Recently in Evolution Category

Hidden Bias

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I ran across this article on the Psychology Today website and it seemed like an interesting topic
Why We Fear The Unknown

The article discusses how people tend to automatically associate other people with certain groups or characteristics based on how they appear. The reason for this could be due to "social identity theory" or that people boost their self-esteem by identifying with a group, and then boost the characteristics of the group so that they are viewed as better than other groups. People then tend to view others as either ingroup or outgroup members, and often fear or mistrust outgroup members (xenophobia). This can lead to people harboring prejudicial attitudes and ultimately discriminatory actions against people who are believed to be in a certain (often unsavory) group (e.g. terrorists). The article then discusses whether this is an innate aspect of human nature, or if society is responsible for our "rush to judgement".

The Implicit Association Test was developed to test whether people have these tendencies to judge images and words as either in-group or out-group could be measured by reaction time.
The link provides a bunch of short tests concerning specific subjects. I tried the Presidents IAT and found I had a preference for Barack Obama over Richard Nixon.

I encourage everyone to try at lease one of these. I'm sure many have done this before for class, but now that you know what you know about motivation, what could be behind these tendencies? Are there large social issues that might relate to this? (I'm thinking of Prohibition and now the war on drugs)

 

In my introduction to psychology class my professor asked if we would be more mad if our boyfriend/girlfriend had a sexual infidelity or an emotional infidelity. By a show of has we were able to see that more men would be upset by a sexual infidelity and more women would be more hurt by an emotional infidelity. Why is this the case? To understand mate selection will provide the answer to this. In the link below I found information regarding the answer to my questions and information about the physical appearance that impact mate selection based on evolutionary psychology ideas.

First-in the physical appearance of mates men tend to prefer younger women because they tend to be more fertile. Men like full lips, breast, and hip and a slim waist because this is the features that represent a woman who has a lot of estrogen in turn making her a good candidate for reproduction. Women are often attracted to men who have a more masculine build; broad shoulders, slim hips, a strong jaw line, clear face, and facial hair. This type of physic represents a man with a lot of testosterone therefore reinforcing that this man will be able to fulfill and provide for the family. The idea of infidelity as mention earlier is based on passing on ones genes. If a women has a sexual infidelity then the many is not 100 percent sure that the child they have together would be genetically his. Where the women in 100 percent sure the child she bears is of her genetics. A woman needs a man who is going to be there emotionally and provide support, energy, resources, and protection for her family. Therefore, a woman is going to be more concerned with an emotional infidelity than a sexual one. The first time I read his is was somewhat surprising to me however, after looking at it from an evolutionary perspective it is easy to see why this is the case.

 

http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/denisiuk.html

Men's Faces and Female Attraction

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090824115811.htm

 

 

According to this website, women judge men's faces for attractiveness on two parts: sexually and non-sexually.  

 

The first part determines if you have the characteristics of being a good mate.  They're looking for qualities that will help them determine if you have high levels of androgen (testosterone).  According to evolutionary psychology, this is a highly desirable trait to look for in a partner since testosterone is linked to aggression, which will lead to better protection and more food.  These traits will include strong cheekbones, a square jaw, full lips, and over all proportions of the overall face.

 

The second part is overall attractiveness of the face.  If these proportions of the face are symmetrical or not is one key point in determining the attractiveness.   

 

More on this topic can be seen during a short video on the next link.

 

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/science-of-sex-appeal-attractive-facial-features.html

 

First of all, I love the discovery channel.

 

The video quickly explains that although as children, we all have very similar faces.  However, because of puberty, our faces will change and become more prominent for the men and finer for the women (generally).  According to the video, a strong does of these hormones will indicate good health and fertility.  Also, by saying that someone is attractive, you're saying that they have good genes and would make a good partner for reproduction.