Women's Preference for Masculine Traits Is Disrupted by Images of Male-On-Female Aggression

Women's preferences for men's masculinized faces and voices were assessed after women (n = 331) were primed with images of male-on-male aggression, male-on-female aggression, pathogens, and neutral scenes. 

Male-on-male aggression and pathogen primes were associated with increased preference for masculine traits, but the same effect emerged in the neutral condition. We show the increased preference for masculine traits was due to repeated exposure to these traits, not the priming images themselves. Images of male-on-female aggression were an exception; these elicited feelings of disgust and anger appeared to disrupt the preference for masculinized traits. 

The results suggest women process men's facial and vocal traits as signals of aggressive potential and lose any preference for these traits with cues indicating men might direct this aggression toward them.

Below:  Vocal masculinity preference for each of the 5 conditions plotted across presentation order. Masculinity preference refers to rating on a 1–9 scale, with 1 indicating a strong preference for the feminized voice, 9 indicating a strong preference for the masculinized voice, and 5 indicating no preference for one voice over the other. Error bars are standard errors of the mean.

Below:  Pre- and post-prime (Time = 0 & 1, respectively) facial masculinity preference for each of the 5 conditions. Masculinity preference was evaluated by forced choice, with 1 indicating a preference for the masculinized face and 0 indicating a preference for the feminized face. Error bars are standard errors of the mean.

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/GNF1t9

By:   Yaoran Li,1 Drew H. Bailey,2 Benjamin Winegard,3 David A. Puts,4 Lisa L. M. Welling,5 and David C. Geary3,6,*

¹Department of Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States of America

²Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

³Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States of America

⁴Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, United States of America

⁵Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Auburn Hills, Michigan, United States of America

⁶Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States of America

University of Goettingen, Germany

* E-mail: ude.iruossiM@DyraeG 

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