Strategic Sexual Signals: Women's Display versus Avoidance of the Color Red Depends on the Attractiveness of an Anticipated Interaction Partner

Do women strategically display the color red when anticipating an interaction with an attractive man? And do they actually avoid wearing red when anticipating an interaction with a relatively unattractive man? Results from the current study suggest that the answer to both questions is: yes. Consistent with prior research on the link between red and sexuality, our findings indicate that women’s use of red clothing, accessories, and/or make-up can indeed serve as a subtle and strategic indicator of sexual interest. A higher percentage of female participants displayed red when they expected to interact with an attractive (vs. an unattractive) male experimenter. Moreover, the percentage of participants wearing red in the attractive condition was higher than in a naturalistic baseline condition, and–notably–the percentage of women wearing red in the unattractiveness condition was lower than in the naturalistic baseline...

From an evolutionary perspective, the quality of a romantic partner is especially important for women, because women’s potential to produce offspring is more limited than men’s, and because women’s level of initial obligatory parental investment is higher than it is for men (see [35]). Accordingly, women should be particularly thoughtful about finding a partner with high mate value and also careful to avoid a partner with low mate value. Thus, catching the attention of unattractive men might be maladaptive, consistent with theories emphasizing the importance of avoiding unattractive mates for women [33,34]. Indeed, several evolutionary theories suggest that above and beyond seeking attractive mates, people (and women in particular) are motivated to avoid interacting with or mating with unattractive individuals (e.g., [36,37]. Taken together, women who display mating signals to physically unattractive men might risk lowering their reproductive success. Thus, our results are consistent with the idea that the use of red in clothing, accessories, and/or make-up reflects an adaptive strategy to enhance one’s chances to attract (vs. avoid) a partner with high (vs. low) mate value.

Given that clothing choices are an essential part of people’s daily life, it is interesting to consider the implications of apparel decisions more broadly (see [38]). In general, women might avoid red in situations in which their aim is to blend in rather than to stand out or in situations in which they wish to avoid unwanted mating attention. These results might not only have relevance for designers and clients of online dating services who are interested in an “optimal” appearance, but also for people working in marketing and in the field of communication (i.e. for using the color red to persuade people to buy certain products or for conveying specific messages, such as in political or societal contexts). In addition, it is possible that the use and avoidance of the color red might have implications in clinical contexts: In particular, women who are socially anxious or high in introversion might be cautious in their use of red. The use of red could also have implications for workplace interactions, as the color red could signal (potentially inappropriate) levels of attraction toward opposite-sex coworkers. The degree to which the present results and these broader implications also apply to men (i.e., whether they also strategically use the color red in mating contexts; for instance, to signal attractiveness, status or dominance) is an open question worthy of subsequent research (see [39,8].

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/Z2ghRo

By:  Daniela Niesta Kayser,#1,* Maria Agthe,#2 and Jon K. Maner3

¹Department of Psychology, University ofPotsdam, Potsdam, Germany

²Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany

³Department of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, United States of America

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'Everyone Wants a Vagina That Looks Less Like a Vagina': Australian Women's Views on Dissatisfaction with Genital Appearance

We present a thematic discourse analysis of 94 Australian women's written comments about women's presumed dissatisfaction with their genital appearance. 

Two themes emerged: 'from natural to normal' and 'the difficulty of resistance'. In the first theme, participants discuss genital dissatisfaction with reference to hegemonic constructions of femininity and to postfeminist, neoliberal discourses that position the natural female body as inadequate, with beauty practices necessary to achieve acceptability. 

The second theme addresses the difficulty of challenging this positioning, referencing discourses that position the vagina as unpleasant and discussion of it as taboo. 

We consider implications of these constructions for women's well-being.

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By:   Moran C1, Lee C2.

• 1The University of Queensland, Australia.
• 2The University of Queensland, Australia c.lee@psy.uq.edu.au.
• J Health Psychol. 2016 Mar 23. pii: 1359105316637588. 

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A Lover or a Fighter? Opposing Sexual Selection Pressures on Men's Vocal Pitch & Facial Hair

The traditional assumption within the research literature on human sexually dimorphic traits has been that many sex differences have arisen from intersexual selection. More recently, however, there has been a shift toward the idea that many male features, including male lower-pitched voices and male beard growth, might have arisen predominantly through intrasexual selection: that is, to serve the purpose of male-male competition instead of mate attraction. 

In this study, using a unique set of video stimuli, we measured people's perceptions of the dominance and attractiveness of men who differ both in terms of voice pitch (4 levels from lower to higher pitched) and beard growth (4 levels from clean shaven to a month's hair growth). 

We found a nonlinear relationship between lower pitch and increased attractiveness; men's vocal attractiveness peaked at around 96 Hz. Beard growth had equivocal effects on attractiveness judgments. In contrast, perceptions of men's dominance simply increased with increasing masculinity (i.e., with lower-pitched voices and greater beard growth). 

Together, these results suggest that the optimal level of physical masculinity might differ depending on whether the outcome is social dominance or mate attraction. These dual selection pressures might maintain some of the documented variability in male physical and behavioral masculinity that we see today.

Below:  Estimated marginal means of attractiveness ratings of each of the voice pitch and facial hair combinations

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/XH5809

By:  Saxton TK1, Mackey LL1, McCarty K1, Neave N1.

• 1Department of Psychology, Northumbria University , Northumberland Building, Ellison Place, Newcastle NE1 8ST , UK. 
• Behav Ecol. 2016 Mar-Apr;27(2):512-519. Epub 2015 Nov 1.

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Johnny Depp, Reconsidered: How Category-Relative Processing Fluency Determines the Appeal of Gender Ambiguity

Individuals that combine features of both genders–gender blends–are sometimes appealing and sometimes not. Heretofore, this difference was explained entirely in terms of sexual selection. 

In contrast, we propose that part of individuals’ preference for gender blends is due to the cognitive effort required to classify them, and that such effort depends on the context in which a blend is judged. In two studies, participants judged the attractiveness of male-female morphs. Participants did so after classifying each face in terms of its gender, which was selectively more effortful for gender blends, or classifying faces on a gender-irrelevant dimension, which was equally effortful for gender blends. In both studies, gender blends were disliked when, and only when, the faces were first classified by gender, despite an overall preference for feminine features in all conditions. Critically, the preferences were mediated by the effort of stimulus classification. 

The results suggest that the variation in attractiveness of gender-ambiguous faces may derive from context-dependent requirements to determine gender membership. More generally, the results show that the difficulty of resolving social category membership–not just attitudes toward a social category–feed into perceivers’ overall evaluations toward category members.

Below:  Examples of stimuli used in Study 1 as a percentage of the female parent

Below:  Examples of face blends used in Study 2

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/RE2YqJ

By:  Helen E. Owen,1 Jamin Halberstadt,1,* Evan W. Carr,2 and Piotr Winkielman2,3,4,*

¹Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

²Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America

³Behavioural Science Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom

⁴Department of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland

Brock University, CANADA

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Conceived and designed the experiments: HO JH PW. Performed the experiments: HO JH PW. Analyzed the data: HO JH PW EC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: HO JH PW EC. Wrote the paper: HO JH PW EC.

* E-mail: zn.ca.ogato.ysp@sreblahj; Email: ude.dscu@namleikniwp

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Positive Perceptions of Genital Appearance and Feeling Sexually Attractive: Is It a Matter of Sexual Esteem?

The present study examined the relationship between perceptions of genital appearance and self-perceived sexual attractiveness. The study sample included men and women (aged 18-45 years, M = 23.7, SD = 4.98) who identified as heterosexual (n = 1017), gay or lesbian (n = 1225), or bisexual (n = 651). 

Participants responded to an online survey assessing their self-perceived sexual attractiveness, genital self-image, genital self-consciousness during sexual activity, and sexual esteem. Based on previous findings, we hypothesized a positive link between genital self-perceptions and self-perceived sexual attractiveness, with sexual esteem acting as a mediator. We tested this hypothesis using structural equation modeling. 

Analyses revealed a significant association between both genital self-image and genital self-consciousness and self-perceived sexual attractiveness. However, these relationships were at least partially mediated by sexual esteem, across both gender and sexual orientation. The findings suggest that, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, individuals who maintain a positive genital self-image or lack genital self-consciousness, are more likely to experience greater sexual esteem, and in turn, feel more sexually attractive. 

The findings have implications for the importance of genital appearance perceptions and improving individuals' sexual esteem and self-perceived sexual attractiveness.

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By:  Amos N1, McCabe M2.

• 1School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, VIC, 3125, Australia.
• 2Institute for Health and Ageing, Australian Catholic University, Level 6, 215 Spring Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia. marita.mccabe@acu.edu.au. 
• Arch Sex Behav. 2016 Feb 8.

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Mapping Female Bodily Features of Attractiveness

“Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye” (Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost), but the bodily features governing this critical biological choice are still debated. Eye movement studies have demonstrated that males sample coarse body regions expanding from the face, the breasts and the midriff, while making female attractiveness judgements with natural vision. However, the visual system ubiquitously extracts diagnostic extra-foveal information in natural conditions, thus the visual information actually used by men is still unknown. 

We thus used a parametric gaze-contingent design while males rated attractiveness of female front- and back-view bodies. Males used extra-foveal information when available. Critically, when bodily features were only visible through restricted apertures, fixations strongly shifted to the hips, to potentially extract hip-width and curvature, then the breast and face. 

Our hierarchical mapping suggests that the visual system primary uses hip information to compute the waist-to-hip ratio and the body mass index, the crucial factors in determining sexual attractiveness and mate selection.

Below:  Left panel: difference fixation maps performed on the Linear Mixed-Model (LMM, Eq. 2) between the front view 2° spotlight and natural viewing conditions.

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/rYtD6Q

By:  Jeanne Bovet,a,1,3 Junpeng Lao,2 Océane Bartholomée,3 Roberto Caldara,2,* and Michel Raymond3,*

¹Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Manufacture des Tabacs, 21 allée de Brienne, 31015 Toulouse Cedex 6, France

²Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

³Institute of Evolutionary Sciences, University of Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, France

^aEmail: rf.tsai@tevob.ennaej

Sci Rep. 2016; 6: 18551. Published online 2016 Jan 21. doi:  10.1038/srep18551

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Beauty and the Eye of the Beholder: Gender and Attractiveness Affect Judgments in Teacher Sex Offense Cases

The present study investigated the effects of gender and attractiveness on judgments of bail requirements, incarceration, and sex offender registration lengths, and attitudes toward offenders and victims in a teacher-student sexual perpetration scenario. 

Researchers presented 432 undergraduate students at a large southwestern university with one of four vignettes detailing a sexual relationship between a 35-year-old teacher and a 14-year-old student. Vignettes varied by both attractiveness and gender of the offender (using heterosexual offender-victim dyads). 

Results indicate that both gender and attractiveness affect judgments of sex offenders; specifically, female sexual offenders were viewed more leniently and judged less punitively than male sexual offenders. Although attractive female sexual offenders were given particularly lenient treatment, attractiveness did not affect judgments toward male sex offenders. In addition, although male and female participants tended to rate male offenders similarly, male participants were more lenient toward female offenders than were female participants. 

Finally, post hoc analyses revealed that, for many variables, unattractive female sexual offenders may not be viewed differently from male sexual offenders. These results have serious implications for the legal system, sex offender management, and societal views regarding male and female sexual offenders and their victims.

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By:  Mackelprang E1, Becker JV2.

• 1University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA emimack@email.arizona.edu.
• 2University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA. 

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Are Women’s Mate Preferences for Altruism Also Influenced by Physical Attractiveness?

Altruism plays a role in mate choice, particularly in women’s preferences and in long-term (LT) relationships. 

The current study analyzed how these preferences interacted with another important mate choice variable, physical attractiveness. Here, female participants were presented with photographs of men of varying levels of physical attractiveness, alongside descriptions of them behaving either altruistically or not in different scenarios. 

The results showed women preferred altruistic men, particularly in LT relationships and that this interacted with physical attractiveness such that being both attractive and altruistic made a man more desirable than just the sum of the two desirable parts. 

Also, being altruistic made low attractive men more desirable but only for LT relationships. Finally, men who were just altruistic were rated more desirable than men who were just attractive, especially for LT relationships. 

Overall, these findings are discussed in terms of the role of altruism in mate choice, particularly in LT relationships and directions of future research.

Below: Graph of mean desirability ratings (±standard error [SE]) of men by level of attractiveness, level of altruism, and length of relationship.

Below:  Graph of proportional change in desirability from short-term to long-term (±standard error [SE]) of men by level of attractiveness and level of altruism

Below:  Graph of desirability ratings (±standard error [SE]) of men displaying either high altruism or high attractiveness only by different relationship lengths

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/CsBhtg

By:  Daniel Farrelly1, Paul Clemson2, Melissa Guthrie2

¹Institute of Health and Society, University of Worcester, Worcester, United Kingdom

²Department of Psychology, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, United Kingdom

Daniel Farrelly, Institute of Health and Society, University of Worcester, Worcester, United Kingdom. Email: d.farrelly@worc.ac.uk

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Your Face is Your Fortune: Does Adolescent Attractiveness Predict Intimate Relationships Later in Life?

OBJECTIVE:

A growing literature documents the importance of physical attractiveness in young and middle adulthood for romantic, marital, and sexual relationships, but little is known about how attractiveness in adolescence matters to intimate relationships in later life. We ask: does attractiveness early in life convey ongoing benefits late in life, or do such benefits erode over time?

METHODS:

We use multivariate regression models and more than 50 years of data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study to examine the connections between adolescent physical attractiveness and intimate relationships (i.e., sexual activity and access to potential sexual partners) in later life.

RESULTS:

We find that adolescent attractiveness facilitates sexual activity in later life. This relationship is largely driven by attractiveness increasing the probability of having access to potential sexual partners. However, attractiveness is not related to sexual activity among married couples, even after controlling for marital duration. Men, those in good health, and wealthier individuals are also more likely to engage in several facets of intimate relationships.

DISCUSSION:

These findings highlight the importance of relationship context for later life sexual activity and begin to explicate the pathways through which factors across the life course-particularly attractiveness-influence sexual activity in later life.

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By:   Karraker A1, Sicinski K2, Moynihan D3.

• 1Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University. karraker@iastate.edu.
• 2Center for Demography of Health and Aging and.
• 3La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

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Women's Hairstyle & Men's Behavior: A Field Experiment

Little research has examined the effect of women's hairstyles on people's behavior. In a field study, male and female passersby, walking alone in the street, were observed while walking behind a female-confederate who dropped a glove and apparently was unaware of her loss. The confederate had long dark hair arranged in three different hairstyles: one with her hair falling naturally on her shoulders and her back, one with her hair tied in a ponytail, and one with her hair twisted in a bun. Results reported that the hairstyle had no effect on female passersby's helping behavior. However, it was found that the hairstyle influenced male passersby with men helping the confederate more readily when her hair fell naturally on her neck, shoulders and upper back.

Although hairstyles or hair characteristics are a common striking and obvious feature of appearance, psychological research focusing on women's hair has received little attention (Hinsz, Matz & Patience, 2001). Most of the research conducted on women's hair has examined hair color. Several studies reported that men but not women helped a woman with blond hair more favorably (Guéguen & Lamy, 2009; Lynn, 2009; Price, 2008) suggesting that hair color is an important factor for men when judging the attractiveness of a woman.

An additional feature of hair appearance studied by scientists is hair length. Several studies have reported that women's hair length influences how they are perceived by an observer. Using photographs of women targets with hair length varying across experimental conditions, Bereczkei and Mesko (2006) reported that males rated the woman target with long hair as more feminine, determined, intelligent, independent and healthy while the target with short hair was perceived to be more honest, caring and emotional. Terry and Krantz (1993) reported that long hair was associated with decreased social forcefulness. These results seem to contradict those reported by Bereczkei and Mesko (2006) but could be explained by cultural or period differences. More than 10 years separated the two studies and the experiment of Terry and Krantz (1993) was conducted in the United States while the experiment of Bereczkei and Mesko (2006) was conducted in Hungary. More recently, Swami, Furnham and Joshi (2008) using line drawings of female bodies reported that short hair targets were rated as significantly more fertile than long hair. The authors also reported an interaction effect between hair length and hair color: males but not females rated a blond target with short hair to be less healthy than a target with long hair, while the reverse effect was reported with a target with dark hair. With more realistic photos of women's faces, Mesko and Bereczkei (2004) reported that long hair was associated with higher ratings of femininity, youth, health and sexiness. These effects were found both with low or high attractive targets. Again this apparent contradiction between the findings could be explained by cultural factors (Mesko and Bereczkei, 2004 for Hungary and Swami et al., 2008 for the United Kingdom) or the targets used (Swami et al., 2008 for drawings of female bodies and Mesko and Bereczkei, 2004 for real photos of women's faces)...

  

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/yURTcr

By:  Guéguen N1.

• 1Université de Bretagne-Sud, Lorient, France. 

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What is a Good Looking Penis? How Women Rate the Penile Appearance of Men with Surgically Corrected Hypospadias

Below:  Photo chart as presented to women (this example illustrates distal hypospadias)

Results showed that women considered the position and shape of the meatus as the least important penile aspect. Furthermore, results showed that HASRGs with distal hypospadias were perceived to be as normal-looking as circumcised genitals, whereas genitals with more proximal hypospadias were perceived as significantly less normal. However, the difference need not be considered clinically relevant, as the effect size was small. Observer-related predictors of a more positive perception of HASRGs were higher age, higher sexual interest, and perceiving the general cosmetic penile appearance as more important and penile length as less important.

Overall, women were found to consider the “position and shape of the meatus” as the least important penile aspect. These findings may stimulate reflections regarding the relevance of surgical correction of the meatus in minor forms of hypospadias. In addition, this study indicates that women perceived genitals of men with distal operated hypospadias (which represents the majority of hypospadias) to be as normal as nonaffected, circumcised genitals

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The Role of Breast Size and Areolar Pigmentation in Perceptions of Women's Sexual Attractiveness, Reproductive Health, Sexual Maturity, Maternal Nurturing Abilities, and Age

Women's breast morphology is thought to have evolved via sexual selection as a signal of maturity, health, and fecundity. While research demonstrates that breast morphology is important in men's judgments of women's attractiveness, it remains to be determined how perceptions might differ when considering a larger suite of mate relevant attributes. 

Here, we tested how variation in breast size and areolar pigmentation affected perceptions of women's sexual attractiveness, reproductive health, sexual maturity, maternal nurturing abilities, and age. Participants (100 men; 100 women) rated images of female torsos modeled to vary in breast size (very small, small, medium, and large) and areolar pigmentation (light, medium, and dark) for each of the five attributes listed above. 

Sexual attractiveness ratings increased linearly with breast size, but large breasts were not judged to be significantly more attractive than medium-sized breasts. Small and medium-sized breasts were rated as most attractive if they included light or medium colored areolae, whereas large breasts were more attractive if they had medium or dark areolae. Ratings for perceived age, sexual maturity, and nurturing ability also increased with breast size. Darkening the areolae reduced ratings of the reproductive health of medium and small breasts, whereas it increased ratings for large breasts. 

There were no significant sex differences in ratings of any of the perceptual measures. These results demonstrate that breast size and areolar pigmentation interact to determine ratings for a suite of sociosexual attributes, each of which may be relevant to mate choice in men and intra-sexual competition in women.

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The Role of Facial and Body Hair Distribution in Women's Judgments of Men's Sexual Attractiveness

Facial and body hair are some of the most visually conspicuous and sexually dimorphic of all men's secondary sexual traits. Both are androgen dependent, requiring the conversion of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone via the enzyme 5α reductase 2 for their expression. 

While previous studies on the attractiveness of facial and body hair are equivocal, none have accounted as to how natural variation in their distribution may influence male sexual attractiveness. 

In the present study, we quantified men's facial and body hair distribution as either very light, light, medium, or heavy using natural photographs. We also tested whether women's fertility influenced their preferences for beards and body hair by comparing preferences among heterosexual women grouped according their fertility (high fertility, low fertility, and contraceptive use). 

Results showed that men with more evenly and continuously distributed facial hair from the lower jaw connecting to the mustache and covering the cheeks were judged as more sexually attractive than individuals with more patchy facial hair. Men with body hair were less attractive than when clean shaven, with the exception of images depicting some hair around the areolae, pectoral region, and the sternum that were significantly more attractive than clean-shaven bodies. 

However, there was no effect of fertility on women's preferences for men's beard or body hair distribution. These results suggest that the distribution of facial and body hair influences male attractiveness to women, possibly as an indication of masculine development and the synthesis of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone via 5α reductase.

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