Hi all,
This week Amanda Hahn will be giving our BERG talk. Amanda is a postdoc at The University
of Glasgow who takes a strong evolutionary approach to her research. She will speak to us
about her research on motivational salience of facial attractiveness (see abstract
below).
After the talk we plan on heading to town for dinner (most likely at Brea). Please let me
know if you would like to join us for the meal so that I can appropriately reserve a
table.
Cheers,
Kelly
Abstract:
People will expend more effort to view attractive faces than they will to view
unattractive faces, suggesting that facial attractiveness holds motivational salience.
Using a key-press paradigm to measure the extent to which individuals will expend effort
to alter the viewing time of face images, we find that attractiveness has a greater effect
on the motivational salience of opposite-sex faces than own-sex faces in both men and
women. We also find evidence for individual differences in the motivational salience of
own-sex attractiveness. Men, but not women, who score higher on a measure of relationship
jealousy will expend more effort to view (i.e., 'monitor'), attractive own-sex
individuals. Increased monitoring of attractive own-sex individuals among men reporting
greater relationship jealousy may function to facilitate efficient allocation of
mate-guarding effort. The sex difference in the link between relationship jealousy and
monitoring of attractive own-sex individuals may occur because, unlike women, men are
susceptible to paternity uncertainty costs if their mate engages in extra-pair sex.
--
The University of Stirling has been ranked in the top 12 of UK universities for graduate
employment*.
94% of our 2012 graduates were in work and/or further study within six months of
graduation.
*The Telegraph
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.