, did not exist at that time. Similarly, the “Develop similar interests,” “Self-improvement,” and the “Keep undesirable traits hidden” did not emerge in Schmitt and Buss (1996) study. One possibility is that the current study employed a larger and more diverse sample than the Schmitt and Buss (1996) study, which means that the latter may have missed the acts that give rise to these factors. It could also be the case that these acts were identified, but these factors did not emerge because dimension reduction techniques were not used.

Environmental factors may affect the identified self-promotion strategies. For instance, the “Enhance social media profile” strategy would be less likely to be used in a cultural context where social media use is not widespread, than in a cultural context where most people have a social media profile. In addition, in pre-industrial societies parents have a considerable influence in determining their children's spouses, through the institution of arranged marriage (Apostolou, 2007, 2010). Thus, in these societies, people would direct their self-promotion strategies toward parents, adjusting them to become more attractive as prospective in-laws. Furthermore, environmental factors may affect the fitness-contributions of specific traits. For instance, the resource provision capacity of a prospective partner would be more fitness-increasing in a context where resources are scarce and the social support system is limited, than in a context where resources are more abundant and the social support system is highly developed. This being the case, people would be more likely to employ strategies that demonstrate their resource provision capacity in the former than in the latter context. Accordingly, we expect considerable cross-cultural variation in the self-promotion strategies, mandating future cross-cultural research in the area.

One limitation of the current work is that it employed self-report instruments, so there was no way for us to confirm the honesty of participants’ answers. Moreover, our research was based on non-probability samples, so its findings do not readily generalize to the population. Also, in order to take the survey, the respondent should had access to a computer or a smartphone. By recruiting over social media, there is the possibility that individuals of lower socio-economic status who may not have access to devices to use social media, were underrepresented. It is also possible that, those who were more involved in social media and therefore, were more likely to see the survey, differed from the general population with respect to self-promotion strategies. Furthermore, it appears that single people were overrepresented in our sample. One possible explanation is that, single people have a stronger motivation to attract partners, so they may be more interested in the topic of the study.

Moving on, in Study 1, participants were asked to indicate not only the acts that they had performed in the past, but also the acts that were likely to use in the future. We did so in order to construct a more inclusive list of acts that people would perform; however, by asking respondents to predict future actions, our list may have included acts that would rarely or never be employed. Moreover, participants responded hypothetically, so in actual situations, they may use different strategies than the ones they have indicated here. Furthermore, people may use different strategies for becoming attractive to casual and different strategies for becoming attractive to long-term mates (Schmitt & Buss, 1996); yet, in the current study, we did not distinguish between the two. In addition, in the current study we did not examine the effectiveness of the identified strategies, something that future studies need to do. In addition, there are several factors, such as personality, that predict the adoption of such strategies, which were not examined in the present study. Furthermore, the current research was confined to the Greek cultural context, and its findings may not readily apply to other cultural settings.

An important aspect of mating is to appeal to prospective mates. In the present study, we have identified a plethora of acts that people use in order to become more attractive as mates, and we have classified them in broader strategies. Nevertheless, in the light of the limitations of the current research, and the complexity of the phenomenon, much more work is required if self-promotion strategies are to be understood.

Disease avoidance trade-offs: People who are more interested in seeking new romantic partners (e.g., young men) may be less inclined to socially distance and be more at risk of pathogen transmission

Disease Avoidance Motives Trade-Off Against Social Motives, Especially Mate-Seeking, to Predict Social Distancing: Evidence From the COVID-19 Pandemic. Pelin Gul et al. Social Psychological and Personality Science, October 3, 2021. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/19485506211046462

Abstract: A range of studies have sought to understand why people’s compliance with social distancing varied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent theory suggests that pathogen avoidance behavior is based not only on perceived risk but on a trade-off between the perceived costs of pathogen exposure and the perceived benefits of social contact. We hypothesized that compliance with social distancing may therefore be explained by a trade-off between pathogen avoidance and various social motives such as mate-seeking. Two studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that social distancing was positively associated with disease avoidance motives but negatively associated with social motives, especially mating motives. These associations remained after controlling for predictors identified by previous research, including risk perception and personality. Findings indicate that people who are more interested in seeking new romantic partners (e.g., young men) may be less inclined to socially distance and be more at risk of pathogen transmission.

Keywords: COVID-19, infectious disease prevention, social distancing, mate-seeking, disease avoidance

General Discussion

We hypothesized that adherence to social distancing and hygiene behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic is the result of a trade-off between motives to avoid infection and social motives. As expected, disease avoidance motives were positively associated, and mating motives negatively associated, with adherence to social distancing and hygiene behavior in two studies. However, other social motives, namely group affiliation and concerns about social exclusion, were not associated with social distancing or hygiene behavior. Moreover, after conducting regression analysis to control for a range of individual differences (e.g., personality and general risk perception), disease avoidance motives were the only consistent positive predictor, and mating motives were the only significant negative predictor, of social distancing. Overall, these findings suggest that mating motives are the most important of the social motives we measured in shaping social distancing behavior.

Mating motives and disease avoidance motives vary across sex and age (Ko et al., 2019). We therefore also explored whether the trade-off between these motives could be related to findings that men and young people adhere less with social distancing. We explored our hypothesis regarding age differences in both studies. But, due to small sample size of men in Study 1, we could explore our hypothesis regarding gender differences only in Study 2. Regarding age differences, indirect effects analyses in Study 1 revealed that only disease avoidance motives was associated with younger (vs. older) peoples’ compliance with social distancing, whereas in Study 2, consistent with our trade-off suggestion, younger peoples’ lower compliance with social distancing was associated with both their lower disease avoidance motives and their higher mate-seeking motives. The nonsignificant indirect effect via mating motives (SOI) in Study 1 could be due to the sample being predominantly women, who on average have lower desire for casual sex than men. Regarding sex differences, Study 2 similarly showed that men’s (vs. women’s) social distancing was associated with their lower disease avoidance and higher mate-seeking motives. Despite the sample size limitation in Study 1, these findings support the hypothesis that the trade-off between disease avoidance and mate-seeking shapes social distancing behavior, which can in turn shape demographic patterns of adherence with social distancing rules.

Following hygiene guidelines is not subject to the disease avoidance and mating trade-off to the same extent as social distancing because, compared to social distancing (e.g., staying at home) hygiene (e.g. hand washing) interferes less with social contact. This may explain why, in Study 2, adherence with social distancing was associated with mate-seeking motives but not with hygiene practices in the regression analyses. In both studies, affiliation motives were not as strongly associated with social distancing as mating motives were. One possible reason is that compared to mating, nonromantic socializing may be more easily satisfied while socially distancing via, for example, social media and virtual meeting platforms.

One limitation is that the two measures of mating motives we employed were not equally predictive across Studies 1 and 2. In Study 1, regression analysis revealed that socio-sexuality (SOI) was the only significant negative predictor of social distancing, whereas in Study 2, the Mate-Seeking Scale from FSMI was the only significant negative predictor. It could be that cultural or linguistic differences might explain this discrepancy, but future research would be needed to see if the discrepancy replicates with other samples. Regardless, in both studies, both mate-seeking motives and SOI negatively correlated with social distancing, and in both studies, one of these two mating motive measures was the only significant negative predictor after controlling for multiple other individual difference variables in regression analyses.

Our findings have important theoretical implications. It is well-documented that some individuals are more “disgust sensitive” than others—experiencing a stronger emotional response to pathogen cues (Haidt et al., 1994; Tybur et al., 2009). This emotional response has been theorized to motivate avoidance of certain objects and people heuristically associated with disease (Curtis et al., 2004; Faulkner et al., 2004; Shook et al., 2019). The present research emphasizes that avoidance behavior can be better explained when competing motives are also taken into account. Recent perspectives on the functioning of the human behavioral immune system (Tybur & Lieberman, 2016) and human fundamental social motives (Kenrick et al., 2010) have emphasized that pathogen avoidance motives and behavior are the outcome of a trade-off between the costs of pathogen exposure and the costs of avoiding pathogen exposure. Our findings extend these accounts by emphasizing the importance of mating motives in the trade-off with pathogen avoidance and by showing that the trade-off can explain social distancing behavior in addition to other outputs such as affective responses (Case et al., 2006) and discomfort with physical contact (Tybur et al., 2020).

Our findings also have implications for the design of policies and interventions to promote social distancing adherence. People who are more interested in seeking romantic partners (e.g., young men) may find it harder to follow social distancing rules and be more likely to spread pathogens. Our research may inform policy makers to increase commitment to help specific groups of people (e.g. young people) to manage competing motives to comply with infectious disease prevention behaviors. One avenue could be to develop public health campaigns to encourage people to fulfill their mating motives while maintaining social distancing, for example, by using virtual romantic or sexual interactions (see, e.g., British Columbia Center for Disease Control, n.d.; Dutch National Institute for Health and Environment, n.d.). In sum, we hope that our research will help to inform policy makers and the general public to address competing motives between adhering between infectious disease prevention behaviors and affiliative motives. Eventually, this may help to establish cultural and social practices whereby infectious diseases can be kept at a safe distance while at the same time helping people to remain intimately close.

Time Use and Happiness: Compared to 1985, domestic work and social care produce more happiness today; watching TV produces less happiness today than it used to; women’s time-weighted happiness has improved significantly relative to men’s

Han, Jeehoon, and Caspar Kaiser. 2021. “Time Use and Happiness: Evidence Across Three Decades.” SocArXiv. October 3. osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/qjdmu

Abstract: We use large-scale diary data from a representative sample of Americans to proxy welfare at the level of individual activities. We make three contributions. First, we examine the association between individual activities and happiness, and show how this association has changed over time. Compared to 1985, domestic work and social care produce more happiness today. Watching TV produces less happiness today than it used to. Second, we combine activity-level data on happiness and time allocation to construct a measure of ‘time-weighted happiness’. We then analyse historical trends in this measure across population groups, particularly gender. We observe that, over the last 35 years, women’s time-weighted happiness has improved significantly relative to men’s. This trend is largely driven by gendered shifts in time allocation, rather than heterogenous trends in the enjoyability of individual activities. Our result is in stark contrast to previous work which showed a decline in women’s relative wellbeing. To explain this, our third contribution is to compare the determinants of life satisfaction – a global measure on which most previous work is built – with our measure of time-weighted happiness. Time-weighted happiness and life satisfaction turn out to only be weakly correlated. Moreover, although we obtain strong associations of income and employment status with life satisfaction, no such associations can be observed for time-weighted happiness. These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between happiness as experienced in time and more global wellbeing measures. Finally, we verify the robustness our results by replicating them in data from the United Kingdom and show that our results are robust to alternative assumptions about how people use happiness scales.

Women collectively condemn other women who appear to be sexually permissive; they believed that “provocatively” dressed women are more likely to have one-night stands, even when these women were not direct sexual rivals

Coordinated condemnation in women's intrasexual competition. Jessica D. Ayers, Aaron T. Goetz. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 185, February 2022, 111294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111294

Highlights

• Potentially sexually permissive women are negatively judged across traits (Study 1).

• Negative mating judgments “leak” into non-mating-related judgments (Study 1)

• Controlling for mating judgments reduces negative non-mating judgments (Study 1).

• Women mentally represent other women's judgments of permissive rivals (Study 2).

Abstract: Here, we identify a novel reason why women are often criticized and condemned for (allegedly) sexually permissive behavior due to their choice of clothing. Combining principles from coordinated condemnation and sexual economics theory, we developed a model of competition that helps explain this behavior. We hypothesized that women collectively condemn other women who appear to be sexually permissive (based on their choice of clothing). Study 1 (N = 712) demonstrated that women perceived a rival with visible cleavage more negatively. These perceptions were ultimately driven by the belief that “provocatively” dressed women are more likely to have one-night stands. Study 2 (N = 341) demonstrated that women criticized provocatively dressed women, even when these women were not direct sexual rivals (e.g., her boyfriend's sister). Our findings suggest that future research should investigate competition outside of mating-relevant domains to understand women's intrasexual competition fully.

Keywords: Intrasexual competitionCoordinated condemnationCompetitor derogationPromiscuity

7. General discussion

These studies aimed to investigate coordinated condemnation in women's competition. In Study 1, we hypothesized that participants shown a target with visible cleavage would perceive the target more negatively even in domains unrelated to physical attractiveness and mating. In Study 2, we hypothesized that women would rate potentially sexually permissiveness targets more negatively regardless of if she was a direct sexual rival. We also asked participants to report how they believed other women and men would perceive the target.

Study 1 documented that women who saw the target with cleavage perceived her more negatively than participants who saw the target with a superimposed modesty panel. Further, after controlling for perceptions of the target's likelihood of having one-night stands, the other associations were no longer significant. This suggests that the negative perceptions of the target with visible cleavage were driven by perceptions that she would lower the collective “cost” of sexual access by acting sexually permissive.

In Study 2, we found that women reported more favorable perceptions of potentially permissive targets than they believed other women and men would regardless of if the target was a direct threat to their romantic relationships. Additionally, when reporting the perceptions of other women and men, participants reported that other women would view the target more negatively than men would. While these results do not support our original hypothesis, they suggest that women mentally represent the judgments of others, allowing for coordinated condemnation of undesirable behavior.

Our results from these studies provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that women coordinate to condemn potentially sexually permissive women. Our results also indicate that women seem to be aware of and motivated to maintain their bargaining power in relationships (Baumeister & Vohs, 2004; Vohs et al., 2014) by punishing others who appear to be sexually permissive. This awareness, in turn, motivates women to use third-party condemnation (DeScioli and Kurzban, 2009, DeScioli and Kurzban, 2013) to aggress without the threat of direct retaliation. Our results also corroborate previous research showing that women are aware that their clothing choices make them the targets of competition (Krems et al., 2020) and suggests that women are aware of how other women perceive rivals (Wacker et al., 2017), allowing women to coordinate their indirect aggression at these individuals. Our results also add nuance to theories of women's intrasexual competition. Women's intrasexual competition is often described as covert and indirect (Campbell, 1999; Fisher, 2013; Vaillancourt, 2005), but our results document that there may be instances where women's competitive motivations are more overt than previously thought (i.e., when coordinating aggression against a sexually permissive rival).

Research has also outlined a paradox in women's interpersonal relationships. Women's friendships are more likely to be dyadic (David-Barrett et al., 2015; Winstead, 1986), suggesting that women invest their time and energy in a single friend instead of many friends. But women's friendships are also more fragile and less tolerant to issues within the relationship (Benenson, 2013; Benenson et al., 2009; Benenson & Christakos, 2003), suggesting that women's friendships are also more likely to end. Part of this paradox may be attributable to the fact that women's friendships balance cooperative and competitive influences. While women may want to foster emotionally deep bonds with their friends (Wright, 1982), women's indirect aggression and intolerance of slights in their friendships might be caused by coordinated condemnation. Investigating the influences of coordinated condemnation in women's friendships may help researchers understand how conflict in women's friendships manifests and document how women coordinate their aggression with their friends against other potential rivals.

7.1. Limitations and future directions

Our current results support the hypothesis that women represent how other women view rivals. Still, our results did not show that women use these representations to coordinate their aggression. Behavioral observations, such as Vaillancourt and Sharma's (2011), would allow for a more accurate assessment of the use of these representations to aggress against potentially permissive rivals. Additionally, coordinated aggression may bolster research on women's abilities to assess competitors' motivations in interpersonal contexts (Krems, Neel, Neuberg, Puts, & Kenrick, 2016; Krems, Neuberg, Filip-Crawford, & Kenrick, 2015).

Another limitation is that women's perceptions of the target may reflect self-presentation biases. As women's competition is indirect (Benenson, 2013; Campbell, 2013; Vaillancourt, 2013), it is possible that the positive perceptions women reported reflect their motivation to remain anonymous (Campbell, 1999) so they cannot be accused of aggressing against competitors (Fisher, 2013; Vaillancourt, 2005). As such, it is likely that beliefs about other women's perceptions indirectly reflect women's actual competitive motivations (Perilloux & Kurzban, 2015).

Another limitation concerns the target images used in Study 2. We chose target images that had visible tattoos, piercings, and provocative clothing, as these characteristics are believed to be cues of sexual permissiveness (Goetz et al., 2012; Krems et al., 2020; Skoda et al., 2020; Tews et al., 2020). However, it is possible that these images were overwhelming, unbelievable, or presented a demand characteristic. While our results suggest that these confounds did not meaningfully affect our results in the current study, it is also possible that some confounds attenuated the effects of others and led to the appearance of no confounding effect. Unfortunately, since we did not have conservative versions of these stimuli, we cannot tease these possibilities apart in our current data. Future studies could improve upon these limitations by 1) presenting fewer target images with more subtle cues of sexual permissiveness, 2) including control images of provocative images, and 3) focusing on specific cues to sexual permissiveness to document if these cues influence coordinated condemnation.

Another limitation that should be mentioned is the exclusion criteria used in both studies. While the exclusion criteria were determined before data collection for Study 1 began, and were subsequently refined before data collection for Study 2 began, these criteria did result in many participants being excluded from the current analyses (33% in Study 1 and 34% in Study 2). We do not believe that this is an issue for the current study, but it does limit the generalizability of our results. For example, we do not know if we would have found the same effects in a sample that was less honest or paid less attention. We also do not know how differences in women's sexual orientation or gender identity may influence these results, as these groups are often excluded from studies on women's competition. Future research on women's intrasexual competition, and coordinated condemnation in general, would benefit from including these groups to better understand women's competition.

Finally, these experiments are not perfect tests of coordinated condemnation due to the self-report nature of these studies. In addition, there may be additional individual factors, such as age, socioeconomic status, and education level (Campbell, 1999), that influence the saliency and intensity of women's intrasexual competition. As women's competition occurs across the lifespan (Linney, Korologou-Linden, & Campbell, 2016; Low, 2017), domain- and age-specific effects on competition should exist. For example, as women's fundamental social motives become more family-oriented (Ko et al., 2020), women may be less likely to coordinate against sexually permissive women and instead coordinate against women who are perceived as bad mothers. We could not test for the attenuation of this effect and changing motivations in menopausal women (using Gottschalk, Eskild, Hofvind, Gran, & Bjelland, 2020) as there were not enough women in our sample for age-effects to be appropriately powered (5.7% were 52 years or older in Study 1; 1.2% were 52 years or older in Study 2).

Future research would benefit from actively recruiting older women to test for attenuation effects of coordinated condemnation. Similarly, while we asked our participants about their romantic relationships, we did not ask participants how long they had been in a romantic relationship. It would be fruitful for future research to address how romantic relationships influence women's competition and coordinated condemnation, as women in newer, more temporary, or more unstable relationships may respond more competitively to potential relationship threats and direct more aggression towards women who display cues of permissiveness.

The different studies did systematically agree on the existence of the G-spot, but there was no agreement on its location, size, or nature

Vieira-Baptista P, Lima-Silva J, Preti M, et al. G-spot: Fact or Fiction?: A Systematic Review. Sex Med 2021;9:100435. Oct 2021. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S205011612100115X

Introduction: The G-spot, a putative erogenous area in the anterior vaginal wall, is a widely accepted concept in the mainstream media, but controversial in medical literature.

Aim: Review of the scientific data concerning the existence, location, and size of the G-spot.

Methods: Search on Pubmed, Pubmed Central, Cochrane, clinicaltrials.gov and Google Scholar from inception to November 2020 of studies on G-spot's existence, location and nature. Surveys, clinical, physiological, imaging, histological and anatomic studies were included.

Main Outcome Measure: Existence, location, and nature of the G-spot.

Results: In total, 31 eligible studies were identified: 6 surveys, 5 clinical, 1 neurophysiological, 9 imaging, 8 histological/anatomical, and 2 combined clinical and histological. Most women (62.9%) reported having a G-spot and it was identified in most clinical studies (55.4% of women); in 2 studies it was not identified in any women. Imaging studies had contradictory results in terms of its existence and nature. Some showed a descending of the anterior vaginal wall, that led to the concept of clitourethrovaginal complex. In anatomic studies, one author could systematically identify the G-spot, while another group did not find it. Studies on innervation of the vaginal walls did not systematically identify an area with richer innervation.

Conclusion The different studies did systematically agree on the existence of the G-spot. Among the studies in which it was considered to exist, there was no agreement on its location, size, or nature. The existence of this structure remains unproved.

Key Words: G-spotGräfenberg SpotOrgasmSexual FunctionClitorurethrovaginal Complex

If giving money to the Red Cross increases well-being, does taking money from the Red Cross increase ill-being?

If giving money to the Red Cross increases well-being, does taking money from the Red Cross increase ill-being? – Evidence from three experiments. Frank Martela, Richard M. Ryan. Journal of Research in Personality, Volume 93, August 2021, 104114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2021.104114

Highlights

• A small sum of money donated to Red Cross in a button-pushing activity increased participant well-being.

• Similar sum of money detracted from a donation to Red Cross in a button-pushing activity did not increase ill-being.

• Participants might compensate their negative impact by emphasizing the positive impact they are having towards science.

Abstract: Does having a negative impact on others decrease one’s well-being? In three separate pre-registered studies (n = 111, n = 445, & n = 447), participants engaged in a button-pushing activity for 4 min in three conditions: earning money for themselves (~60c), also earning money for the Red Cross (~15c), or also reducing the money distributed to the Red Cross (~15c). The results of the individual studies and a meta-analysis across them showed that positive impact increased well-being, but even though participants were aware of the negative impact they were having, there was no increased ill-being in the negative impact condition. In Study 3 we examined whether participants in the negative impact condition are mentally compensating by emphasizing the positive impact they are having towards science.

Keywords: Antisocial behaviorIll-beingProsocial behaviorProsocial impactWell-being

5. General discussion

In this series of studies we set out to examine whether engaging in behavior that has negative social impact would lead to ill-being in a fashion mirroring the positive effects of engaging in behaviors with positive social impact. More particularly, in three studies, we examined participants who were exposed to similar dosage of positive impact and negative impact effect – in this case donating money to the Red Cross or taking money away from the Red Cross – to examine whether prosocial impact would increase well-being and antisocial impact increase ill-being.

First, findings from our initial study showed that although the manipulations were effective, effect sizes were modest. We thus moved to larger samples in Studies 2 and 3. In line with previous findings (e.g., Martela and Ryan, 2016a, Martela and Ryan, 2016b, Martela and Ryan, 2020), the zero-order correlations in both studies revealed that beneficence satisfaction and frustration were associated with increased well-being and ill-being, respectively. Also in line with previous research (e.g. Aknin et al., 2013, Martela and Ryan, 2016a), these studies demonstrated that engaging in prosocial behavior increased participants’ sense of vitality (Study 2), situational meaning (Studies 2 & 3), and positive affect (Study 3). Meta-analysis across the three studies confirmed these positive effects on positive affect, vitality, and situational meaning. However, even though we used three different indicators of ill-being and two sufficiently powered studies, we found no evidence that the negative impact condition increased people’s ill-being, either when examining the studies individually or when conducting a meta-analysis across them. Instead, people in the negative impact condition, as compared to the neutral condition, experienced more prosocial impact, vitality, and meaningfulness in Study 2, and more situational meaningfulness and a sense that they were helping science in Study 3. The meta-analysis across three studies confirmed both these positive effects of being in the negative impact condition on well-being indicators as well as showing positive effects on both beneficence satisfaction and frustration relative to participants in the neutral condition. Perhaps partially explaining this result, findings in Study 3 showed that participants in the negative impact condition also reported feeling that they contributed more towards science than participants in the neutral condition. In recognizing the potentially negative impact they were having, the participants might have consciously or unconsciously focused upon the positive impact of their activity, perhaps to mitigate any feelings associated with their negative impact.

Feeling one is harming others is arguably hard to integrate (Martela & Ryan, 2020; Ryan & Deci, 2017), leading people to engage in defenses and rationalizations (Simler and Hanson, 2018, Tsang, 2002, Weinstein et al., 2012), as well as attempts to repair harm where possible (Legate et al., 2015). The psychological well-being dynamics in antisocial situations thus might be more complex and less straightforward than often thought – this could also explain why so little research on the topic has been previously published. The present results thus emphasize the need for more research in the future to further identify the defense mechanisms that might lead participants having an antisocial impact not suffering from it but instead even having a higher well-being because of it.

Certain limitations need to be acknowledged. First, all samples were gathered within one country and through the same online channel, Mturk, making it important to replicate the findings in other samples and cultures. Second, well-being was measured using self-reports, calling for future research utilizing others ways of measuring it. Third, one of our key findings was negative – we didn’t find any effect of antisocial behavior on well-being and ill-being indicators raising the question as to the adequacy of the research design. Yet arguing against this, manipulation checks showed that participants realized that they were having a negative impact in the negative impact condition, and on the other side of the ledger, the positive impact condition demonstrated that the paradigm could in principle cause differences in well-being. Minimally, what this study thus appears to show is that the same “dosage” of impact, which when positive is capable of increasing participants well-being is not enough, when negative, to increase participants ill-being to a similar degree. This led us to look for and find that participants might be compensating for the negative impact by emphasizing the positive impacts the same activity was causing. We hope this research spurs more inquiry into the potential asymmetry of impact on well-being and ill-being from beneficial and harmful results of one’s actions.

Open practices

Preregistration: All three studies were preregistered at OSF.

Data: The data for all three studies is publicly available at: https://osf.io/5h4cr/?view_only=641468da56d24730b92f1b4a3b666f8e.

Stereotypes about men’s lower sexual self-control uniquely predict attitudes about women’s mundane (but potentially sexually arousing) behaviors, like public breastfeeding and immodest clothing

Moon, Jordan W., Val Wongsomboon, and Barış Sevi. 2021. “Beliefs About Men’s Sexual Self-control Predict Attitudes Toward Women’s Immodest Clothing and Public Breastfeeding.” PsyArXiv. September 2. doi:10.31234/osf.io/67vh9

Abstract: Why do some people have negative views toward mundane behaviors such as women breastfeeding in public or wearing revealing clothing? We suggest that moral opposition to these behaviors may partly stem from their perceived effects on men’s sexual responses. We hypothesized that (a) people would stereotype men as having relatively less control of their sexual urges (i.e., lower sexual self-control) compared to women and that (b) stereotypes about men’s sexual self-control would uniquely predict attitudes about women’s mundane (but potentially sexually arousing) behaviors. Five studies show that (a) people stereotyped men (vs. women) as lacking sexual self-control (Study 1) and (b) endorsement of this stereotype was associated with opposition to public breastfeeding and immodest clothing (Studies 2-5). The effects hold even after controlling for potential confounds and seem specific to relevant moral domains, although women (vs. men) tend not to view these behaviors as moral issues.

Effects of perinatal gonadal hormones on human sexual orientation; women with isolated deficiency reported lower androphilia & higher levels of bisexuality; seems there is a role of perinatal estrogens in organizing sexual orientation

Evidence that perinatal ovarian hormones promote women’s sexual attraction to men. Talia N. Shirazi et al. Psychoneuroendocrinology, Volume 134, December 2021, 105431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105431

Highlights

• Studied effects of perinatal gonadal hormones on human sexual orientation.

• Participants were typically-developing or had isolated GnRH deficiency (IGD).

• Women with IGD reported lower androphilia and higher levels of bisexuality.

• There were no consistent differences between the two groups of men.

• Results suggest a role of perinatal estrogens in organizing sexual orientation.

Abstract: Ovarian estrogens may influence the development of the human brain and behavior, but there are few opportunities to test this possibility. Isolated GnRH deficiency (IGD) is a rare endocrine disorder that could provide evidence for the role of estrogens in organizing sexually differentiated phenotypes: Unlike typical development, development in individuals with IGD is characterized by low or absent gonadal hormone production after the first trimester of gestation. Because external genitalia develop in the first trimester, external appearance is nevertheless concordant with gonadal sex in people with IGD. We therefore investigated the effects of gonadal hormones on sexual orientation by comparing participants with IGD (n = 97) to controls (n = 1670). Women with IGD reported lower male-attraction compared with typically developing women. In contrast, no consistent sexuality differences between IGD and typically developing men were evident. Ovarian hormones after the first trimester appear to influence female-typical dimensions of sexual orientation.

Keywords: AndrophiliaGynephiliaIsolated GnRH deficiencySex hormonesSexual orientation

Religions “in the wild” are the varied set of religious activities that occurred before the emergence of organized religions with doctrines, or that persist at the margins of those organized traditions, & that mostly focus on misfortune

Deriving Features of Religions in the Wild—How Communication and Threat-Detection May Predict Spirits, Gods, Witches, and Shamans. Pascal Boyer. Human Nature volume 32, pp 557–581. Sep 14 2021. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-021-09410-y

Abstract: Religions “in the wild” are the varied set of religious activities that occurred before the emergence of organized religions with doctrines, or that persist at the margins of those organized traditions. These religious activities mostly focus on misfortune; on how to remedy specific cases of illness, accidents, failures; and on how to prevent them. I present a general model to account for the cross-cultural recurrence of these particular themes. The model is based on (independently established) features of human psychology—namely, (a) epistemic vigilance, the set of systems whereby we evaluate the quality of information and of sources of information, and (b) threat-detection psychology, the set of evolved systems geared at detecting potential danger in the environment. Given these two sets of systems, the dynamics of communication will favor particular types of messages about misfortune. This makes it possible to predict recurrent features of religious systems, such as the focus on nonphysical agents, the focus on particular cases rather than general aspects of misfortune, and the emergence of specialists. The model could illuminate not just why such representations are culturally successful, but also why people are motivated to formulate them in the first place.

Misperceptions of the Opponent Fringe & the Miscalibration of Political Contempt: Reflecting on opponents’ (presumed nefarious) election tactics made partisans subsequently more accepting of unfair tactics on their own side

Parker, Victoria A., Matthew Feinberg, Alexa M. Tullett, and Anne E. Wilson. 2021. “The Ties That Blind: Misperceptions of the Opponent Fringe and the Miscalibration of Political Contempt.” PsyArXiv. October 1. doi:10.31234/osf.io/cr23g.

Abstract: Americans’ hostility toward political opponents has intensified to a degree not fully explained by actual ideological polarization. We propose that political animosity may be based particularly on partisans’ overestimation of the prevalence of extreme, egregious views held by only a minority of opponents but imagined to be widespread. Across five studies (N= 4993; three preregistered), we examine issue extremity as an antecedent of false polarization. Both liberals and conservatives report high agreement with their party’s moderate issues but low agreement with the extreme issues associated with their side. As expected, false polarization did not occur for all issues. Partisans were fairly accurate in estimating opponents’ moderate issues (even underestimating agreement somewhat). In contrast, partisans consistently overestimated the prevalence of their opponents’ extreme, egregious political attitudes. (Over)estimation of political opponents’ agreement with extreme issues predicted cross-partisan dislike, which in turn predicted unwillingness to engage with opponents, foreclosing opportunities to correct misperceptions (Studies 2-4b). Participants explicitly attributed their dislike of political opponents to opponents’ views on extreme issues more than moderate issues (Study 3). Partisans also reported greater unwillingness to publicly voice their views on their side’s extreme (relative to moderate) issues, a self-silencing which may perpetuate misconceptions (Studies 1, 2, 4a&b). Time spent watching partisan media (controlling political orientation) predicted greater overestimations of the prevalence of extreme views (Studies 2, 4a&b). Salience of opponents’ malevolence mattered: first reflecting on opponents’ (presumed nefarious) election tactics made partisans on both sides subsequently more accepting of unfair tactics from their own side (Studies 4a&b).

Supplemental Materials osf.io/p87nj/ 

We systematically underestimate how caring and interested distant strangers are in one’s own intimate revelations and these miscalibrated expectations create a psychological barrier to deeper conversations

Kardas, M., Kumar, A., & Epley, N. (2021). Overly shallow?: Miscalibrated expectations create a barrier to deeper conversation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Sep 2021. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000281

Abstract: People may want deep and meaningful relationships with others, but may also be reluctant to engage in the deep and meaningful conversations with strangers that could create those relationships. We hypothesized that people systematically underestimate how caring and interested distant strangers are in one’s own intimate revelations and that these miscalibrated expectations create a psychological barrier to deeper conversations. As predicted, conversations between strangers felt less awkward, and created more connectedness and happiness, than the participants themselves expected (Experiments 1a–5). Participants were especially prone to overestimate how awkward deep conversations would be compared with shallow conversations (Experiments 2–5). Notably, they also felt more connected to deep conversation partners than shallow conversation partners after having both types of conversations (Experiments 6a–b). Systematic differences between expectations and experiences arose because participants expected others to care less about their disclosures in conversation than others actually did (Experiments 1a, 1b, 4a, 4b, 5, and 6a). As a result, participants more accurately predicted the outcomes of their conversations when speaking with close friends, family, or partners whose care and interest is more clearly known (Experiment 5). Miscalibrated expectations about others matter because they guide decisions about which topics to discuss in conversation, such that more calibrated expectations encourage deeper conversation (Experiments 7a–7b). Misunderstanding others can encourage overly shallow interactions

Check also Connecting with others makes people happier, but strangers in close proximity often ignore each other; we may avoid pleasant conversations with strangers because of miscalibrated concerns about starting them:

Hello, stranger? Pleasant conversations are preceded by concerns about starting one. Juliana Schroeder, Donald Lyons, & Nicholas Epley. Accepted Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Jun 2021. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2021/06/connecting-with-others-makes-people.html

Why we find shamans, who use magic, convincing? Supernatural theories of disease often reflect abstract cognition about rare phenomena whose causes are unobservable (e.g., infection, mental illness)

Lightner, Aaron, Cynthiann Heckelsmiller, and Edward H. Hagen. 2021. “Ethnomedical Specialists and Their Supernatural Theories of Disease.” PsyArXiv. October 1. doi:10.31234/osf.io/gbamc

Abstract: Religious healing specialists such as shamans often use magic. Evolutionary theories that seek to explain why laypersons find these specialists convincing focus on the origins of magical cognition and belief in the supernatural. In two studies, we reframe the problem by investigating relationships among ethnomedical specialists, who possess extensive theories of disease that can often appear “supernatural,” and religious healing specialists. In study 1, we coded and analyzed cross-cultural descriptions of ethnomedical specialists in 47 cultures, finding 24% were also religious leaders and 74% used supernatural theories of disease. We identified correlates of the use of supernatural concepts among ethnomedical specialists; incentives and disincentives to patronize ethnomedical specialists; and distinct clusters of ethnomedical specialists that we label prestigious teachers, feared diviners, and efficacious healers. In study 2, we interviewed 84 Maasai pastoralists and their traditional religious and non-religious healing specialists. We found that laypersons relied on medicinal services based on combinations of efficacy, religious identity, and interpersonal trust. Further, laypersons and specialists largely used abstract concepts that were not conspicuously supernatural to describe how local medicines work. We conclude that religious healers in traditional societies often fulfill a practical and specialized service to local clients, and argue that supernatural theories of disease often reflect abstract cognition about rare phenomena whose causes are unobservable (e.g., infection, mental illness) instead of a separate “religious” style of thinking.

Supplemental Materials osf.io/9wsvx