Lecture 4 (Intrasexual Competition 1) - Slides Flashcards
1
Q
Intrasexual Competition
also goals
A
- Competition WITHIN the sexes for access to mates
- Remember Bateman Principle: Sex with more variance in RS will compete for access to the sex with less
- Goes: 1) Exclude men from the competition, 2) Make yourself more appealing to the selecting sex.
2
Q
Male Intrasexual Competitions
A
- Men compete through:
1) Dominance Competitions: Through direct aggression (force or threat of force), or status/positional goals.
2) Sperm Competition
3
Q
Threats of Force
A
- Might be better to threaten because direct competitions are extremely risky.
- Better to seem like you can win because it’s safer
- Physical aggression can be prevented by cues to dominance.
4
Q
Dominance Competitions
A
- Behaviour where the apparent intent is to achieve or maintain status through force/threat of force and socially/physically
- Winning = increase status. Winning also increases T
- Status means access to resources desired by mates which promotes evolution of ornaments and weapons
- Winning also means excluding males from: receptive females, positions of high status and access/control to resources that are attractive to mates
5
Q
Cues to dominance
A
Posture (taking up lots of space), facial expression (dominant smile less), eye contact, height, muscularity, walking speed (dom walk faster), VP, face
6
Q
West Point Cadets (Mueller & Mazur, 1996)
A
- Facial dominance assessed in cadet year book. Tracked likelihood of promotion in their career based on facial dom
- Dominant appearance: Promoted to high rank earlier at all life stages and predicted fitness except in highest achievers who had less children (because they are at their job more)
- Some Submissives were promoted earlier possible because they may be good at pleasing doms
7
Q
Gaze-Cueing
A
- When someone looks at something we may follow their gaze to see what’s going on.
- Gaze congruent: if you look at a face and their gaze was going toward a dot that was presented earlier
- Presented at different time intervals
- Individuals reaction time was much faster when looking at dominant individuals in short time intervals.
- Not for longer because we ignore information when exposed to it for long enough
8
Q
Facial Masculinity
Watkins et al., 2010
A
- Rated faces on dominance
- Self-rated dominance was also scored
- Masculine faces are rated as more dominant and especially by submissive men. Submissive men are more sensitive to dominance cues
9
Q
Voice Pitch and Competition
Puts et al 2006
A
- Recorded voice
- Told they would compete with another man for a lunch date with a woman in a third room.
- Recorded responding to competitor why might he be respected or admired by other men and scored based on social/physical dominance
- Men who thought they were more physically dominant than the competing male lowered their VP and less raised it.
10
Q
3 Predictions of Force (Predictions for when it might happen)
A
1) Risky competition should be more intense in males
2) intensify when males are seeking access to females
3) intensify when males are less able to attract females
11
Q
Homicide (how it satisfies the predictions of force)
A
- Men more likely to kill and get killed
- Young Male Syndrome: After puberty starts, males spike in homicide rates until 40s
- Occurs in all cultures and since the 20s
- Satisfies first force prediction
- Married men kill unrelated men less than if they are single and divorced and windowed is very high
- Occurs across all age groups
- Satisfies second prediction
- Homicide occurs more in unemployed across all ages
- Gini inequality predicted homicides in a large group
- Satisfies third prediction
12
Q
Dominance Competitions
positional goods?, testosterone
A
- Less costly strategies
- Compete for status and resources that attractive to women
- Positional Goods: Signal resource availability through open displays of resources or status.
- Men are more likely to keep up with technology because it’s perceived as a status symbol (Watches, clothing, technologies, cars)
- Testosterone: Facilitates competition and mating. Successful attempts at competition increase T and it doesn’t matter what it is. Defeats = decreased T. Also increases when their sport team wins
13
Q
Saad & Vongas, 2009
A
- Measured T before Ss got into porche or clunker.
- Drove downtown and on the highway, counter balanced, measured T in between.
- Didn’t matter where Porche drove, it raised T, clunky had no effect but could even lower T
14
Q
Griskevicius 2009
A
- Subjects read 1 of 3 scenarios:
1) Competition
2) Courtship
3) Control - Then introduced with the scenario, “Someone spills a drink on you and does not apologize” - one type of competition leading to another
- Measured direct/indirect aggression
- Cues to competition increase later direct aggression in males
- Cues to competition and courtship raised aggression levels in females.
- Courtship cues are lower in males, because males may inhibit direct aggression when the audience is female and not perceived as a good mate
- When aggression is indirect, female aggression is extremely high.
- Status competitions can ignite direct aggression among males
- Motive and audience influence (men inhibit aggression among females) likelihood for direct aggression in males, but not indirect and for males only.
15
Q
Sperm Competition
What kind of adaptation and why?
A
- Compeition between sperm of different males to fertilize females
- Measured by sperm swimming speed
- But also <5 days in the cervix with very low odds.
- Can cause the chance that an offspring is either males within that window.
- Can be known that a female is fertile (overt) or hidden (concealed) as a way to influence investment in males
- 9-25% of females have more than one partner.
- Baker & Bellis (1993) - See flashcard
- Psychological Adaptation: Increased duration of partner absence is associated with: Increased male sexual interests, persistence, distress at refusal.
- 35% of all sperm are lost
- Sexual preferences are adaptations (Pound 2002)
