Alex L. Jones , Tobias L. Kordsmeyer , Robin S.S. Kramer , Julia Stern , Lars Penke
{"title":"Updating evidence on facial metrics: A Bayesian perspective on sexual dimorphism in facial width-to-height ratio and bizygomatic width","authors":"Alex L. Jones , Tobias L. Kordsmeyer , Robin S.S. Kramer , Julia Stern , Lars Penke","doi":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106781","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106781","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) is an extensively studied morphological measure, which was presumably shaped by sexual selection and has been linked to a wide range of perceptual and physiological traits. Underpinning these associations is the premise that fWHR is larger in men, which empirically exhibits a mixed and equivocal pattern in the literature due to variation in measurement, large sample sizes revealing small but significant differences, and a lack of control of body size. In Study 1, in a sample of 1949 faces, we used a Bayesian hierarchical model that incorporates prior information to simultaneously estimate sexual dimorphism in fWHR, adjusted for body size, across five measurement types. While we found larger fWHR in women, comparing this effect to variability in fWHR due to image capture settings revealed no robust evidence of sex differences in fWHR. In Study 2, we investigated sex differences in facial width specifically (also adjusted for body size), again incorporating prior information, and confirmed men have greater face width than women. Advances in this area can be made by shifting focus away from arbitrary ratios like fWHR to direct measures like facial width – as well as carefully considering prior evidence of existing associations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55159,"journal":{"name":"Evolution and Human Behavior","volume":"46 6","pages":"Article 106781"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145266023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The shared genome constraint: why between-sex genetic correlation matters for evolutionary social science","authors":"Thomas Felesina","doi":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106773","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106773","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Evolutionary social scientists propose adaptationist hypotheses that contribute significantly to our understanding of human traits. However, relatively little attention has been given to the constraints imposed by the largely shared genome of males and females, which results in substantial positive between-sex genetic correlations (rMF) for many complex traits. This oversight can lead researchers to propose sex-specific adaptive functions for traits that may instead persist in one sex primarily as a correlated genetic response to selection acting on the other (i.e., indirect selection via rMF). I briefly review the quantitative genetics literature underlying the logic of correlated responses, before turning to the implications of large and positive rMF for evolutionary hypothesizing in the social sciences. The implications are explored using human behavioral traits where rMF is likely high but remains unmeasured (paternal care, male choosiness, female aggression), as well as traits for which rMF has been estimated and found to range from high to low (risk taking, same-sex sexual behavior, extra-pair mating). I present genetic signatures for distinguishing between sex-specific selection and correlated responses to selection on the opposite sex and conclude by advocating for explicit consideration of high positive rMF and correlated responses in evolutionary social science, recommending that researchers state their assumptions about rMF.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55159,"journal":{"name":"Evolution and Human Behavior","volume":"46 6","pages":"Article 106773"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145109280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evolution of psychopathy in the public goods game with institutional redistribution of resources","authors":"Dražen Domijan , Janko Međedović","doi":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106771","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106771","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Following the model of Testori et al. (2022), we examined the dynamics of the evolution of psychopathy in the public goods game that incorporates both punishing psychopaths (selfish/manipulative risk-taking agents) and rewarding cooperators (generous, risk-averse agents). We systematically varied the mortality of psychopathic phenotypes, and the community cost they inflict on society in an abundant or harsh environment in order to check how they affect population size and the proportion of psychopathic agents in the population. Our aim was to determine which combination of mechanisms for the redistribution of resources enables the model to converge to the solution where the percentage of psychopathic individuals in the population is very low, consistent with empirical estimates on human populations. Model simulations revealed several notable results. Firstly, a low frequency of psychopathy emerges: 1) if psychopathic phenotypes have a high mortality rate; and 2) if society not only punishes psychopaths but actively rewards generous individuals. Secondly, psychopathy showed higher fitness in scarce environments and small-sized populations; the latter result is incongruent with existing theories about the association between population size and the adaptive potential of psychopathy. Hence, the proposed model highlights, in addition to punishment of psychopaths, the societal reward for cooperative individuals as the crucial socioecological condition that maintains the frequency of psychopathic phenotypes at a low level.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55159,"journal":{"name":"Evolution and Human Behavior","volume":"46 6","pages":"Article 106771"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145095854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Creating connection: greeting and leave-taking behavior in nonhuman primates","authors":"Lydia M. Hopper","doi":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106772","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106772","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Nonhuman primates create and maintain strong, positive social relationships with others. I examine the behaviors primates show when greeting their kin and allies, and how such greetings mirror embracing and kissing seen when humans are reunited or resolve conflict in order to maintain affiliative relationships. While physical contact during greeting creates opportunities for disease transmission and injury, it also helps to build and maintain social bonds and supports individuals when they reconcile and reunite. I also consider whether, like humans, primates also show leave-taking behaviors and if these are mediated by their relationship or the known duration of a loved one's upcoming absence. While there is clear evidence that primates do greet each other with physical touch and vocalizations, less is known about their leave-taking behavior. There has been a lack of study effort investigating leave-taking as compared to greeting behavior, and because proposed leave-taking interactions are more subtle than greetings further limits our ability to identify and track potential leave taking in nonhuman primates. I close with considerations of primates' responses to death – the most permanent departure. Disease and death disrupt social interactions both directly and indirectly and while human cultures have clear social rituals in response to death, there is a growing body of work demonstrating that primates also respond to the death of groupmates in distinct ways and that there are differential responses to the deaths of adult group members to those of infants.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55159,"journal":{"name":"Evolution and Human Behavior","volume":"46 6","pages":"Article 106772"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145048463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jaime L. Palmer-Hague, Jade S. Stobbart, Benjamin J. Zubaly
{"title":"Women's intrasexual competitiveness, but not fertility, predicts greater competitive behavior toward attractive women across the menstrual cycle","authors":"Jaime L. Palmer-Hague, Jade S. Stobbart, Benjamin J. Zubaly","doi":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106760","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106760","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Women compete for mates and social status, but little is known about the mechanisms that underlie these behaviors. Previous work suggests that mating competition should be most intense when women are fertile; thus, we hypothesized that women would exhibit more competitive behavior toward a high, rather than low, mating threat competitor during ovulation compared to other menstrual phases. Additionally, given that social support is crucial for women's access to resources and therefore offspring survival, we hypothesized that women would exhibit more competitive behavior toward a high, rather than low, social threat competitor following ovulation and possible conception. We tested 464 women recruited through social networking sites, psychology classes, and Prolific. Each rated their likelihood of exhibiting competitive behavior toward hypothetical mating and social competitors. Although women were more competitive toward the high, compared to low, mating and social threat competitors, there were no effects of cycle phase. Further, we found that intrasexual competitiveness, but not estimated hormones or other personality variables, predicted stronger competitive responses to the high mating threat competitor. We found no effects for social competitors. Together, these results suggest that in mating contexts, women's competition is dependent on individual tendency toward competition with other women, not fertility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55159,"journal":{"name":"Evolution and Human Behavior","volume":"46 6","pages":"Article 106760"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145048464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Equivalence, causality, and cultural evolution","authors":"Pat Barclay, Oliver Twardus","doi":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106755","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106755","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><span><span>Baumard and André's (2025)</span></span> ecological approach presents a compelling perspective on cultural evolution. Although it may appear as an alternative to Dual Inheritance Theory, we argue that these theories need not be in opposition to one another. If anything, the ecological approach may have greater causal validity – although future research is necessary to determine whether this is the case.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55159,"journal":{"name":"Evolution and Human Behavior","volume":"46 6","pages":"Article 106755"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145018682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
James R. Roney , Zachary L. Simmons , Mei Mei , Rachel L. Grillot , Melissa Emery Thompson
{"title":"Decreased sexual motivation during the human implantation window","authors":"James R. Roney , Zachary L. Simmons , Mei Mei , Rachel L. Grillot , Melissa Emery Thompson","doi":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106761","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106761","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The implantation window denotes cycle days when the endometrium is receptive to an implanting blastocyst. Research supports increased risk of some types of sexually transmitted infections at this time due to local immunosuppression that facilitates the implantation process. This heightened infection risk may have selected for downregulation of sexual motivation within the mid-luteal phase days that comprise the human window of implantation. Here, using data from three large, daily diary studies (<em>N</em> > 2500 observations) among undergraduate participants, we tested whether measures of women's sexual motivation were dampened during the implantation window. Multi-level regression analyses on the combined sample demonstrated significant drops in multiple measures of sexual motivation within the estimated implantation window relative to other cycle regions. Furthermore, for most measures, sexual motivation was significantly lower during the implantation window relative to non-menstrual cycle days outside the fertile window, such that mid-luteal drops in desire and behavior were not statistical artifacts of elevations in sexual motivation during the fertile window. These findings are consistent with evolved, functional responses to temporal fluctuations in infection risk that may help to explain cycle phase shifts in human sexual motivation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55159,"journal":{"name":"Evolution and Human Behavior","volume":"46 6","pages":"Article 106761"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144925586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social structure, cultural selection and the limits of adaptive plasticity: a response to Baumard and André","authors":"Alexandra Alvergne","doi":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106753","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106753","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55159,"journal":{"name":"Evolution and Human Behavior","volume":"46 6","pages":"Article 106753"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144932973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bismarckian welfare revisited: Fear of being violently dispossessed motivates support for redistribution","authors":"Daniel Sznycer , Timothy C. Bates","doi":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106754","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106754","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Resource transfers among individuals can be driven by selfish, altruistic, competitive, or prudential motives. Here, we focus on prudence, specifically the propitiation of aggressive individuals or coalitions to avoid injurious loss. Across the animal kingdom, choosing to cede a resource to a stronger or needier individual is often more advantageous than losing the resource while also being harmed in the process. If the modern human skull houses a Stone Age mind, this ancient motive—though perhaps irrelevant in modern societies with legal enforcement of property rights—might still be at work. In domestic politics, the game-theoretic logic of appeasement is encapsulated in the quip, “If there is to be revolution, we would rather make it than suffer it,” attributed to Otto von Bismarck, the father of the modern welfare state. Are people intuitive Bismarckians? Across three studies in the United Kingdom and the United States—two with nationally representative samples and one preregistered (total <em>N</em> = 1911)—we observed robust associations between fear of being violently dispossessed and support for progressive redistribution. These associations were substantial and persisted even after controlling for other motives previously linked to redistribution, including self-interest, compassion, malicious envy, coercive egalitarianism, and proportionality, as well as political orientation. By elucidating the psychological mechanisms underpinning resource transfers, these findings advance our understanding of why individuals support redistribution in complex societies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55159,"journal":{"name":"Evolution and Human Behavior","volume":"46 6","pages":"Article 106754"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144922369","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michael Barlev , Sakura Arai , John Tooby , Leda Cosmides
{"title":"Willingness to protect from violence, independent of strength, guides partner choice","authors":"Michael Barlev , Sakura Arai , John Tooby , Leda Cosmides","doi":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106745","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106745","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ancestrally, physical violence from conspecifics was a recurrent adaptive problem. Did selection favor preferences for partners who are both <em>strong</em> (highly able) and <em>willing</em> to protect us from violence? Strength and willingness are interrelated, so dissociating their effects is necessary. Here we assessed both inferences and preferences. In 7 experiments (<em>N</em> = 4,508 U.S. adults recruited via MTurk), we systematically varied the willingness of a date or friend to physically protect you from an attack, compared to scenarios where you do not have this information. We also varied that person's strength. Discovering that a person is willing to protect greatly increased their attractiveness as a romantic partner or friend, regardless of their strength. This held for both women and men raters, and when evaluating both opposite- and same-sex dates and friends. In fact, partners who were willing to protect were attractive even if they tried to do so but failed, and even if you were harmed because of their failure. Discovering that a partner is unwilling to protect decreased their attractiveness, and was a deal-breaker for women evaluating a male date. Unwillingness decreased attractiveness more when the rater was a woman, when the target was a man, and when the target was being evaluated as a date versus friend. Women placed some importance on a male date's strength, but this was mostly due to inferences about his willingness to protect them. Surprisingly, we found only weak evidence that differences in strength, independent of willingness, increased the attractiveness of a partner.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55159,"journal":{"name":"Evolution and Human Behavior","volume":"46 6","pages":"Article 106745"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144917951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}