Adults' visual preferences for toys: New evidence for a 'bent twig' theory of sex-linked spatial ability
*Poster session II

Eye-movements were monitored in sixty-four young adults during simultaneous presentation of "masculine" and "feminine" toys. It was hypothesized that visual fixations on sex-linked toys would indicate visual preferences in adults similar to those documented previously in infants, and that these measures of preference or bias would be related to spatial competency and levels of prenatal androgens. Consistent with this hypothesis, women and men showing more visual fixations on male-typical toys compared to female-typical toys had better spatial ability (as measured by mental rotation and targeting ability) and smaller (i.e., more masculine) digit ratios, a putative marker of prenatal androgen levels. These findings support the hypothesis that male-typical toys provide experiences that contribute to the male advantage in spatial ability and suggest further that prenatal androgens may facilitate the acquisition of spatial abilities by promoting enduring preferences for such objects.

Contact information:
gma@psyc.tamu.edu
979-845-2567

TAMU 4235
College Station, TX 77843

Parent-Child Phenotypic Similarity: Evolution's Paternity Test or Experimental Artifact
*Poster session II

Because the human infant is born altrical it seems logical to conclude that human fathers would be sensitive to phenotypic similarity. Christenfeld and Hill (1995) reported experimental results using a guessing procedure supporting this prediction. French, et al. (2000) failed to replicate these results using a ratings procedure. In both of these studies it was argued that mothers provided an adequate comparison group. Bressan and Gassi (2004) compared both guessing and ratings procedures finding no difference between mothers and fathers and accuracy better than chance. The present experiments used a procedure modeled after a verbal leaning experiment. The basic idea is that it should be easier to learn to match up a list of related parents and their children than a list of randomly constructed pairings. The first experiment used single frontal view photographs while the second experiment used three views of each person; frontal, profile, and oblique. The data revealed significant main effects for familial similarity and for sex, emphasizing the importance of using adequate control groups and suggesting that greater paternal resemblance is not the result of uncertain paternity.

Contact information:
mknight@ucok.edu
405-975-5455

Psychology Deptment
100 N. University Drive
Edmond OK 73034

Delay Discounting, Mood and Risk Taking
*Poster session I

DDR (delay-discounting rate) is the rate at which a person devalues a reward as the time to the reward is increased. A high DDR means a greater preference for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Daly and Wilson (2003) have successfully shifted DDR in humans using evolutionary salient stimuli. This experiment attempted to i.shift subjects' DDR by inducing either a positive or negative mood, ii.determine how risk taking and DDR were related. Risk taking was assessed in 2 ways; i.D-RT: a 6 domain risk taking quiz (Weber et al 2002), ii.G-RT: A probabilistic gambling game. Induced mood had no effect upon DDR. Recreational risk taking was negatively correlated with DDR for males. Health and ethical risk taking were positively correlated with DDR for females. G-RT was positively correlated with D-RT in males, but negatively correlated with DDR in females. These results suggest that the relationship between DDR and risk taking depends both upon gender and type of risk. As different neural pathways have been found to be activated when comparing immediate vs. delayed rewards (McClure et al, 2004), there is the possibility that there are separate and distinct neural pathways associated with different kinds of risk taking.

Contact information:
jatkinson@awadwatt.com
905-522-0000

230 Broadway Avenue
Hamilton, Ontario
L8S 2W6
Canada

Sociosexuality, Sexual Arousal, and Risky Decision Making: A Domain Specific Perspective
*Poster session I

An evolutionary approach implies that evolved motives should guide basic decision making processes. This research investigated the link between mate-search motivation and various forms of risk decision making. In Study 1, we examined the link between sociosexual orientation -- an individual difference intrinsically tied to mate-search motivation -- and willingness to engage in various forms of risky behavior. Results showed that sociosexual orientation was linked to mating related risk-taking, with unrestricted individuals reporting greater risk-taking. Sociosexuality was unrelated to other types of risk-taking, suggesting that the link between mate search motivation and risk decision making is domain specific. Study 2 examined interactive effects of sociosexual orientation and sexual arousal on risk decisions. We expected that sexual arousal would increase willingness to take mating related risks, with stronger effects among sexually unrestricted individuals. Results showed that sexual arousal increased willingness to take mating related risks among unrestricted participants but not among restricted participants. Again, this effect was specific to mating risks; no effects were observed for other types of risks.

Contact information:
baker@psy.fsu.edu
850-656-9447

116 Whetherbine Way W.
Tallahassee, FL 32301

Second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) and musical ability
*Poster session II

The second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) is a sexually dimorphic trait thought to be determined in utero, with indirect evidence that 2D:4D is negatively related to prenatal testosterone exposure (Manning, Scutt, Wilson, & Lewis-Jones, 1998). Exposure to high levels of prenatal testosterone is reported to facilitate right hemisphere development, which is suggested to enhance musical ability (Geschwind & Gelaburda, 1985). While research has compared the digit ratios of musicians and non-musicians (Sluming & Manning, 2000), the relationship between 2D:4D and musical ability within a group of musicians has yet to be investigated. Within a sample of musicians (N=50) the association between a range of 2D:4D measures (left hand ratio, right hand ratio, average ratio, and difference between hands; Dr-l) and musical ability was assessed. Musical ability was evaluated using a cognitive test designed exclusively for this study. Test scores correlated significantly with males' (N = 22) right hand and average 2D:4D, and female's (N = 28) left hand and Dr-l 2D:4D. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the influence of prenatal androgens on neural development are discussed, as are the sex differences that emerged.

Contact information:
mark.sergeant@ntu.ac.uk
0044 (0)7760 127085

Division of Psychology
Nottingham Trent University
Burton Street, Nottingham
United Kingdom, NG1 4BU

Beyond modularity: A self-correcting model of cognitive architecture
*Poster session I

Much of evolutionary psychology is grounded in the notion of cognitive modularity (Cosmides & Tooby, 1991). Practitioners often implicitly assume that modules have been well-studied and clearly defined. Many would be surprised to learn that there are multiple substantially different definitions of cognitive modules (Sperber, 1994; Fodor, 2000), without a clear 'winner.' To reconcile definitions, theorists have proposed typologies of modules, which has led to multiple substantially different typologies (e.g., Sperber, 1996; Segal, 1994). I set forth a model of cognitive architecture based on three continuua: environmental responsiveness, encapsulation, and physical localization. Various definitions of modules, and module typologies, can be simultaneously mapped onto the model and compared, as can faculties not considered modular. I also describe abstract outlines for testing where faculties fall on each continuum. This provides more descriptive criteria for discussing characteristics of faculties, and helps the model evolve into an empirically supported map of cognitive architecture.

Contact information:
bartmess@umich.edu
734-644-1084

1512 Gilbert Ct. V-28
Ann Arbor, MI 48105

Teaching Evolutionary Psychology through a Novel of an Upper Paleolithic Society
*Poster session I

A novel set in Siberia 20,000 years ago vividly illustrates problems and principles of evolutionary psychology. Reindeer Moon (Houghton Mifflin, 1987) is a coming-of-age tale whose central character is a girl living in a small band of foragers. The author, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, is well qualified to imagine this tribal society, for she lived with the San of the Kalahari Desert as a young woman, the daughter of the anthropologist Lorna Marshall. The plants and animals, tools, clothing, and climate of the novel are also authentic, closely based on the author's reading of the archeological record. Fish will be the last to discover water, and it is difficult to show students what evolutionary thinking has discovered about the human condition. The novel takes students out of the water of their mundane lives and into a different medium, a society populated by characters whom we can understand but who lived closer to nature and closer to death in the environment of our evolutionary adaptedness.

Contact information:
gbear@ramapo.edu
201-684-7754

School of Science
Ramapo College
505 Ramapo Valley Road
Mahwah NJ 07430-1680

Sex Differences in Jealousy: A Test of The Forced Choice Method
*Poster session I

A type of self-report measure called the forced-choice question (Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992) is frequently cited in support of the view that there are sex differences in jealousy. The measure forces participants, under a hypothetical infidelity scenario, to choose which type of infidelity, emotional and sexual, they consider more distressing. Results typically show that woman tend to be distressed by emotional infidelity, while men tend to be more distressed by sexual infidelity. The purpose of the study was to provide a stringest test of the finding through the asymmterical "loading" of the language used across infidelity option. A total of 116 participants were tested, 85 men and 85 women. Two forced choice questions were administered within-subject. Across infidelity option, each infidelity option alternated as loaded or unloaded across question. Loading the language only had an effect on women McNemar test, X2 = 6.26, df = 1, p < .05. Despite this asymmetrical effect, the sex difference finding still replicated in both scenarios: Scenario #1: X2 = 17.16, df = 1, p < .001; Scenario #2: X2 = 9.97, df = 1, p < .002. The forced choice method therefore appears to be a robust effect. In this context, alternative explanations were also discussed.

Contact information:
cab0140@exchange.uta.edu
817-272-1582

Department of Psychology
Box 19528
Arlington, Texas, 76019-0528

Individual Differences in Romantic Relationships: Attachment Styles or Mating Strategies?
*Poster session II

Attachment theory has emerged as a dominant approach to the study of romantic relationships within social psychology over the last 15 years. However, Kirkpatrick (1998) has argued that an evolutionary perspective raises important theoretical questions about this application of the theory, and suggested that individual differences in attachment styles -- particularly the avoidant-vs-secure dimension -- may reflect individual differences in short-term/long-term mating orientations rather than attachment per se. In the present study (N = 130), participants completed two standard attachment scales, two new measures of long- and short-term mating orientations (James & Kirkpatrick, this conference), and several other scales (dyadic trust, relationship satisfaction, attitudes about love) previously shown to correlate with (and validate) attachment scales. Multiple regression analyses reveal that in most cases, the predictive power of the attachment scales disappears when mating strategy is statistically controlled.

Contact information:
ekbell@wm.edu
309-360-3945

GSH 231
PO Box 8705
Williamsburg, VA 23187

Thinking About Being Unfaithful? Guilt Patterns in Romantic Relationships
*Poster session II

Sex differences in romantic guilt are real, but depend on "relationship commitment experience." Using a forced-choice format, participants (N=179) were asked to think about committing an infidelity and answer what they would feel most guilty about: The sexual or the emotional aspects of the infidelity. Women and men differ in guilt as a function of romantic commitment experience. Low commitment experience is a category of "current relationship status" that includes romantically single individuals, currently dating one person, or currently dating multiple persons. High commitment experience includes married, engaged, living with someone, and divorced. In the low relationship commitment experience group women, more than men, express guilt over the sexual aspects of infidelity. The pattern reverses in the high relationship commitment experience group. Men, more than women, express guilt over the sexual aspects of infidelity.

Contact information:
klb48@psu.edu
724-773-3904

Penn State University at Beaver
100 University Drive
03K Administration Building
Monaca, PA 15061-2799

The Assessment of Individual Motives Questionnaire [AIM-Q]: Reliability and Preliminary Validity
*Poster session I

We introduce AIM-Q, a new multidimensional instrument that measures 15 putative human motives derived from evolutionary theory. Results from a series of studies to establish the reliability and preliminary validity of AIM-Q are reported. Data supporting the unidimensionality (principle components factor analysis), homogeneity (internal consistency reliability), dependability (one week test-retest of measurement error), and stability (two month test-retest correlations) of the motive scales are reported. Additional data on the convergent and divergent relationships among the motive scales are also reported and support the constructs on which the instrument is based as well as an evolutionary theory of human motivation.

Contact information:
lbernard@lmu.edu
310-338-4592

Psychology Department
One LMU Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90045

TERRORISM, HEROISM, AND ALTRUISM: Status perceptions, religious-belief mediated cost scaling, and kin selection in Palestinian suicide attack
*Poster session I

Popular lore holds that suicide attack is motivated by poverty, fanaticism, and lack of education. Recent studies have challenged these ideas, suggesting that suicide attackers are neither desperate, pathological, nor uneducated. Selectionist thinking questions why individuals should pay high costs when the benefits are public goods. I argue that the costs and benefits of attack are largely balanced by kin selection. Suicide attackers often have large families which receive both honor and money following the attacker's death, translating into economic gains and improved mating opportunities. However, the perceived costs and benefits of suicide attack are not rated evenly by members of all social strata. Lower status families are expected to compare themselves to higher status Palestinians, while mid-high status families compare themselves to both Palestinians and equivalent status Israelis. Thus, overeducated but underemployed Palestinians are more aware of restricted opportunities and place greater value on punishing Israelis. Religious belief further attenuates perceived cost/benefit decision making by lowering the perceived costs of self-sacrifice.

Contact information:
ablackwe@darkwing.uoregon.edu
541-513-4380

1218 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403

The Scarlet Letter of Body Modifications: The Implications of Tattoos and Body Piercings as Signs of Female Promiscuity.
*Poster session II

We are interested in a potential signaling function of body-modifications (tattoos and piercings) to short-term mating strategies in the context of sexual selection and hypothesize that body-modifications could act as a signal of female sexual receptivity to short-term mating. By exploring the associations of body-modifications, marital status, and sociosexual orientation (SOI) we found a significant relationship between the SOI and the total amount of body piercings but not for the total amount of tattoos. There was also a significant relationship between the SOI and the placement of body-modifications particularly in women who had ankle, lower-back, or hip tattoos, and nipple piercings. Additionally, body-modifications were also associated with being single even when controlling for age. These results suggest that by selectively highlighting those physical attributes which are normally attended to by potential mates, females can increase their chances of being identified (as having greater sex appeal) by short term mating partners but the association of other attributes makes the wearer an unlikely candidate for long term mating.

Contact information:
mlbromley@hotmail.com
909-887-8642

2725 W. Sunset Lane
San Bernardino, CA. 92407

Homicidal Fantasies in Russia and the United States
*Poster session I

Prior research has suggested that homicidal fantasies can provide insight into aggressive reactions among "normal" people (i.e., who do not follow through and commit a homicide). Samples of college students in Russia and the United States were surveyed regarding their frequency and characteristics of homicidal thoughts. Smaller proportions of these samples reported homicidal thoughts relative to prior research. Nonetheless, there were numerous gender differences (e.g., in frequency of thoughts, categories of targets, and triggering causes) that were consistent with prior research in the U.S., and relatively few differences between the Russian and U.S. samples. Also consistent with theory and previous research, very few participants thought about killing family members versus stepfamily members. Gender and cultural differences in aggressive histories were observed, and small (but significant) correlations between homicidal thoughts and actual aggressive behavior were observed for men. These patterns are discussed with regard to cultural and evolutionary factors that may impact rates of aggression and reporting of aggressive thoughts.

Contact information:
v-sheets@indstate.edu
812-237-2451

Department of Psychology
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, IN 47809

What is Intolerable in a Mate?
*Poster session II

Research has shown that men and women have computational mechanisms designed to assess preferred characteristics of potential mates, and assign mate values accordingly (Buss, 1989; Li et al., 2002). But positive preferences are only part of the puzzle. However many positive characteristics a individual may have, that person may have some negative ones that are "deal breakers". Thus, humans should have evolved computational mechanisms designed to cue into negative characteristics and avoid mates with negative characteristics that could pose large fitness costs. This research used a modified version of Li et al.'s (2002) budget paradigm to examine what characteristics individuals find intolerable in a potential mate. Data are currently being collected.

Contact information:
burkett@psych.ucsb.edu
805-448-3653

Department of Psychology
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660

Status, Dominance, or Prestige? Domains of Self-Esteem as Moderators of Reactions to an Embarrassing Situation
*Poster session I

Kirkpatrick and Ellis (2001) posited that within various evolutionarily relevant domains, distinct self-esteem (SE) mechanisms function as gauges that monitor the success of social interactions within that domain and guide adaptive responding. One class of such domains relates to competition within groups for status. Henrich and Gil-White (2001) recently proposed that dominance (the use or threat of force) and prestige (freely conferred deference) represent two distinct strategies for attaining status. We developed separate measures of self-perceived dominance and prestige, and used these and other domain-specific SE measures to predict individual differences in embarrassment in a laboratory paradigm adapted from previous research (Leary, Landel, & Patton, 1996). Participants performed an embarrassing singing task, then some were given the opportunity to convey their feelings to the researcher and others were not. The amount of embarrassment reported subsequently by those participants who had the chance to express their emotions publicly was related to self-reported levels of dominance, but not prestige. These results suggest that prestige and dominance are theoretically and empirically distinct domains of SE.

Contact information:
buttermo@umich.edu
734-417-0677

436 Kellogg St Apt 122
Ann Arbor, MI 48105

Cuckoldry risk predicts correlates of sexual coercion in romantic relationships
*Poster session II

Under the cuckoldry risk hypothesis, men are more likely to sexually coerce their romantic partners when the risk of cuckoldry is high. Sexually active men and women in heterosexual relationships were sampled to evaluate this hypothesis. Cuckoldry risk was assessed using the time since last having intercourse with one's partner (TIME) and the proportion of time away from one's partner since last intercourse (PROP). Correlates of sexual coercion were measures of verbal and physical persuasion, as well as rape-supportive thoughts, attitudes, and arousal. A TIME x PROP interaction accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in verbal and physical persuasion among men, and significantly predicted other correlates of sexual coercion. As expected, men with longer periods since last having intercourse with their partner were most likely to score highly on correlates of sexual coercion only when the proportion of time away from their partner was also high. The relationship between cuckoldry risk and rape-supportive thoughts, attitudes, and arousal provides evidence for a male-specific facultative strategy of coercive sex with one's romantic partner.

Contact information:
4jac1@qlink.queensu.ca
613-549-3195

Department of Psychology
62 Arch St.
Kingston, ON
K7L 3N6

Ovulation may not be Totally Concealed: Especially from Pair-Bonded Males
*Poster session II

With three studies, possible adaptive value of concealed ovulation were examined. In the 1st study, cyclic menstrual changes in the facial symmetry in regularly ovulating women were investigated. The findings showed predictable fluctuations on facial symmetry across menstrual phases. To determine if the changes were detectable by males, in the second study, males evaluated the facial-menstrual pictures for attractiveness. They rated the pictures ovulatory pictures as the most attractive the menstrual pictures least attractive. In the third study, half of the male participants (familiar males) rated four pictures obtained from the same females, the other half of them (unfamiliar males) rated four pictures, but this time each of which obtained from different females. The males in the latter group were not able to distinguish attractiveness of the pictures of different females. The results indicate that although there is some extent of concealment of ovulation in women as an adaptation, it is not completely concealed, especially from the familiar (or pair-bonded) males. Thus, men might have equipped with a counter-adapt through their evolutionary history to cope with the problem of concealment of ovulation.

Contact information:
chakan@mu.edu.tr
90 252 211 1644

Kotekli, 48000
Mugla, Turkey

Manipulation of the Waist-to-Hip Ratio: Effect on attractiveness
*Poster session II

It has been speculated that Waist-to-Hip Ratio (WHR) is an indicator of reproductive fitness. Further, it has been found that a WHR of .7 is rated as being highly attractive when compared to other ratios. We previously found that self-manipulated ratios tended towards .7. That is, when participants were allowed to manipulate their own bodies, they tended towards a .7. In the current study, we allowed participants to manipulate their own images. We then presented the original and the altered body images to a separate group of participants. It was found that there were significant differences in the attractiveness ratings of the original and the altered images. Interestingly, we found support for the .7 'ideal', such that one of the determining factors in attractiveness was a WHR of .7. These data are discussed in terms of recent WHR research and the suggestion that WHR may be an indicator of reproductive health. higher-order tasks is examined in terms of the reproductive advantages that it may add. It is speculated that perspective taking in terms of both deception and deception detection may be key to the increased mass of the cortex, as speculated by Byrne & Corp (2004). Our recent data in humans support such a hypothesis.

Contact information:
selfawareness@prodigy.net
973-655-7634

219 Dickson Hall
Upper Montclair, New Jersey 07043

Sex dependent patterns of 2D:4D digit ratio and personality traits
*Poster session II

Prenatal sex hormones have been widely implicated in their effect of brain differentiation, subsequently, affecting the development of sexually dependent traits, such as, hand preferences, aggression, mate preference, ant etc. Direct measures of uterine sex steroid in human are difficult. It has been suggested that testosterone stimulate prenatal growth of the 4th finger while estrogens promote the growth of the 2nd finger. Variations in 2D:4D ratio could thus serve as an index for individuals' uterine sex steroid profile. We investigated 2D:4D digit ratio and a set sex dependent personality measures on aggression; sociosexuality; mate preference; and self-monitoring in 83 (41 male and 42 female) college students. We found that 2D:4D and personality traits are differentially associated with sexes. In males, 2D:4D was correlated negatively with physical aggression, sociosexuality, and positively with self-monitoring. In females, 2D:4D correlate positively with verbal aggression and sociosexuality, and low self-monitoring. Recent finding on sexual dimorphic androgen receptor gene coding for receptor activity and levels of sex hormones will be used to explain our finding on sexual dependent patterns of 2D:4D and personality.

Contact information:
pchang2@ycp.edu
717-815-1259

York College of PA
York, PA 17405

Does natural selection favor sex differences in alcohol consumption?
*Poster session II

Research indicates cross-cultural patterns of alcohol consumption in which females consume markedly lower than males. In some cultures this behavior is reinforced by restrictions or norms; however, lower use of alcohol exhibited by females in cultures with more permissive attitudes toward female alcohol use suggests a possible physiological basis for this behavior. This study will investigate the hypothesis that natural selection has favored a physiological mechanism in females that reduces the psychological urge to consume alcohol near ovulation for enhanced reproductive success. This hypothesis will be tested by tracking female alcohol consumption in female undergraduates throughout the course of each subjects monthly cycle.

Contact information:
greg.chapman@go.losrios.edu
916-834-6537

4832 10th Ave
Sacramento, CA 95820

The roles of object identity and verbal memory on object location memory
*Poster session I

Object location memory is a unique spatial ability; it is the only spatial ability that yields a female advantage. Recent work, however, suggests that other factors may influence this sex difference. We tested two of these factors, namely, object identity and verbal memory, on one aspect of object location memory. Findings suggest that females, but not males, use both factors to facilitate memory for locations of specific objects. Evolutionary implications will be discussed.

Contact information:
jean.choi@uleth.ca
403-380-1862

Department of Psychology & Neuroscience
4401 University Drive
Lethbridge, AB, Canada
T1K 3M4

The Birkbeck Mating Questionnaire
*Poster session II

Research examining mate preferences (MP) is typically focused on sex differences and temporal context (i.e., short- vs. long-term). Because the availability-predictability of physical and social resources in the environment within which individuals reside may also affect variation in MP, as a necessary first step toward examining this issue empirically, we created a new MP questionnaire and determined whether (a) its factor structure was stable across (hypothetical) contextual situations; (b) it was sensitive to sex differences; (c) responses were stable over a 3-month period; and (d) order effects proved problematical. 433 US and UK respondents completed the 35-item questionnaire under three hypothetical contextual conditions. Analyses revealed that the same 7 subscales proved internally consistent across conditions; the subscales were sensitive to sex differences; test-retest reliability was good; and order effects were absent. These findings indicate that the instrument can be used to assess ecological variation in MP.

Contact information:
dr.cohen@myfastmail.com
919-967-2671

The Effects of Estrogen on Cognition in Women
*Poster session I

Research shows that women's performance on some cognitive tasks varies with fluctuations in estrogen. Higher estrogen is linked to higher dopamine, a crucial neurotransmitter in frontal lobe activity. If relatively higher levels of estrogen aid performance on tasks that primarily engage the prefrontal cortex, but not the hippocampus, it would suggest that frontal cortex is the primary mediator of estrogen's effects on cognition in women. Female participants (N=47) between ages 18-34 were tested on several tests of working memory and fluency (frontal tasks), and memory for paired associates (hippocampal tasks) during menstruation (days 1-3 of the cycle) and mid-cycle (days 13-15 of the cycle). Participants not on the pill performed marginally better during mid-cycle on the most difficult working memory task (the PASAT), compared to menstruation, while no effect was found on the paired associates tasks. There is also some evidence for practice effects between sessions.

Contact information:
mcombs@du.edu
303-871-3096

University of Denver
Dept. of Psychology, Frontier Hall
2155 S. Race St.
Denver, CO 80208

Social support and addictive behaviors in Portugese college students
*Poster session II

A total of 370 students, with an average of 17,71 years old, enrolled in the 12th year, during the 2004/2005 school year, in two secondary schools was questioned by a direct application questionnaire including: ESPAD (European school Survey on alcohol and other drugs) adapted from the original scale and the ESSS (satisfaction scale with the social support). (Ribeiro, 1999), and 262 students answered, being (45%; n=118) masculine and (55%; n=144) feminine. Some characterization questions where introduced: Sex, Age, Residence place, Number of years enrolled in the 12th year of education, Current lecture and respective scientific area of study in which the student is enrolled. Descriptive statistic and the Spearman´s correlation coefficient were used to verify the statistic significance of the relation between variables, was used for data treatment. The results showed a bigger addiction of spirit/white drinks and beers. Bars and pubs are the most chosen places for this kind of behaviors. Social Support results suggests that teenagers are satisfact with their social support, feeling more satisfied with friendship and family.

Contact information:
raulcordeiro@sapo.pt
351 245 300 430

Av. Santo António
7301-901 Portalegre
Portugal

The Evolutionary Origins of Belief in Supernatural Agents: How Theory of Mind Produces Gods, Demons and Spirits
*Poster session I

Boyer (2001) claims that supernatural agent concepts (e.g., ancestor spirits, gods, demons) arise in the course of deliberate human speculations "on the possible." In contrast, Bering & Bjorklund (2001) demonstrate that a large percentage of both children and adults attribute continuity of various mental states to recently deceased agents (especially emotion, desire, and epistemic contents) and suggest that this proclivity directly and implicitly promotes attributions of supernatural agency. The current study replicates their procedure and the results demonstrate highly similar developmental patterns of mental state attributions for a sleeping agent. The results of analysis of the combined data sets strongly suggest that unique features associated with implicit theoretical representations (i.e., theory of mind) of emotion, desire and epistemic states underlie these findings. Such attributions may represent an adaptation designed to maintain vigilance in the presence of organisms whose agency status is ambiguous (e.g., motionless, eyes closed). If so, the implication for scholars of religion is that supernatural agent concepts likely arise as a naturally generated byproduct of this system.

Contact information:
ccormier66@hotmail.com
561-297-3374

Department of Psychology
777 Glades Rd.
Boca Raton, FL 33432

Pretty mothers: happy marriages and happy daughters?
*Poster session II

It has previously been reported (Boothroyd, HBES 2004) that parental separation or difficult parent-parent relationships are associated with facial masculinity in sons and daughters, and larger waists and reduced facial attractiveness in daughters. This research went on to look at parents' faces. A sample of female undergraduate students provided snapshots of their parents' faces which were then rated for masculinity/femininity, health and attractiveness by a panel of judges. The quality of the parents' relationship and the warmth with which the students remembered each parent, were positively associated to the attractiveness and femininity of mothers' faces. There were no relationships with fathers' appearance, and no relationships with facial health of either parent. These results suggest that the association between parental relationships and daughters' appearance may be the result of inherited maternal characteristics, rather than any causal effect of early social environment.

Contact information:
scatterbrain2000@bigfoot.com
+44 (0)1334 463044

School of Psychology
St Mary's Quad
St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JU
Scotland, UK

Child Mortality among Gypsies in Serbia
*Poster session II

In the present study we analyze a wide range of biological, socio-economic and behavioral determinants of child mortality among three different Gypsy groups in Serbia, with special emphasis on behavioral issues. We argue that death clustering of infants can be explained to a very large extent by the basic abilities and personal characteristics of the mother, independently of occupation, education and wealth. Gypsies have their own rather isolated traditions. These traditions do not require much parental investment nor exceptional IQ. This does not select for high IQs, but does select for high birth rates and, in the absence of medicine, high death rate.

Contact information:
cvorovic@eunet.yu
381 11 409752

Lovranska 5
11000 Belgrade Serbia and Montenegro

Within-Sex Differences in Jealousy: The Role of Prenatal Testosterone and Developmental Instability
*Poster session II

Sex differences in mental rotation have been hypothesized to be related, in part, to the organizational effects of hormones during critical periods in development. Little conclusive evidence has been provided regarding prenatal exposure to testosterone and other sex-differentiated tasks. With respect to jealousy, men are found to be more distressed when imagining sexual versus emotional infidelity and the reverse has been found for women. In the present study, relations among prenatal exposure to sex-differentiated hormones, developmental instability (measured by fluctuating asymmetry) and within-sex variation in jealousy and other sex-differentiated domains were explored in male and female undergraduates. In contrast to past research, both second to fourth digit (2D: 4D) ratio and dermatoglyphic ridge counts were used as measures of prenatal hormone exposure. Predictions are that individuals with higher finger-ridge counts and lower 2D:4D finger ratios will score more male-typical on measures of sexual and emotional jealousy (i.e., should show greater upset over sexual infidelities). Results show support for this prediction and discussion focuses on the relationship between 2D:4D, dermatoglyphic ridge counts and how they interact with FA.

Contact information:
ldane@unm.edu
604-812-3944

#207-1877 W5th
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
V6J 1P5

Maternal personality and reproductive ambition in women is associated with salivary testosterone levels
*Poster session II

Previous research has linked testosterone levels with sex-specific personality traits within women. The present study investigates the relation between salivary testosterone levels and specifically maternal personality traits in healthy adult women. Twenty-seven young women completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). Additional questions were asked about maternal personality (importance of having children, self-rated maternal/broodiness), reproductive ambition (ideal number of children, ideal own age at first child) and career orientation (importance of having career). Higher circulating testosterone levels were associated with lower scores on measures of maternal personality and reproductive ambition. There was no relation of career orientation with testosterone. A median split on BSRI masculinity revealed high scorers had higher testosterone levels than low scorers. There was no relation of BSRI femininity with testosterone. Results suggest maternal tendencies may be partly androgen driven.

Contact information:
d.k.deady@stir.ac.uk
+44 (0)1786 466 845

Department of Psychology
University of Stirling
Stirling
FK9 4LA

Spying on your mate as a mate retention tactic
*Poster session II

Mate retention tactics like calling a partner unexpectedly and spying on him help verify the person's location and reduce anxiety in suspicious partners. Two studies examined the incidence of spying as a mate retention tactic. Study 1: College students rated the likelihood of using 7 tactics for spying on their mate. Results showed that females were more likely to spy on their mate if fidelity was threatened. Subjects also rated how likely they would spy on their mate for each of 11 cues of infidelity. In almost every case, females were more likely to spy on their mate. Study 2: was a replication with additional spying tactics and cues of infidelity. Female participants were further identified as ovulating or not ovulating at the time of the survey. Results confirmed the finding that females were more likely to spy on their mate, and hormonal factors made a difference. Non-ovulating females were more likely to spy on their mate than were males or ovulating females. It is suggested that ovulating females, who have a greater tendency to cheat on a mate, are less vigilant of their own mate at this time as they turn their attention to securing extrapair copulations.

Contact information:
demarest@monmouth.edu
732-571-3684

Department of Psychology
West Long Branch, NJ 07764

Mate poaching: The cuckolded victim's reactions
*Poster session II

This study explored the consequences on the cuckolded victim of luring someone away from an established, romantic relationship (mate poaching). Participants (M=40; F=39) were presented with a scenario involving either a long-term or short-term relationship in which a stranger engaged in mate poaching. They were asked to imagine how the victim might feel. Five hypotheses were tested to determine if the length of the relationship, sex of the participant, or his/her sociosexual orientation influenced their belief that the victim would break-up, stay committed, forgive, trust, worry about being cheated on, become more sensitive to cues of infidelity, spy, or worry about satisfying their mate in the future. Results showed that females were more likely than males to spy on their mate in the future. Males and females exposed to the long-term relationship scenario were more likely than those exposed to the short-term scenario to worry about being cheated on by their mate in the future. In contrast to previous research, sexually unrestrictive males and females were more likely to worry about satisfying their mate in the future.

Contact information:
demarest@monmouth.edu
732-571-3684

Department of Psychology
West long Branch, NJ 07764

Mate poaching: The poacher's attitude
*Poster session II

This study examined the attitudes that might typify someone who tries to lure a person away from an established, romantic relationship (mate poaching). Participants (M=19; F=31) were given a set of 4 mate poaching scenarios in which the cuckolded victim was either a friend, a known person, a stranger, or an enemy and asked five questions about mate poaching for each scenario. Questions ranged from how you would feel about breaking up this relationship to having various relationships with the victim's mate. For both men and women, not liking the victim resulted in the greatest likelihood of mate poaching, and the more familiarity with the victim, the less likely the participants were to engage in mate poaching tactics. Sexually unrestricted participants were also more likely to mate poach than those who were sexually exclusive.

Contact information:
demarest@monmouth.edu
732-571-3684

Department of Psychology
West Long Branch, NJ 07764

Sex differences in jealous reactions to infidelity are not leveled by priming of HIV/AIDS perils: A rebuttal of Bohner and Wänke (2004)
*Poster session I

The discovery of sex differences in jealousy (SDJ) is one of evolutionary psychology's most prominent contributions to the psychology of emotions. The initial account (Buss et al., 1992) is a highly cited paper (>150 citations) and has inspired a flourishing research program (>50 papers). At the same time, this field has recurrently faced attempts of refutation. Here, we tackle the most recent assertion: Bohner and Wänke (2004) reported SDJ to disappear through experimental priming of HIV/AIDS perils. Our conceptual replication of their approach used a sex-balanced community sample of 400 heterosexual Austrian adults. By random allocation, participants either completed the HIV Knowledge Questionnaire (Carey et al., 1997) first and then the Sexual Jealousy Scale (SJS; Ward & Voracek, 2004) [priming condition] or vice versa [control condition]. SDJ in the priming and control conditions were of comparable size (d=0.61 and 0.73, respectively), and priming condition SJS scores were unrelated to participant ratings of priming influence. We conclude that the Bohner/Wänke finding most likely is due to factors unique to their (small-sample) experiment.

Contact information:
stefan.dressler@univie.ac.at
+43 1 4277-47846

School of Psychology
Liebiggasse 5, 3rd floor, room 42.2
A-1010 Vienna
AUSTRIA

Alternative measures of female facial masculinity and their associations with sociosexuality
*Poster session II

Androgen exposure may have mediating effects on both the facial appearance and sexual behavior of individuals. Higher levels of testosterone in women have been associated with increased sexual desire and a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation. This study calculates measurements of female facial masculinity based on proportions of specific facial features known to vary with testosterone level. By objectively measuring facial masculinity, the associations between behaviors and testosterone can be investigated more fully. This study provides evidence that both women's SOI scores and observers' perceptions of masculinity are related to specific facial features indicative of masculinity.

Contact information:
brialane@rci.rutgers.edu
718-486-9375

Anthropology Department
131 George St.
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Ovulatory effects on female sexuality, romantic relationships and clothing preferences across the menstrual cycle
*Poster session II

Because the costs of pregnancy and nursing are high for women, and offspring require significant resources, a long-term mating strategy is generally more reproductively beneficial for women than a short-term strategy (i.e., sex with no commitment) is (e.g., Buss & Schmitt, 1993). However, there may be specific conditions or situations in which the reproductive benefits of short-term mating outweigh the costs. Obtaining better genes is a viable strategy when conception is likely. Because conception is most likely to occur around the time of ovulation, the point at which a woman is in her menstrual cycle may be a relevant factor in determining the potential reproductive benefits of a short-term mating strategy. One way to signal short-term availability may be to wear more revealing clothing (Grammer, 1996). The current study sheds light on whether women's sexual desire, relationship status and clothing preferences are influenced by menstrual cycle phase as well as other variables that may interact with the menstrual cycle.

Contact information:
kdurante@mail.utexas.edu
512-471-1406

Department of Psychology
1 University Station A8000
Austin, TX 78712

Explaining individual differences in experimental economics games
*Poster session I

Experimental economics games typically reveal individual differences in the propensity to cooperate and exert social control, but these results have seldom been related to individual differences in everyday life. In this study, participants in an experimental economics game also completed a large number of personality questionnaires and reported their everyday experience over a period of four weeks using the experience sampling method. The study enables us to integrate psychological, experimental economic, and naturalistic approaches to the study of individual differences.

Contact information:
omar.eldakar@binghamton.edu
607-624-6952

Binghamton University
Binghamton NY 13902

Sexual Trauma Affects Precautionary Reasoning
*Poster session I

This study examined the impact of sexual trauma on reasoning ability. Specifically, it investigated whether previous sexual trauma in women would lead to inaccurate reasoning about what measures other women need to take to protect themselves from risk of sexual assault. Seventy female undergraduates were recruited from the University of Denver (mean age = 20, SD =.3). Reasoning was measured using the Wason Selection Task. Participants solved two tasks with a precaution rule pertaining to potential risk of sexual assault (e.g., "If you are walking around the city at night, you must take at least two tourmates with you"), and two tasks with non-sexual risks (e.g., "If you are going kayacking, you must wear a helmet."). Participants were given the Brief Trauma Survey asking whether they had been forced into some form of sexual contact by someone close to them, or by a stranger. Twenty participants answered affirmatively to at least one of these items. It was found that participants who had experienced sexual coercion did significantly worse on sexual risk tasks than participants who had not experienced sexual coercion. No group differences were found on non-sexual risk tasks.

Contact information:
n.erlich@psy.uq.edu.au
617 33467276

School of Psychology
University of Queensland
St Lucia 4072
Queensland, Australia

Does the female orgasm inform reproductively strategic choices?
*Poster session II

Previous research has shown that females are more cautious about consenting to sex than males (e.g. Clarke and Hatefield, 1989; Oliver and Hyde, 1993). However, insufficient attention has been paid to the proximal factors which allow females to enjoy sex while remaining more discriminative in their sexual choices compared to males. Specifically, the role of the dynamics of the female orgasm in motivating sexual behaviour in a discriminative manner has not been previously considered. A study of more than 200 Western women investigating their sexual behaviour, attitudes toward and contextual experience of orgasm is presented. Individual differences in orgasmic capabilities and possible consequences for sexual strategies are addressed. Findings suggest that females perceive orgasm as a benefit to be gained from sexual interactions, but, orgasm was not likely to be the outcome of one night stands; only of longer relationships. The discussion focuses on how the female orgasm might aid in the choice of a long-term mating strategy.

Contact information:
laraeschler@hotmail.com
01144 7867848710

217 Warren House, Beckford Close
Warwick Road
London W14 8TR
UK

Olfactory Comfort: Cross Cultural Replication with Partners and Extension to Family Members
*Poster session II

We recently demonstrated that most women, and some men, smell their partner's clothing during periods of separation. We replicate that study in a German sample. More women than men slept in their partner's clothing, and intentionally smelled the clothing. In contrast to the original Pittsburgh study, more women than men noticed their partner's smell, and associated the smell with an applied fragrance. In a new Pgh sample we find that olfactory comfort smelling is common between people who are not sexual partners, for example: mom gives her shirt to baby to sleep with, mom sleeps in daughter's pajamas, woman is reluctant to part with deceased mom's clothing, daughter smells dad's clothing when he is away. Olfactory comfort smelling is more common in girls and women than boys and men. We discuss these differences in terms of sex differences in mating vs. parenting effort, and differences in vulnerability to predation and hostile others.

Contact information:
sasst89@pitt.edu
412-624-4332

3137 Sennott Square
210 South Bouquet
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Social comparison and decision making with respect to income
*Poster session I

Research has shown that people make decisions about income in relation to the income of others around them. Indeed, people may sacrifice absolute gains in order to do well relative to others (Frank, 1985; Kurzban et al., 2001). From an evolutionary perspective, this strategy makes sense in many contexts because selection operates on relative outcomes. Prior research has not established whether people sacrifice to be better off than others or simply to prevent others from being better off than them. This study examined this issue. Participants could take a sure outcome (a set amount of 4, 5, or 6 dollars) or risk an uncertain outcome by rolling a die (with outcomes averaging $5.50). Half learned that another participant was receiving an amount equal to the sure outcome; no social context was provided to the other half. If people seek outcomes better than others', they should take the risk in the social comparison condition. If people try to prevent others from getting outcomes better than their own, they should avoid risks in the social condition, particularly when their chances of doing better are low. Results will be discussed in relation to ideas about relative income.

Contact information:
rfalcon@unm.edu
505-277-1485

1 University of New Mexico
MSC03 2220
Albuquerque, NM 87131-1161

Law and Evolution: Human nature and the adaptive function of normative behavior
*Poster session I

The objective is to offer a critical (re)interpretation of genesis and evolution, object and purpose, as well as useful qualified methods for interpreting, justifying and applying modern practical law, all with the intention of putting philosophic thought and contemporary formal theory of reason at the service of hermeutics and juridical argumentation. Law is no more and no less than an adaptive strategy, evermore complex, but always noticeably deficient, used to articulate argumentatively -- in fact, not always with justice -- by virtue of prudence, elementary relational social ties through which men construct approved styles of interaction and social structure, i.e., to organize and ethically improve political and social life in such a way as to permit that no free citizen -- rich or poor -- should fear the arbitrary interference of other social actors in his life plan.

Contact information:
atahualpaf@yahoo.es
34-971732000

calle francisco marti mora
n.1,esc.B, 15-2a.
palma de mallorca-07011
spain

From crisis to growth ... race, culture, ethnicity, conflict and change
*Poster session I

Academic institutions, long idealized as sanctuaries from the more pernicious forms of racial, ethnic and intercultural conflict, provide no sanctuary at all. The author explores how conflict can provide institutions with precious opportunities to both recognize and institute procedures that will lead toward adaptive evolutional change. A model designed to effectively process conflict and facilitate social change is presented.

Contact information:
mfischler@plymouth.edu
603-535-2461, 603-536-2347

Counseling and Human Relations Center
Education Department
Plymouth State University
Plymouth, NH 03264

Male muscularity as a good-genes indicator: Evidence from men's self-reported sexual behaviors and women's preferences for muscularity
*Poster session II

Hypothesized indicators of good genes (e.g., facial masculinity, symmetry) are associated with higher numbers of past sex partners in men, and they are preferred more by women for sexual affairs and when ovulating. We propose that muscularity may also be a good genes indicator. Study 1 examined the relationship between muscularity, attractiveness, and number of sex partners in 196 men. Muscularity was correlated with past number of short-term partners, lifetime partner number, and self-assessed attractiveness as a short-term mate more than as a long-term mate. These effects remained after controlling for height, age, and body fat. Study 2 investigated women's preference for muscularity using a new set of realistic computer-generated images varying in muscularity and body fat. Women preferred men who were more muscular than the average man in their peer group. In sum, both data sources converge to suggest that muscularity is sexually attractive and may be a good genes indicator.

Contact information:
enderflies1@aol.com
310-665-0784

6225 Canterbury Dr. UNIT 306
Culver City, CA 90230

The effects of odor on female - endocrinological and psychological study
*Poster session II

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of odor on human female. Thirty female subjects were assigned randomly to four groups and they were given one of three odor (musk, rose and 4-methoxy styrene) or control. Each subjects applied it on their body three times in every day for two months. During the experiment period, five saliva samples were submitted and testosterone (T), 17-E beta estoradiol(E) and DHEA levels were assayed by EIA and at the same time, their skin samples were taken and keratin were analyzed. The photograph of subject that were taken before and after the experiment was evaluated by the third party. Also psychological tests were performed. As a result, musk and rose significantly decreased T and E in the subjects with high hormone value, while they increased significantly in the subjects with low hormone value. 4-methoxy styrene and control caused no change. The change of DHEA was the same as T and E though it was not significant. It was clarified also that odors influences the subjects psychologically and physiologically. Musk and rose significantly improved psychological condition of subjects, for instance their stress was reduced. In addition in musk and rose, the skin condition has improved and the evaluation score in the photograph went up.

Contact information:
fukuih@nara-edu.ac.jp
81-742-27-9257

Takabatake
Nara City
Nara
Japan

Relatedness and Investment in Adoptive Households
*Poster session II

Surveys from 126 parents who raised both biological and non-genetically related adopted children were analyzed. Parents were asked to detail the types and amounts of monetary and temporal investments they made in their children. Investments in biological and adopted children were then compared. According to kin selection theory, parents should invest in their biological children under a wider range of circumstances than their adopted children. It was therefore predicted that parents would bias their investments toward biological children. The data failed to support this prediction. Parents invested more, in terms of total time and resources, in their unrelated adopted children than their biological children. This finding was largely unexpected and runs contra predictions from kin selection theory. It suggests that, under certain circumstances, fictive kinship ties can be as strong or stronger than biological ones.

Contact information:
kyle.gibson@utah.edu
4022026558

53 S 300 E Apt 18
SLC, UT 84111

Evolution, Income Inequality, and Crime: An Analysis of New York State Counties
*Poster session I

Some evolutionary theorists suggest that poorer men will be over-represented as rapists due to their inability to attract consenting mates (Thornhill and Thornhill 1983). And, indeed, some research indicates that such men are over-represented as rapists and that rape rates are highest in low-income areas. However, recent research indicates that income inequality is a better predictor of criminal behavior than median income level. Daly and Wilson's (2001) research on Canadian homicides suggests that rates will be higher in environments with high income inequality because those at the bottom of the social hierarchy will have little to lose through intense and risky social competition. On the other hand, in areas with more equitable resource division, even when average resource levels are low, the benefits of risky competition drop while the costs rise. Using crime and census data from New York State Counties, this research finds support for Daly and Wilson (2001) with respect to homicide rates. But, contrary to predictions derived from the mate deprivation hypothesis" of rape income inequality is not a better predictor of rape rates than median income.

Contact information:
tgottschall@stlawu.edu
315-386-4024

14 Judson St
Canton, NY 13617

Cueing creativity for courtship: When mere romantic goals increase private creativity in males and females
*Poster session II

Some researchers (e.g., Miller, 2000) have proposed that some uniquely human traits, such as creativity, have evolved at least in part because of their adaptive function in courtship. In concert with this idea, the current experiment tested whether merely activating a romantic goal for males and females would change performance on a test of creativity--the Remote Associates Test (RAT). To activate a romantic goal, Ps imagined themselves either (1) going out on a 1st date with a potential L-T mate, (2) going out on a 5th date with a potential L-T mate after being assured of their trustworthiness, or (3) pursuing a S-T mating encounter. Compared to the control conditions, the 3 romantic primes produced a different pattern of results for males and females. For males, all 3 primes significantly increased creativity. However, females only increased when imagining a 5th date with a potential L-T mate who had shown an indication of being trustworthy; female creativity did not change when imagining a S-T romantic encounter or a 1st date with a nice guy. Additional testing also showed that the current pattern of results cannot be explained solely by changes in mood or arousal.

Contact information:
vladasg@asu.edu
623-748-4276

2433 W. Main St. #296
Mesa, AZ 85201

Fending Off Competition and Preventing Infidelity: A Proposed Experimental Study on Human Mate Guarding
*Poster session II

A key threat to an intimate relationship is infidelity. An important part of maintaining a relationship, therefore, is fending off intrasexual competition and preventing a partner's infidelity. Previous research indicates that jealousy can manifest in the form of mate guarding behaviors -- behaviors aimed at fending off rivals and preventing infidelity. Most research has analyzed mate guarding behaviors using survey measures, asking participants to report how often they or their partners perform mate guarding behaviors. Dijkstra and Buunk found that rivals with a low waist-to-hip (WHR) ratio evoked greater jealousy in women, and those with a high shoulder-to-hip ratio (SHR) evoked more jealousy in men when participants were asked to evaluate pictures of rivals. Although this methodology has proven useful, other methodologies might clarify some issues and contribute insight into human mate guarding. We present an experimental method to examine mate guarding that allows investigators to observe the mate guarding behaviors of participants in response to a rival with differing WHR and SHR.

Contact information:
fguta@fau.edu
954-984-4826

3565 W Atlantic Blvd
Pompano Beach, FL 33069

Ecological Release and the Flood of Enhanced Arousers: The Exodus, Religion, and Ascriptive Inequality
*Poster session I

In our evolutionary context of origin, there were selective advantages to adjusting preconscious emotion release rules to trigger the creation of certain kinds of enhanced arousers as a means to extend network size and reliability. Enhancements offer a special ratio of attractive contrasts to access costs. They piggyback on reward systems originally evolved for somewhat different types of arousers. As I have demonstrated elsewhere(2003,2004), the emergence of religion and ascriptive inequality is tied to this piggybacking. With the historical exodus from our context of origin, the demographic and technological contraints of that context were eroded. One consequence was a flood of enhanced arousers. These additions transformed religion and inequality, as well as other aspects of the social world. However, these transformations followed a pattern rooted in the original dynamics of preconscious emotion release rules. We are still feeling the effects of these dynamics in our contemporary world.

Contact information:
mikehammond@comcast.net
510-644-3727

2834 Russell Street
Berkeley, CA 94705

What predicts male commitment?
*Poster session II

In a sample of over 650 undergraduates, we examined the romantic and sexual factors that may influence commitment of males and females to the relationship. Although relationship length did not differ by gender, females reported that their relationships had progressed significantly farther than males. Males also rated their commitment to the relationship as significantly less than females. While almost all relationship factors (length, strength, seriousness) had a huge impact on female commitment, no relationship factors predicted male commitment. When the effect of the relationship on depression was examined, relationship factors negatively correlated with depression for females, while a few correlated positively with depression for males.

Contact information:
RBURCH@OSWEGO.EDU
315-312-3463

404 Marah Hall
SUNY Oswego
Oswego, NY 13126

Reactive Heritability among Trust and Personalities: Testing Evolutionary Psychological Hypotheses with Behavior Genetics Methodology
*Poster session I

From an evolutionary point of view, adaptively important traits would have small or zero heritability. However, personality, which seems to be important, is known to be heritable. Using twin data, we extend and test the reactive heritability hypothesis proposed by Tooby and Cosmides (1990) to explain the paradox. Yamagishi (1998) argued that one's default trust level towards others in general (general trust) should be dependent on his social environment and should not (and would not) be genetically influenced. We propose, however, that general trust should be tuned to one's genetic background, specifically one's personality, as well, and it makes general trust seemingly heritable. Data from 328 identical and 138 fraternal twin pairs supported our prediction; general trust was estimated to be 36% heritable. However, a multivariate genetic analysis among general trust and personality traits showed that all the genetic factors contributing to general trust were shared by other personality traits. This supports the idea that the heritability observed on general trust was reactive heritability from other personalities. We will discuss why humans have such relatively large genetic variation on personality traits.

Contact information:
kai@darwin.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
81-3-5454-6186

Komaba 3-8-1
Meguro
Tokyo
Japan

Predicting strategies of aggression in males and females using an evolutionary, domain-specific model of self-esteem
*Poster session II

The relationship between self-esteem (SE) and aggression has been a long-standing question in psychological research. Ambiguities in this area of research are likely due to the widespread assumption that SE is a global measure of self-evaluation In comparison, Kirkpatrick and Ellis (2001) have proposed an evolutionary theory of domain-specific SE that characterizes SE as a "socio-meter" designed by natural selection to monitor an individual's functioning in different domains of social life. Using this model, Kirkpatrick et al. (2004) showed that the relationship between aggression and SE depends upon the domain which is being assessed; in particular, self-perceived superiority predicted aggression positively whereas social inclusion predicted inversely. The present study was designed to replicate and extend this finding to another form of aggression. "Indirect" aggression is that which is delivered circuitously (versus "direct" which is delivered face-to-face) and typically includes behaviors such as social ostracism and malicious gossiping. Indirect aggression is predicted to be more common among females because it avoids the costs of physical aggression (e.g., bodily harm) while gaining the benefits of competition. Analyses are in progress.

Contact information:
crhodg@wm.edu
540-588-4639

116 Woods Drive
Williamsburg, VA 23185

The function of self-deception in conformists
*Poster session I

Self-deception is one of the most complex cognitive-behavioral mechanisms resulting from an interaction of individuals within a group. Previous studies of self-deception as an adaptive phenomenon (whether conducted from ultimate, evolutionary perspective or distal and proximate, psychological/psychiatric/social perspectives) gave inconsistent results. According to a social-brain hypothesis, the growth of social complexity influenced the evolution of more and more complex cognitive-behavioral patterns in social animals. Accordingly, anxiety, depression and self-deception should be a consequence of individuals' status within a group. The aim of this experiment was to test whether persons with discrepancy in their publicly vs. privately stated opinions differ from the rest of the population in levels of self-deception, anxiety and depression. The results show that a change in opinion which occurs after the group pressure has ceased is related to greater levels of self-deception as well as depression. Theoretical implications of results are discussed in terms of evolutionary adaptiveness of self-deception.

Contact information:
josip.hrgovic@pilar.hr
+ 385 1 4886 823

Marulicev trg 19/1
10000 Zagreb
385 Croatia

Jealousy and mate preferences in heterosexuals, bisexuals and homosexuals
*Poster session II

The aim of this study was to compare mate preferences and types of jealous reactions among groups of heterosexual (n=302), bisexual (n=183) and homosexual (n=133) participants. We examined the characteristics which usually show the greatest sex differences regarding their desirability in a potential mate and compared the ratings of their importance among those groups. ANOVA showed no differences between males of different sexual orientations, but there was a trend for females, with highest ratings for importance of partner's financial and social status among heterosexual, followed by bisexual and homosexual women. As for preferred age of a partner, MANOVA showed significant main effects of both age and sexual orientation in males, but only the significant effect of age in females. Contrary to some previous reports, we found no differences between males of different sexual orientations in the type of infidelity (emotional vs. sexual) they found more upsetting, but there were differences among females, with homosexual women having the highest rate of sexual jealousy responses, followed by bisexual and heterosexual women. These results suggest that men of different sexual orientations might not be so very different in their preferences, but that women are.

Contact information:
ivana.hromatko@ffzg.hr
385 1 6120193

Luciceva 3
10000 Zagreb
Croatia

General trust and social perception in Japan and the US
*Poster session I

General trust, which can be defined as the default expectation of benign or cooperative behavior based on the goodwill of the partner (Yamagishi & Yamagishi, 1994), plays a crucial role in mutually beneficial exchanges. They argued that high trusters are more sensitive than low trusters to information about a person's trustworthiness. I tested this possibility in Japan and the US. High and low trusters in both cultures were asked to read a description of six people who engaged in either pro-social or deviant behaviors. For each description, participants evaluated personality traits of the person, indicated to what extent dispositional features influenced the person's behavior, and inferred behavioral consistency of the person across situations. As predicted, regardless of cultures, the degree of inferences of personality traits was more extreme among high trusters than among low trusters. Moreover, high trusters showed more dispositional attribution, focused on traits, and expected consistency of their behaviors between situations. Implications for general trust and social perception are discussed.

Contact information:
ishii@let.hokudai.ac.jp
81-11-706-3057

Department of Behavioral Science
Hokkaido University
N10W7, Kita-ku
Sapporo 060-0810

Perceiving vertical environments and Evolved Fall Avoidance Theory
*Poster session I

The Vertical-horizontal illusion (VHI) is the tendency to perceive vertical distances as longer than equal horizontal distances. Contrary to current theories, I suggest a mechanism by which the VHI evolved: in response to costs from falling. Falling is costly, but vertical surfaces persisted over our evolution and offered benefits via successful navigation. Evolved Fall Avoidance Theory (EFAT) suggests the importance of such navigational pressures in shaping many perceptual mechanisms. One unique prediction derived from EFAT specific to the VHI suggests that vertical length should appear greater from the top of a vertical surface than the bottom. Descending more often results in falls and falls during descent are usually costlier than falls during ascent. Subjects changed the length of a vertical to appear equal to a fixed horizontal from the top and bottom of a 15.90 m vertical surface. Consistent with EFAT, subjects perceived greater vertical distance from the top of the vertical surface than from the bottom. Additional data and EFAT implications for perception and navigation will be discussed.

Contact information:
russelljackson@mail.utexas.edu
512-471-1406

UT Psychology
1 Univ Stn: A8000
Austin, TX 78712

Sex differences in Counterfactual Thinking: Romantic vs. Academic Regrets
*Poster session I

Counterfactual thinking refers to the contemplation of alternative outcomes to factual events. Often people consider how changed actions (their own or others') could have led to a better outcome. The prevalence of counterfactual thinking makes it a likely feature of our evolved psychology. Even so, there has been little, if any, evolutionary analysis applied to this area. There has also been limited examination of sex differences in counterfactuals. In our research we addressed both of these issues by comparing the content of men's and women's counterfactuals in two domains: academic achievements and love lives. Drawing on evolutionary theories, we expected that there would be sex differences in the latter, but not in the former domain. Participants were asked to generate regrets and alternative outcomes in the form of “if only…” and “then…” statements. Considering sex differences in reproductive strategies, we predicted women should have more regrets than men about wasted time and effort, and that men should have more regrets than women about missed opportunities. Content analyses supported these predictions, and also found no sex differences in the academic regrets.

Contact information:
janickim@douglas.bc.ca
604-527-5786

Dept. of Psychology
P. O. Box 2503
New Westminster, BC
V3L 5B3 Canada

Anthropocybernetic Models and Integrity of Anthropology
*Poster session I

Despite the popularity of the "holistic approach", what is conspicuously lacking in anthropology is a general theory applicable both to genetically and culturally transmitted traits. Some respectable attempts to meet this challenge are: Campbell's (1974), Cavalli-Sforza's and Feldman's (1981), Dawkins' (1982), Boyd's and Richerson's (1985), Durham's (1991), Sperber's (1996). In our contribution, we want to assess the usefulness of this general approach for the actual research practice. The model serving as our test case is one developed and applied as part of the research project "Population Structure of Croatia - Anthropocybernetic Models", carried out at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, Croatia (www.inantro.hr). The model gives interesting insights into the population dynamics (on the phenotypic level) and enables certain predictions. However, when it comes to the interpretation of the model, the researcher is left without the kind of theoretical guidance available in population genetics. We want to evaluate the prospects for making up for this deficit and draw some general conclusions touching on the issue of anthropology's methodological integrity.

Contact information:
janus@inantro.hr
38514816903

Amruseva 8/V
10000 Zagreb
Croatia

Overconfidence and War
*Poster session I

International conflict is often characterized by two opponents sharing the belief they will win. And usually, of course, one of them is wrong. This problem has been labelled the "War Puzzle" by political scientists -- states led by rational decision-makers should not fight because both sides can avoid the costs and risks of war by negotiating a pre-war bargain reflecting their relative power. Since wars do occur, it appears that states are overconfident about their relative power. A novel solution to the war puzzle is suggested to derive from "positive illusions": the phenomenon that people are prone to exaggerated ideas of their capabilities, their ability to control events, and the future. As Richard Wrangham originally argued (1999; Evolution and Human Behaviour 20: 3-17; see also 23: 245-264), positive illusions may have been favoured by natural selection throughout our evolutionary history because they improved (1) military effectiveness and (2) the ability to bluff an opponent. Today, however, positive illusions isolated from the battlefield can lead to military disasters and protracted wars that no one wanted.

Contact information:
dominic@princeton.edu
609-258-8858

Society of Fellows
Joseph Henry House
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544

Tools Don’t Make the Man
*Poster session I

The development of stone tool technology is often seen as reflecting increasing capacity in our genus. Although the complexity of lithic assemblages is broadly correlated with increasing brain size and archaeological density, this may not be a simple mirror of cognitive ability. The Tjimba of Northwestern Namibia used stone tools well into the 1970s, yet their lithic work was very uncomplicated by most any measure. Interviews indicate that they used minimal core preparation, little retouch, and apparently lacked an elaborate tool typology. An absence of evidence for ‘modern human’ capacity is not necessarily evidence of absence.

Contact information:
SJosephson@largebrainedhominid.org

University of Utah
Salt Lake City

Evolutionary motivations for the inclusion of organic form in architectural design
*Poster session I

Different psychological study fields suggest that evolution in a natural environment has gifted humans with a set of mental modules specialized in perceptual and conceptual information about natural things. Culturally, the existence of such a natural intelligence leads to a tendency to create cultural objects that answer the input-conditions of these modules. During the history of architectural design, this translated in the creation of designs that have remarkable formal similarities with natural elements. Yet, today nature is increasingly pushed back, which leads this natural intelligence to become underdeveloped. An important effect of this understimulation is that people become less interested in creating architectural designs that fulfil the input-conditions of these modules. It is argued that this trend can lead to three interrelated impoverishments. (1) A broad range of architectural formal grammars becomes neglected. (2) The emotional relation towards architectural design becomes poorer. (3) There is a shift towards a relative dominance of functional thinking. In this presentation it is argued that organic designs can provide a counterweight against these impoverishments.

Contact information:
Yannick.JOYE@telenet.be
32474749675

Ghent University

Male and Female Brain on Judgments and Cognitions
*Poster session I

The empathizing-systemizing theory (Baron-Cohen et al., 2003, 2004) argued that the female brain is hard-wired for empathizing, the drive to identify another person's emotions and thoughts, and the male brain is hard-wired for systemizing, the drive to analyze or construct systems. In this study, 471 Japanese undergraduates (247 males, 224 females) completed the S-EQ, which measured systemizing and empathizing, reasoning tasks (Tversky & Kahneman, 1982) and moral judgment tasks (Green et al., 2001). As was predicted, females scored significantly higher than males on the EQ, and significantly lower on the SQ. In reasoning and moral judgment tasks, high SQ scorers tended to make judgments which independent of pragmatic or affective contexts of the problems, while high EQ scorers tended to be influenced by these contexts. These results imply that empathizing and systemizing affect social judgments and cognitions.

Contact information:
chiki1209@yahoo.co.jp
81-3-5454-6266

Dept. of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Hasegawa Lab.
Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan

Media Richness vs. Media Naturalness: An Evolutionary View of E-Communication
*Poster session I

Among the theoretical hypotheses that have informed research on electronic commnicaiton (e-communication) is the media richness hypothesis -- perhaps the most influential hypothesis in e-communication research to date. It is argued in this presentation that the media richness hypothesis is not only wrong but also build on a theoretical "vacuum." This presentation will also discuss an alternative to the media richness hypothesis, referred to here as media naturalness hypothesis, which is developed based on a Darwinian view of behavior toward communication media. The media naturalness hypothesis argues that, other things being equal, a decrease in the degree of naturalness of a communication medium (or its degree of similarity to the face-to-face medium) leads to the following effects in connection with a communication interaction: (a) increased cognitive effort, (b) increased communication ambiguity, and (c) decreased physiological arousal.

Contact information:
nedkock@tamiu.edu
956-326-2521

5201 University Boulevard
Laredo, TX, 78041

Misperceptions of Romantic and Sexual Interest in Opposite-sex Friendships
*Poster session I

Research has long shown that males overperceive the sexual interest of others. Two competing explanations for these findings are the default-model hypothesis, which argues that people use their own desires to gauge the desires of others, and error management theory, which argues that misperceptions are predictable when costs of different types of errors were asymmetrical over evolutionary history (Haselton & Buss, 2000). Previous studies of misperception of sexual and romantic interest have used strangers as targets. The current project evaluated these cognitive biases in an ongoing relationship: opposite-sex friendship. Participants and their opposite-sex friends indicated their own sexual and romantic interest in the other, their perceptions of the other's romantic and sexual interest in them, and completed mate value measures. Data collection is ongoing. Initial results suggest a sex difference for the misperception of sexual, but not romantic, interest. No variables predicted misperception of other's romantic interest. Sex and one's sexual interest predicted misperception of other's sexual interest. Overall, both theories were partially supported.

Contact information:
blkoen@wm.edu
757-871-0114

1553 North Mount Vernon Avenue
Williamsburg, VA 23185

Parsing the Silverman & Eals task: Correlations with spatial orientation, navigation, and foraging-scale object location memory
*Poster session I

The division-of-labor hypothesis (Silverman & Eals 1992) predicts a female advantage on remembering the location of objects (S&E task). The mental processes that subserve S&E task performance are as yet unclear. We will better understand the architecture of spatial cognition when we know how particular tasks relate to more basic spatial competences, and intertask correlations provide one useful approach. We implemented an outdoor foraging-analogue task. S's were lead circuitously to 4 food items (tasted) and 4 non-food items (heard) and then asked to point to each from an obscured central location. Vector error on the pointing task was compared with performance on other spatial tasks: the S&E task, two paper-and-pencil spatial orientation tasks, and a small-scale blindfolded navigation task. S&E task performance was significantly positively correlated with both spatial orientation and spatial navigation measures. Moreover, S&E task performance was only correlated with accuracy of food-location memory and not with nonfood-location memory. This suggests that the processes underlying the S&E task may be designed for foraging, as predicted by division-of-labor hypothesis.

Contact information:
krasnow@psych.ucsb.edu
805-893-2791

Department of Psychology
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660

Male facial masculinity influences attributions of personality and reproductive strategy
*Poster session II

Two studies examine perceptions of masculinized and feminized male facial composites and uncover attributions that may underlie conditional female mating strategies. Study 1 indicated that perceptions of facial composites depend in part on the properties of the original composite image. Some masculinized faces were seen as more feminine than other facial composites that were feminized and vice versa. There was also considerable variation in the effect sizes of the differences between the masculinized and feminized versions of each facial composite in estimates of age, attractiveness, masculinity, and femininity. Study 2 indicated that both men and women made personality, behavioral, and mating strategy attributions consistent with predictions derived from the good genes and mating trade-off hypotheses. Participants predicted that a masculinized composite would be higher in mating effort and success, high-risk behaviors, and status competition; and that a feminized composite was more likely to have a strong work ethic, future-oriented time perspective, be higher in paternal investment, and make a better long-term relationship partner. Female and male participants showed preferences for composites in ways that would presumably benefit their own reproductive success.

Contact information:
kruger@umich.edu
734-936-4927

1420 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Cues to a Dating Partner's Level of Commitment
*Poster session II

An evolutionary psychological model of commitment in heterosexual dating relationships is proposed. Tracking dating partners' commitment intentions was an important adaptive problem because the following decisions hinged on such information: (1) how much to invest in the partner, (2) how much to anticipate receiving from the partner, and (3) whether to invest in other potential partners. To help solve these problems, humans are hypothesized to possess psychological adaptations designed to perceive certain classes of information as being diagnostic of dating partners' commitment intentions. Study 1 (N = 129) identified a large and diverse set of naturally occurring specific cues to dating partners' commitment intentions. In Study 2 (N = 251), participants rated how diagnostic each cue was of an imagined dating partner's interest in developing a committed and exclusive long-term romantic relationship with them. Discussion will focus on (1) cues the sexes found to be similarly and differentially diagnostic of dating partners' commitment intentions, (2) the general factor structure that might underlie the set of cues to commitment, and (3) the effect of mate value discrepancy between self and partner on cue diagnosticity.

Contact information:
kuhle@lvc.edu
717-867-6199

Department of Psychology
101 N. College Ave.
Annville, PA 17003

Predicting Physical and Psychological Abuse in Dating Couples: Global vs. Domain-Specific Self-Esteem
*Poster session II

Empirical research on the relationship between self-esteem and aggression has long yielded inconsistent or null results. However, recent research based on an evolutionary conceptualization of self-esteem as a collection of functionally distinct, domain-specific mechanisms (Kirkpatrick & Ellis, 2000) has shown that different domains of self-esteem are differentially predictive of aggression; for example, self-perceived superiority and social inclusion predict aggression in opposite directions, whereas global self-esteem is unrelated to aggression (Kirkpatrick, Waugh, Valencia, & Webster, 2000). The current study aims to similarly identify those domains of self-esteem that are predictive of physical and psychological aggression within romantic relationships. In data collection currently in progress, both members of dating couples are completing self-report and partner-report measures of self-esteem and aggression/abuse. Multiple regression analysis will be used to evaluate the differential predictive value of domain-specific versus global self-esteem measures.

Contact information:
jglapa@wm.edu
757-253-8494

101 Tilghman Ct
APT C
Williamsburg, VA 23188

Facial appearance signals reproductive hormone levels in adult females
*Poster session II

Although many accounts of facial attractiveness propose that femininity in adult female faces signals high levels of reproductive hormones there is little empirical evidence in support of this assumption. Here, we used urinary metabolites of oestrogen and progesterone assays to investigate the relationship between circulating gonadal hormones and ratings of the femininity, health and attractiveness of female faces. Positive correlations were observed between both oestrogen and progesterone, and ratings of femininity, apparent health and attractiveness. Using linear regression, both oestrogen and progesterone are shown to independently predict facial appearance. No associations were seen in females who were wearing makeup when photographed. There was no effect of sex of rater on the relationships among gonadal hormones and ratings of facial appearance. These findings demonstrate that female facial appearance holds detectable cues to reproductive health that are considered attractive by other people.

Contact information:
mjls@st-andrews.ac.uk
44 (0)1334 463 044

University of St Andrews
St Andrews
KY16 9JP

Common Ground for Spatial Cognition: Behavioral and Neural Perspectives
*Poster session I

We investigated behavioral and neural sex differences in spatial abilities. Experiment 1 shows a performance by sex advantage and Experiment 2, using fMRI shows unique neural activation for sex specific spatial cognitive processing. Activation in Left parahippocampal gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus appears to be important for spatial cognition in both males and females. Additionally, activation in the left parahippocampal gyrus positively correlates with performance on mental rotation tasks. Females use left inferior frontal for encoding and right inferior frontal for retrieving consistent with the commonly known HE/RA model. These data extends claims for sex-specific spatial cognitive abilities by demonstrating both behavioral and neural sex differences while also shedding light on common ground for sex-specific spatial tasks. This is consistent with an evolutionary model which suggests sexual selection favored substrates that enabled each sex to excel at different spatial tasks.

Contact information:
sll25@drexel.edu
609-230-8792

c/o Steven Platek, PhD
Psychology Department
3141 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Can we resist temptation? Game theory and sharing in university students
*Poster session I

Cooperative interactions between individuals can be understood using game theory. We proposed a dictator game using a double-blind situation (neither the experimenters nor the subjects knew what any individual was doing) to undergraduated students. The participants were divided in two groups: both had the opportunity to share 4 candy bars either before or after being the recipient of sharing. Before this test, they were invited to answer the question: if you had 4 candy bars, how would you share them? This question gave us the information about the intentions of donation. We observed that the intentions of donation showed a strong cooperative tendency. In the actual test, subjects were less cooperative. They shared fewer candy bars than they suggested in the intentions in both situations, specially when they were the recipient of an unfair sharing. Nevertheless, some individuals showed equal sharing in both situations. Our results are in accordance with similar studies, and suggest that cooperative tendencies decrease when our reputation is not at stake but also that our minds still tricks most of us into at least partially cooperating even when no one is acknowledging it.

Contact information:
fivialopes@yahoo.com.br
++ 55 84 215-3409

Departamento de Fisiologia
Caixa Postal 1511
59078-970
Natal RN BRAZIL

Good genes or an unmistakable man? Predictors of attractiveness as a function of partner-type and fertility level
*Poster session II

Research has found women's sexual preferences to vary with fertility-level, across the menstrual cycle, and with partner-type--short-term partner (STP) vs. long-term partner (LTP). This typically has been framed as an adaptive mechanism to obtain good genes. In the present study, women rated masculine men more attractive as a STP than a LTP, but there was no effect of fertility-level. Women showed a strong preference for men who looked healthier, but this preference did not vary with fertility-level or partner-type. Women in the high-fertility phase rating a STP compared with the three other conditions, preferred men who looked more dominant and less warm. However, the men preferred in this condition were lower in actual dominance. Women's preferences did not vary with men's actual health, or warmth. The effects of fertility-level and partner-type are discussed as attunements to discriminate men from women rather than to obtain good genes

Contact information:
vluevano@brandeis.edu
781-736-3278

415 South St.
MS 062
Waltham, MA 02454

Peer-to-peer file sharing as costly signaling
*Poster session I

Altruistic behavior in the form of asymmetrical resource exchange appears inconsistent with the theory of natural selection. A contemporary example of asymmetrical human reciprocity is peer-to-peer [P2P] file sharing. P2P networks such as Kazaa allow free downloading of music and other digital media from the computers of anonymous uploaders. Although there is little cost and great benefit to downloading, the reciprocal benefits to file-uploaders who risk prosecution and exposure to hackers are unclear. Recent research indicates that costly display theory can be a powerful tool for explicating incidents of non-kin altruism in human populations. A costly (honest) display provides information to an audience about a hidden quality in the displayer - such as the reliability of a potential ally or mate - and enhances the status of the signaler. We predict that uploading behavior is a costly signal that enhances peer status and test this hypothesis in an analysis of file sharing behavior in college undergraduates.

Contact information:
lyleh@scc.losrios.edu
916-203-2626

2610 G Street
Sacramento, Ca 95816

Etiological Factors in Children Diagnosed with Autism or Pervasive Developmental Disorder
*Poster session II

The purpose of the current study was to develop a predictive model of more frequently occurring pre and postnatal etiological factors in children diagnosed with autism. A survey of biological mothers of children diagnosed with autism or PDD and of children without developmental delays were matched on gender (n=134 males and 56 females) and age (M=6.54 years, SD=2.78 in autistic); (M=6.23 years, SD=2.90 in controls). The developmental survey asked several questions including, pregnancy food cravings and aversions, childhood ear infection, presence of tubes, vomiting and nausea patterns, and speech development. A logistic regression equation found that not vomiting in the first trimester, the mother having an infection while pregnant, and the child having over 7 ear infections, were significant predictors of whether a child was diagnosed with autism or not. Of mothers of autistic children, 40% vomited in the first trimester compared to 53% of the control mothers. The "embryo protection hypothesis" suggests that morning sickness has an evolutionary basis and protects the embryo from teratogens by causing pregnant women to purge (Profet, 1992).

Contact information:
amackewn@utm.edu
731-881-7370

Department of Psychology
325 Humanities Bldg
Martin, TN 38255

Female physical attractiveness, intrasexual competition, and disordered eating
*Poster session II

Theories of sexual selection suggest that women may compete with one another on the basis of physical attractiveness. Although much previous research indicates that in mating-related contexts emphasis is placed on female physical attractiveness, relatively few studies have explored the implications this emphasis may have for mental health. We present data suggesting that female vigilance to physically attractive intrasexual competitors may be linked to the development of eating disorders. A sample of undergraduate women performed a well-validated visual cueing task designed to assess biases in attention to a set of target faces, which varied in their sex and level of attractiveness. Women with relatively high levels of bulimia-related symptomatology tended to dwell on attractive female faces, but not other faces. Findings suggest a link between disordered eating and the perception of competitive threat in other attractive women.

Contact information:
maner@psy.fsu.edu
850-645-1409

Department of Psychology
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-1270

Semen displacement behaviors during extra pair copulations
*Poster session II

Previous research has shown that males perform more semen displacement behaviors (altering speed, depth and vigor of thrust) when separated from their partners or suspicious of partner fidelity. Although some have argued that the increased thrusting could be the result of anger at female infidelity, this would not be expected to be the case when a male willingly has intercourse with a woman in a relationship. We then examined changes in thrusting behaviors when the male knowingly has sex with a female who has a partner. When asked if they knowingly had sex with someone in a relationship, 20.4 percent of females reported they had, compared to 14.8 percent of men. When in this situation, males reported thrusting quicker, deeper and with more vigor. Males also reported an easier and more intense orgasm when having sex with someone in a relationship and attempting to prolong intercourse for as long as possible. Females did not.

Contact information:
RBURCH@OSWEGO.EDU
315-312-3463

404 Marah Hall
SUNY Oswego
Oswego, NY 13126

Linking Biobehavioral Research to Public Policy: Neurotoxins & Crime Prevention
*Poster session II

As research accumulates on the role of neurotransmitters in behavioral regulation and emotional self-control, it also becomes evident that some neurotoxins target specific neurotransmitter systems with major effects on behavior. Among the best known are lead and manganese (whose effects on dopamine are associated with learning deficits and violent crime). The policy implications of findings linking environmental toxins and behavior can include saving millions of dollars in public expenditures or becoming an "expert witness" whose testimony might influence legislation or court decisions. Such practical consequences should NEVER influence the content of our scientific research but they surely indicate its potential importance.

Contact information:
Roger.D.Masters@Dartmouth.edu
603-646-1029

Dept of Government HB 6108
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755

Olfactory Comfort and Attachment Styles
*Poster session II

This study examined the relations between olfactory comfort, number of photos on display in one's room, and attachment styles. We asked Pittsburgh students how frequently they smelled clothing of family members and lovers during periods of separation, how many photos of friends and family they had on display in their bedroom, and their attachment style. Frequency of smelling clothing correlated positively with number of photos. Smelling and photos correlated positively with Secure attachment, and negatively with Dismissive attachment. Patterns differed somewhat with sex. We asked Kassel students only about smelling of sexual partner's clothing and attachment style. Smelling correlated negatively with Dismissive attachment and positively with Preoccupied attachment. Women smelled clothing much more often than men in both samples, and had many more photos (Pgh subjects). We discuss reasons for the differences between sexes and between samples.

Contact information:
sasst89@pitt.edu
412-624-4332

3137 Sennott Square
210 South Bouquet
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Testing the Ritual Healing Theory: Human Evolution and the Origin of Religion
*Poster session II

The Ritual Healing Theory specifies that repetitive rituals based on dissociation provided survival advantages to those more responsive to suggestion. Due to their therapeutic effectiveness, ritual practices over many millennia shaped and selected for dissociative/hypnotic genotypes, creating modern propensities for trance, anomalous experience, and religiosity. As frequencies of dissociative genotypes increased, anomalous experiences (apparitions, extrasensory perceptions, out-of-body experiences, paranormal dreams) became more prevalent, generating beliefs in spirits, souls, life after death, and magical abilities. These beliefs provided ideological foundations for shamanism, humankind's first religious form. The ritual healing theory explains why shamanism emerged among all hunter-gatherer societies. At present, hypotheses derived from the theory have been tested through cross-cultural surveys, content analysis of folklore data, and field observation.

Contact information:
beinghere@hotmail.com
252-335-3422

Department of Social Sciences
1704 Weeksville Road
Elizabeth City, NC 27909

Memory for cheaters and cooperators in social contract situations
*Poster session I

Social contract theory (SCT) claims for social exchange to evolve, people must be good at identifying cheaters and exclude them from future exchange. We note it may be important for cooperators to be salient because people may want to approach them in future exchanges. We compared cheaters and cooperators to those opting out of exchange. In part 1, participants were given information about individuals from which they had to classify them as cooperators, cheaters, or opting out. It stated either that the person had accepted a benefit and paid a cost, accepted a benefit and not paid a cost, or they didn't enter into a social contract. After making a decision for a person, participants saw their picture. They pressed a button when they finished looking at it. In part 2, they had to identify those pictures and recall whether the person was a cheater, a cooperator, or opted out. Participants spent the same time viewing faces of cheaters and cooperators, and both were viewed longer than those who opted out. Cheaters and cooperators were also remembered equally, and both were better than those opting out. This suggests, counter to SCT, that cheaters and cooperators are equally salient.

Contact information:
dchiappe@csulb.edu
562-985-5024

Dept. of Psychology
1250 Bellflower Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90840

The conceptual basis of emotional responding
*Poster session I

In this study, 64 Female and 24 Male participants were asked to evaluate Prototypical Emotional Elicitors (visual scenes) for the Basic Emotions (Anger (A), Disgust (D), Fear (F), Happiness (H), Melancholy (M), and Surprise (S)) across four conditions. In the first condition (Oral) the task was to verbally recognize the emotion in the scene. In the second (Facial) the task was to match one of six faces expressing basic emotions with the scene. The third (Word) was to match one of six basic emotion words with the scene. The fourth (Word List) involved matching one of six groups of words (each group containing two emotional and two distracter words) with the scene. The results showed that recognition latency for all emotional categories differed significantly between all the four conditions (p < .01). Word produced the shortest latency of all the conditions. Females showed shorter latency for D (p < .01), M (p < .05) and H (p < .05) than males. The percentage of correct responses between all the four conditions differed significantly (p < .05) for all emotional categories except A and D which showed the same trend. Males gave higher percentages of correct responses for A (p < .05) and S (p < .05).

Contact information:
meenakp@tribe.ulm.edu
318-342-1345

Department of Psychology
University of Louisiana at Monroe
Monroe, LA 71209

Tests of the Evoutionary Theory of Sex Differences in Jealousy
*Poster session II

Buss et al. (1992) reported that males are more distressed by sexual infidelity by their mate as compared to and emotional attachment formed by their mate to another male (paternity uncertainty), but females are more distressed by an emotional attachment formed by their mate to another female than by sexual infidelity (loss of support). To test the evolutionary hypothesis of the origins of jealousy, subjects were asked to choose which was more distressing to them, a sexual or an emotional infidelity by their partner with another person. Moreover, the "other person" was either of the opposite sex or the same sex as the partner. The results of three surveys showed that males were more upset with sexual infidelity (60-75%), but females were more upset with emotional infidelity (70-80%) when opposite sex persons were involved. When the other person was the same sex as the subject's partner, males were indifferent about whether sexual or emotional infidelity was most upsetting, but females shifted strongly to being more upset by sexual infidelity (72-85%) unlike results reported in a similar experiment by Sagarin, et al (2003).

Contact information:
mellgren@uta.edu
817-272-2775

Department of Psychology
Box 19528
Arlington, TX 76019

Sex, Sex Orientation and Occupational Choice
*Poster session II

It is well known that men and women chose different occupations. A prenatal hormonal hypothesis suggests homosexual males would have more feminine occupational patterns than other males, and Lesbians would have more masculine patterns than other females. Using an unique data set collected by Lee Ellis and others and containing over 10,000 people, the nature of sex differences in occupational interests, and interests relevant to occupations are examined. Not only are there sex differences, but for occupations such as beautician, dress designer, high school coach, electrician, and auto mechanic that the occupational preferences of Lesbians and homosexual men are different from their heterosexual counterparts. Other personality traits and interests for Lesbians and homosexuals appear to differ from those of heterosexuals. Reading and sports interests differ with sex and sexual orientation. For instance Lesbians have more interest in sports and homosexuals less. These differences in interest begin in childhood with homosexuals recalling less masculine interests than heterosexuals. These observations are more easily explained by a biological theory than a socialization theory.

Contact information:
ed765@aol.com
504-283-3536

5412 Chatham Dr
New Orleans, LA 70122-2630

The Big 5 Pesonality Factors (and Facets) and Sex Differences in Relationship Distress
*Poster session I

Buss (1991) examined which personality traits of one relationship partner tended to cause the other partner distress. He found that some of the "Big 5" personality traits indeed correlated with specific types of relationship distress. Further, he found sex differences in which personality traits tended to cause specific types of relationship distress. Our study replicated his basic findings, and further found that some of the NEO "facet" scales of each of the big 5 factors correlate with certain types of relationship distress. We discuss these findings, and entertain some possible evolutionary hypotheses regarding the pattern of sex differences that were found.

Contact information:
memills@gmail.com
310-338-3018

Psychology Department
1 LMU Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90045

Intimate Partner Homicide Methods in Heterosexual and Homosexual Relationships
*Poster session II

From 1976 to 2001 over 50,000 people were victims of intimate partner lethal violence. Men are more aggressive than are women, and thus would be expected to murder more brutally. In a study of intimate partner homicides in Chicago, Block and Christakos (1995) found that the weapon used varied based on the offender's gender. The current study seeks to reexamine this finding using a national-level database. In addition, the effect of sexual orientation of the offender on brutality of killing will be examined. Relative to heterosexual partners, homosexual partners experience added stress due to a lack of social support of their relationships. It is hypothesized that the brutality of the murders will vary as a function of the offender's sexual orientation and gender. Four predictions were derived from this hypothesis. The percentage of killings coded as brutal will be higher for (1) homosexual relations relative to heterosexual relations, (2) men relative to women regardless of sexual orientation, (3) homosexual men relative to heterosexual men, and (4) homosexual women relative to heterosexual women.

Contact information:
krystalmize@bellsouth.net
954-942-8085

4415 NW 5th Ave
Pompano Beach, FL 33064

Post ejaculatory behavior
*Poster session II

In a sample of over 250 male and female undergraduates, we examined changes in behavior after orgasm/ejaculation. Both genders agreed that thrusting decreased in speed, depth, and vigor rapidly after ejaculation. We discovered that 72% of the male respondents and 87% of the females reported that thrusting became noticeably shallower and less intense following ejaculation. Both genders also agreed that the male lost his erection within 2 minutes after ejaculation and withdrew his penis within one minute. While both genders reported that thrusting stopped within a minute of ejaculation, females reported that thrusting stopped faster than males. Although females reported a little more male affection after ejaculation, males did not share this opinion. In terms of specific postcopulatory behaviors, males reported that they engaged in negative behaviors (got up and left, pushed their partners away, criticized their partners) more and positive behaviors (talked, kissed, touched, and cuddled their partners) less.

Contact information:
RBURCH@OSWEGO.EDU
315-312-3463

404 Marah Hall
SUNY Oswego
Oswego, NY 13126

Machiavellian intelligence - Which college student majors attract 'high machs'
*Poster session I

Machiavellianism theorizes that living in groups sets up an environment favoring the use of social manipulation for personal gain, often against the self interest of others. Also, evolutionary game theory suggests social manipulation is adaptive in some situations but maladaptive in others. Machiavellianism can be measured as a quantitative trait using the Mach V questionnaire developed by R. Christie and F. Geis. We showed previously that there are differences in the degree of "Machiavellianism" across an organization. Recently, we hypothesized that this test score will vary significantly among college student by major. Data from an academic setting will be presented.

Contact information:
marilee-monnot@ouhsc.edu
405-271-4113

711 S.L. Young Blvd.
Suite 215
Dept. of Neurology
Oklahoma City, OK 73104

Disentangling ethnic and coalitional psychology
*Poster session I

Despite a recent surge in evolutionary approaches to social group categorization, it remains unclear whether different selective pressures have acted on human cognition to produce separate mechanisms for categorizing ethnic and coalitional groups. Although ethnic groups often serve as sources of coalitional support during conflict, membership in an ethnic group -- unlike coalition membership -- is seldom treated as contingent on an individual's cooperation. Detecting co-ethnics may have lowered coordination costs for both actors, whereas there would have been incentive to cheat and detect cheaters in a coalition. This project explores whether human evolved psychology distinguishes between such social groups. Following previous work on the subject, the "who-said-what" paradigm was used to measure the degree to which subjects encoded groups with coalitional and ethnic features. Results will be presented regarding the cues to group membership that subjects encode, and individual differences in performance on the task.

Contact information:
cmoya@ucla.edu
310-267-8475

UCLA, Anthropology Dept.
341 Haines Hall - Box 951553
375 Portola Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553

Different for Goils: an agent based model of parental investment and sexual motivation
*Poster session II

Differential parental investment predicts that human females benefit more by being choosy about their sex partners than do human males. In parallel, female sexual response appears to be more contingent, more plastic, and have higher thresholds for arousal than male sexual response. It seems plausible that female sexual response would have evolved to have higher thresholds than male sexual response, due to the enormous cost of motherhood balanced against the pleasure reward associated with sex. To begin exploring a possible connection between these two concepts, I present a simple agent-based model of "goils" and "bois," agents with sexual motivation differentially "gendered" in accordance with the predictions of differential parental investment and with empirical research on gender differences in sexual inhibition and excitation. Agents are sexually proceptive and receptive according to their arousal thresholds. What happens when different sexual motivation profiles interact?

Contact information:
enagoski@indiana.edu
812-339-6689

801 East 7th Street
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405

The effect of urbanization on patterns of child productive labor and educational investment among Indo-Fijians
*Poster session II

With rapid urbanization and migration, shifts in mode of subsistence and the value of wage-labor jobs can be dramatic. Internal migration from rural areas among Indians in Fiji has included both transitions into urban poverty and urban economic success. Changing work patterns for children often accompany these shifts. Parental investment decisions guide the actions parents take regarding the labor expenditures of their children and are shaped by the ecological contexts in which they occur. It is proposed that differing ecological conditions (rural vs. urban; poor urban vs. wealthy urban) will stimulate differential investment in children that results in different patterns of child productive labor. Using a framework of Kaplan's embodied capital theory, focal follow data on daily activities of 80 Indo-Fijian children, ages 7-16 years, along with other variables (parents' education and occupation, parents' occupational goals for children, children's educational performance and time commitments, household income, family size) are used to examine patterns of child productive labor within the context of educational investment in each ecological setting.

Contact information:
dneill@u.washington.edu
206-545-2975

Department of Anthropology
Box 353100
Seattle, WA 98195-3100

A Self-Soothing Theory of Substance Abuse and Addiction
*Poster session II

A new theory of substance abuse is advanced based on developmental neuroethology. It proposes that drug abuse is a maladaptive form of self-soothing, or behavior that in infancy -- such as self-touching and looking-away/distraction -- facilitates transitions in psychobiological states (e.g., waking-up, surprise, maternal separation); it is a precursor of emotional self-regulation and social attachments. Therefore people abuse drugs to facilitate or "soothe" state transitions and those at high genetic/environmental risk exhibit problematic state transitions. Drug states and craving falsely signal increased Darwinian fitness (Nesse & Berridge, 1997; Newlin, 2002). Thus, drugs facilitate/soothe because they pre-empt (displace) aversive states and synergize with positive states -- e.g., alcohol's stress dampening effects and nicotine's relaxing/alerting functions (Gilbert, 1979); inhibition of sedative drug effects by conditioned responses (CRs), and synergism of stimulant drug effects with CRs, producing drug tolerance and sensitization, respectively.

Contact information:
dnewlin@rti.org
443-812-5731

6801 Eastern Ave. #203
Baltimore, MD 21224

Hormonal bases of trait aggression, anger and BIS/BAS sensitivity among men
*Poster session II

Though hormonal bases of trait aggression and anger have been much investigated, previous studies have not examined those of BIS/BAS orientation (the sensitivity to punishment/reward). We examined the relationships of salivary testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) levels with these behavioral traits. Participants were Japanese male students (18-35yrs, n=87). Saliva samples were taken twice a day (7:00-8:30, 20:00-22:00). Hormones were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Traits were assessed by self-report measures: BIS/BAS Scale (White & Carver, 1994), Aggression Questionnaire (AQ; Buss and Perry, 1992), Trait Anger Scale and Anger Expression Scale (Spielberger, 1988). As a result, several AQ subscales had significant positive correlations with C levels. As for T levels, no scales showed any significant associations. The findings suggest that interpersonal variations in basal C levels reflected trait aggression more directly than T levels. Furthermore, BIS scale and AQ subscales had significant positive relationships. These results suggest the possibility that men who are sensitive to punishment signals have stronger tendencies toward aggression.

Contact information:
fluff0413@yahoo.co.jp
81-3-5454-6260

105B Building 2
3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku
Tokyo 153-8902, JAPAN

Social categorization: Kinship as another primitive dimension encoded by the psychological architecture
*Poster session I

Evolution has shaped systems for categorization to take advantage of regularities that impacted survival and reproduction. Within the social domain, research has found primitive dimensions along which we automatically categorize others: sex, age, and coalition. Inclusion in a particular category would have been vital in generating adaptively meaningful inferences (e.g., is someone a potential mate or competitor for mates?). Another important dimension under ancestral conditions was kinship. Knowing who formed kin groups would have enabled important sets of inferences (e.g., who is likely to come to the aid of another? who is likely to avoid another as a mate?). To determine whether kinship is a separate primitive dimension, a study was designed employing the memory confusion paradigm. Conditions were run crossing kinship with sex, age, and coalition. Results indicate that kinship is indeed a unique, primitive dimension automatically encoded by the psychological architecture.

Contact information:
oum@hawaii.edu
808-956-3265

2430 Campus Rd
Department of Psychology
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, HI 96822

Gender differences in jealousy: The impact of social influence variables
*Poster session II

The majority of past research on gender differences in jealousy has involved the presentation of a scenario that implies some type of infidelity has occurred. Participants are then asked to indicate which aspect of the infidelity is most upsetting to them. The present study attempted to determine if experimental manipulation of classic social influence variables (audience gender and privacy) would affect participants' responses. It was hypothesized that if these choices were shaped by our evolutionary past, social influence would have no effect. Participants were told their responses would be given to a new men's or women's health magazine and were told either to sign their names to their responses or to not include any identifying information. Results show a main effect for participant gender but not for audience gender or privacy condition. This study found support for evolutionary theory as only gender seemed to influence participants' choices.

Contact information:
mrparkhill@wayne.edu
313-577-0676

2141 Garfield
Ferndale, MI 48220

Effect of partner age on sexual versus emotional jealousy
*Poster session I

Participants (n=107) completed a forced choice query as well as continual choice measurements for sexual and emotional jealousy scenarios. Age of participants ranged from 18-52 (mean = 19, SD = 3.3). Using continuous choice measures of sexual versus emotional jealousy, it was found that partner's age (mean = 20, SD = 4.4) predicted emotional intensity in response to both imagined emotional and imagined sexual infidelity. Additionally, while the age of the participant best predicted intensity of "angry" responses; partner's age was the best predictor of how intense feelings of hurt would be. The pattern for males and females differed. For males, the effect of partner's age (signaling fertility) was a significant predictor of how hurt one would be about sexual infidelity: the older the partner, the more hurt one would be. The participant's own age was not related. The forced choice response of males was also influenced by partner's age, but again there was no trend for the participant's age to relate. For females, neither age of participant nor age of partner predicted the forced choice responses. These results support evolutionary predictions that female age is an honest clue to fertility, and thus would predict males' jealousy responses.

Contact information:
cathy.desoto@uni.edu
319-273-7475

Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0505

MazeMaker Suite: A new tool for investigating navigational and spatial abilities.
*Poster session I

Studies in spatial and navigational processing have demonstrated the presence of reliable sex differences across several functional domains. Studying the relationship between spatial abilities and navigational abilities in an ecologically valid way can be difficult. There are several implementations of 3-D virtual maze programs, but these are often expensive and difficult to use. Our laboratory has developed the MazeMaker Suite, a program that allows users to create 3-D virtual mazes. Mazemaker comes standard with 3 modules: MazeMaker, MazeWalker, and MazeWatcher. MazeMaker is the core program that allows users to create customized mazes. MazeWalker runs the maze for the subject/patient. MazeWatcher is an interface program that allows researchers to watch a recreation of a subject's path in a specific maze after completion the maze. This allows analysis of time spent in area, time to completion, and number of errors. This program was developed in hopes of providing an easy-to-use means with which scientists can develop ecologically valid environments for study in the laboratory. Copies of MazeMaker will be made available for trial use.

Contact information:
shilpa.patel@drexel.edu
856-534-4870

3141 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
c/o Steven Platek

Female-biased sex ratio during war: a test of Trivers-Willard hypothesis
*Poster session II

Trivers-Willard hypothesis states that the natural selection will favor female-biased sex ratio if parental condition is poor. In our study, we assumed that the war can induce such condition in humans i.e. the lack of food and medical care, the constant stress etc. can bias sex ratio at birth according to the TW hypothesis. We tested the hypothesis using the sex ratio at birth, sex ratio of still-born children and the number of miscarriages during the Croatian Homeland war years (1991., 1992.), and during the war exodus of the population of Bosnia and Hercegovina to Croatia (1994., 1995.) We found no difference in sex ratio of those years compared to pre-war and post-war years. We conclude that either war does not induce differences in sex ratio, or the whole population of Croatia is not suitable for testing TW hypothesis due to a different exposure of the population to the war threats.

Contact information:
dpavic@hrstud.hr
+385 1 611 79 62

Hrvatski studiji-Croatian Studies
Ulica grada Vukovara 68
HR-10000
Zagreb, Croatia

Cognitive Behavioral Therapies and Evolutionary Psychology: How EP informs and abets CBT
*Poster session II

One goal of psychotherapy is to help people understand why they have such powerful emotions and what these emotions were designed to accomplish. A basic tenet of CBT is that rigid thinking styles and demanding philosophies cause emotional disturbance. Rigidity may be an adaptation. The CBT technique of disputing "disturbance-creating ideas" can be enhanced when aligned with the insights of EP. For example, the CBT culprit "absolutist thinking" may be the result of finely tuned strategies solving problems of commitment, sexual success, dominance, and status. A client who understands these deeply held strategies is better able to properly frame problems. In this way, a paradigm emerges for empirical testing of therapeutic techniques. Several notions have helped my clients understand the nature of "disturbance." They include discussions of human adaptation to likely ancestral environments, commitment theory, natural and sexual selection, the handicap principle, and social exchange, among others. Conversely, academic researchers may misunderstand some aspects of CBT. Techniques for dealing with relationships, jealousy, anger, dieting, addiction, anxiety and depression are discussed. The naturalistic and the moralistic fallacy are discussed.

Contact information:
npelusi@mac.com
718-852-1961

245 Henry Street
Apt 3H
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Romantic Rejection: Adaptive Problems and Strategic Solutions
*Poster session II

Romantic relationship termination, or "breaking up," inflicts costs on both the person ending the relationship, and the one who is being rejected. We hypothesized that men and women differ in their experiences of costs associated with breakups. Based on an evolutionary analysis of costs and benefits and sex-linked traits, we generated 15 hypotheses and 73 predictions about the prevalence and experienced costliness of adaptive problems and strategies associated with breaking up. For example, we hypothesized that loss of sexual access would be experienced as more costly by males than females, and that loss of protection would be experienced as more costly by females than males. Other predictions were based on the difference in experienced costliness of adaptive problems between the partner who was rejected and the partner who does the rejecting (e.g. reputational damage). Participants rated the prevalence and magnitude of numerous costs they actually experienced as a consequence of a past breakup and also reported how they solved those adaptive problems. We present empirical tests of the hypotheses and a discussion of the evolutionary psychology of breaking up.

Contact information:
perilloux@mail.utexas.edu
512-965-1181

The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station A8000
Austin, TX 78712

What's sociosexuality got to do with it? Further tests of male sociosexuality and preferences for female FA and WHR.
*Poster session II

Two components of female attractiveness, fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), are alleged to represent genetic quality and fertility, respectively. Individual differences in male mating strategy, as measured by sociosexuality and parental investment attitudes, are predicted to correlate with differential valuation of female FA and WHR. The relationships among sociosexuality and parental investment, measured by three indices (Sociosexuality, Parental Investment, "Caditude"), and male preferences for females who varied in FA and WHR were examined in three studies in which participants (total n = 273) completed sociosexuality questionnaires and rated visual stimuli of women who varied in FA, WHR, and condition-dependent cues (manipulated by head cropping). A mixed pattern of results suggests that symmetry is a correlate of other condition-dependent cues. Two related analyses are presented: (1) The assumption that FA and WHR are dissociable physical traits was tested in a sample of 63 women's images. (2) A correlational test of a subjective measure of FA versus an objective measure of FA was performed by having subjects rate similarity between left- and right-mirrored chimera pairs, the original of which had been measured for FA by the method above.

Contact information:
helen@clairvoyancecorp.com
412-441-4088

5001 Baum Blvd
Suite 700
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Why does the savant syndrome not spread in the population? A developmental constraint in a psychological context
*Poster session II

The fact that we have five fingers per hand, and not more, is remarkable. Extra fingers can be advantageous for climbing, swimming or digging. To explain the absence of more fingers, we need the concept of developmental constraint (a limitation on phenotypic variability caused by the structure or dynamics of the developmental system). A developmental constraint prevents the evolution of extra fingers, because a mutation causing extra fingers also affects other phenotypic traits. These so-called pleiotropic effects usually have deleterious effects, e.g., Down syndrome. This is why having extra fingers is (indirectly) selected against. We show evidence, based on a literature study, for the existence of a developmental constraint in a psychological context. Why would the savant syndrome, characterized by highly developed abilities such as mechanical and spatial skills, which are advantageous for the individual, not be naturally selected? A developmental constraint prevents the evolution of the savant syndrome, because a mutation causing the advantageous abilities also has deleterious effects, e.g., autism. The negative pleiotropic effects serve as a developmental constraint that prevents the positive aspects of the savant syndrome to spread in the population.

Contact information:
a.ploeger@uva.nl
31-20-5256909

Roetersstraat 15
1018 WB Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Costly Signaling Theory and the Ritual Communication of Trust during Newfoundland Mumming
*Poster session I

Cooperative relationships require trust. Hence, natural selection may favor actions that communicate both trust and trustworthiness. One way to identify trustworthy individuals is to identify those who are willing to participate in rituals that require sacrifice. Such rituals can serve as costly, hard to fake signals of commitment to cooperative relationships. We suggest that some rituals promote trust even more directly by requiring a specific type of risk: the risk of harm at the hands of other participants. Individuals who take this risk do not merely claim to trust other participants, they actively demonstrate their trust. Conversely, individuals who restrain themselves from inflicting harm on other participants do not merely proclaim their trustworthiness, they actively demonstrate their trustworthiness. We illustrate this version of costly signaling theory with the example of the ritual of mumming in Newfoundland fishing villages.

Contact information:
cnp304@mizzou.edu
573-442-3506

16 East Stewart Road
Apartment 4
Columbia, MO 65203

Responses to Sexual and Emotional Infidelity: Why Men Go One Way and Women Go Both

It is now well documented that men focus upon sexual infidelity and women focus upon emotional infidelity. These results are usually found with forced choice (FC) methodology. Other reports suggest that women and men focus equally upon sexual infidelity, and that both find this more disturbing than emotional infidelity. These results are typically found with Likert scales (Ls). We wished to establish if these contradictory results were artefacts, or indicated the inadequacy of an evolutionary model. We sampled 748 subjects across a broad age range, using both FC and Ls formats. Both sets of data supported previous results. FC data supported sex-differences in results, while Ls data showed no sex-difference. We undertook a factor analysis to understand how the same subjects could respond so differently to the same problem. Two factors were apparent in the data with Ls data loading exclusively to one factor, and the FC responses loading clearly upon another.

Contact information:
stokes@deakin.edu.au
61-3-9244-6865

School of Psychology
Deakin University
221 Burwood Highway
Burwood, VIC, 3125 Australia

SHARE: An agent-based model of Plio-Pleistocene hominin food sharing
*Poster session I

SHARE explores the dynamics of a unique formal model that treats fragmented patches of closed habitat as loci of hominin social evolution and investigates altruistic food sharing from a multilevel selection perspective. Population-genetic data collected from artificial societies of hominin foragers in a range of ecological settings demonstrate that specific levels of patchiness facilitate the evolution of food sharing traits due to the fitness benefits they bestow upon subsistence-related trait groups. Two relatively simple food sharing behaviors evolve to fixation in a "transitional" range of ecological patchiness. The evolution of a culturally-sophisticated sharing behavior that involves initial recognition/gossip is less constrained by ecological patchiness. These results begin to elucidate the relationship between two important variables in the hominin food sharing equation: Plio-Pleistocene patchiness and the social savvy of early food sharing strategies.

Contact information:
lpremo@email.arizona.edu
520-882-2104

18 E. University Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85705

Mating Context Affects Women's Preferences for Male Voice Pitch during the Fertile Menstrual Phase
*Poster session II

Several studies have shown that women prefer more masculine traits, such as faces and odors, in short-term mating contexts and during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. One previous study has examined menstrual phase and mating context effects on women's preferences for men's voices. In the present study, we used a within-subjects design to extend previous findings that women's preferences for male voice pitch depend on mating context and menstrual phase. Sixty normally-cycling heterosexual females attended separate rating sessions during a four-day high fertility window and during a five-day low fertility window in their menstrual cycles. Subjects heard recordings of men's voices and, for each voice, chose the most attractive for both short-term and long-term mating contexts among eight recordings differing only in pitch. Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of mating context (women preferred lower voice pitches in short-term contexts) and a marginally significant interaction between mating context and menstrual phase. Specifically, mating context significantly affected women's preferences for male voice pitch only during the fertile menstrual phase.

Contact information:
putz@msu.edu
517-896-9017

Neuroscience Program
108 Giltner Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824

On the Effects of Reading Erotic Literature: Manipulation of Men's and Women's Emotional and Sexual Relationship Satisfaction
*Poster session I

Research on contrast effects has documented various intriguing findings. Exposure to centerfolds, for example, has been shown to lower men's attraction to their partner. Evolutionary logic suggests that stimuli that highlight another couple's emotional connection may be detrimental to women's perceptions of their mateship. As part of this study, men and women read one of two literature excerpts detailing a sexual encounter between a committed couple. One excerpt depicted a high degree of sexual novelty in the relationship, and the other a high degree of emotional intimacy. We thus tested the hypothesis that men's sexual relationship satisfaction is more influenced than is women's by stimuli that highlight sexual novelty, and the hypothesis that women's emotional relationship satisfaction is more influenced by stimuli that emphasize emotional intimacy. Our results implicate a need for research on the effects of media consumption on people's relationship commitment and satisfaction.

Contact information:
bleskeal@uwec.edu
715-836-4641

Dept of Psychology
105 Garfield Ave
Eau Claire, WI 54701

Activation of Self-Protection Motivation Selectively Increases Perceptions of Anger in Outgroup Targets
*Poster session I

This study examined how fundamental social motives lead perceivers to attribute emotions to others in evolutionarily adaptive ways. Attributed emotions need not be the same as the emotions the perceiver is experiencing. For example, people experiencing fear -- a self-protective state -- should be particularly attuned to features of the environment that represent possible dangers. Members of a threatening outgroup are one such potential danger and individuals should be attentive to when they might pose an actual danger. By adopting a liberal criterion for perceiving anger -- an emotion associated with physical threat -- in the faces of outgroup members, one can take steps to avoid coming to harm. Consistent with this, we found previously that participants primed for self-protection were more likely to attribute anger to faces of male members of a threatening outgroup than control participants. This research extended previous findings by including an implicit measure of participants' outgroup-threat associations. Results indicated that participants with high implicit outgroup-threat associations were more likely to attribute anger to outgroup faces when primed with a self-protective goal.

Contact information:
robertson@psych.ucsb.edu
805-455-6586

Department of Psychology
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660

Second to Fourth Digit Ratio and Dominance in Women
*Poster session II

Hormone levels during embryogenesis can affect secondary sexual characteristics, including behavior. 2nd to 4th digit ratio (2D:4D) is indicative of hormone levels during such development, and has been linked to personality characteristics such as assertiveness and aggression. The present study was designed to assess the relationship between fetal testosterone levels and dominance in women. 100 undergraduate students will complete the Dominance and Submissiveness Acts Reports, the Trait Dominance-Submissiveness Test, and 2 additional questionnaires to measure masculinity/femininity. Correlational analyses will be used to assess the relationship between 2D:4D ratio, dominance, and masculinity. 2D:4D ratios are expected to be negatively correlated with both dominance and masculinity.

Contact information:
ar47421@appstate.edu
828-773-4971

ASU Box 9569
Boone, NC 28608

Hot or Not? And why it matters to jealousy
*Poster session I

It has been hypothesized that self-esteem has evolved as a means to assess your own value as a long term mate and to evaluate reproductive risks imposed by one's partner. It would be reasonable to expect an individual with a higher self-esteem to perceive their self as having high mate value. Previous research has shown that males are primarily interested in attractiveness when choosing a mate whereas females value male status. Jealousy may serve as a defense mechanism to keep couples together. The purpose of this study was to investigate how one's self-perceived attractiveness as well as the assessment of one's partner's attractiveness as a mate would correlate with ratings of jealousy. Because males value physical attractiveness more than females, male's perception of their mates correlated positively with their level of jealousy; i.e. as the more a male rated his mate as attractive the more jealous he rated himself. On the other hand, females' level of jealousy correlated negatively with their perception of their own attractiveness, suggesting perhaps that highly attractive females do not feel the same pressures to obtain and maintain mates.

Contact information:
klr36@drexel.edu
267-240-1835

1529 Porter St. #2
Philadelphia, PA 19145

Relationship satisfaction and representations of partner's facial attractiveness
*Poster session II

The majority of people successfully manage to maintain satisfying relationships in which to successfully raise offspring. Although there has been considerable research into factors that may encourage individuals to look outside the pair-bond for extra-pair or short-term partners, there is perhaps less research into the mechanisms that keep people together in successful relationships. Here, we investigated individuals’ representations of their partners’ facial attractiveness. Fifteen couples were recruited, completed measures assessing their satisfaction with their relationship and their attitude towards their partner (e.g. Murray, Holmes & Griffin’s (1996) Positive Illusions Measure), and were photographed. Photographs of each individual were manipulated using established computer graphic techniques to increase or decrease facial attractiveness.  Participants were then asked to select the veridical image of their partner from a selection of seven images (three less attractive than the original, the veridical image, and three more attractive than the original). Individuals who rated their relationships as highly satisfying selected images of their partners that had been made artificially more attractive as being the veridical images. Individuals dissatisfied with their relationship did not show this bias. Implications of these findings for the maintenance of relationships are discussed.

Contact information:
I.S.Penton-Voak@bristol.ac.uk

Department of Experimental Psychology
University of Bristol
BS8 1TN
UK

Biology as the Primary Paradigm
*Poster session I

Biology rather than physics will become the primary paradigm of the next century. This is in part due to the genome project and the influence it will have on the direction of scientific research. It will also, however, be a result of a much broader understanding of co-evolution and our interaction with the world in which we live. It will be driven by very practical or pragmatic issues concerning life on earth and our need to live in what in many ways is becoming a global community. Biology will not become the new paradigm, however, until it develops a methodology and a multidimensional understanding of human nature that is broad enough to include not only the life sciences, but also the other basic sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities.

Contact information:
jrutherfordmd@hotmail.com
614-221-1259

285 E. State Street #610
Columbus, Ohio 43215

A Framework of Analysis for Moral and Political Philosophy
*Poster session I

A major theme of this essay is that most of philosophy in the past 100 years has been like the blind men describing the elephant -- each perspective gives a reasonable description of a particular part, but none gives a coherent view of the "elephant." This essay presents a very useful way of describing the "elephant" and in doing so it brings some coherence to moral and political philosophy. A four-part framework, which encompasses the individual, social, natural, and metaphysical perspectives, is apparent in the evolutionary development of the brain (MacLean and Eccles) and the similar progressive development of our mental capacities through experience(Piaget and Kohlberg).

Contact information:
jrutherfordmd@hotmail.com
614-221-1259

285 E. State St. #610
Columbus, Ohio 43215

Sex-Specific Triggers of Envy: An Evolutionary Perspective
*Poster session I

In the same manner that sexual jealousy appears to be differentially triggered by sex-specific threats (emotional versus sexual infidelity, cf. Buss et al. 1992), we reasoned that many triggers of envy should also be domain-specific in their instantiations. We administered a survey (157 males; 68 females) consisting of both domain-specific items gauging the envy that would be felt towards a same-sex peer (e.g., their status, physical attractiveness, or sexual desirability, etc.), and domain-general items (e.g., dispositional envy, personality traits). While more than half of the domain-specific items yielded a sex effect, many of which were congruent with evolutionary-based predictions, very few domain-general items yielded a difference (e.g., no sex differences on any of the eight items of the dispositional envy scale). This provides strong preliminary support that envy yields sex-based differences congruent with a domain-specific calculus. In future research we hope to extend the current work to the consumption domain. Specifically, social comparison processes in the consumption domain are likely driven in part by feelings of envy, as triggered by domain-specific reasoning.

Contact information:
gadsaad@jmsb.concordia.ca
514-848-2424 x2900

John Molson School of Business
Montreal, QC, Canada
H3G 1M8

Quantifying the consilience of disciplines via scientometric techniques: An analysis of the intellectual structures of evolutionary psychology and consumer behavior
*Poster session I

Sociologists of science have provided several distinct reasons to explain the differential influence and prestige of the natural sciences as compared to that of the social sciences (see Saad, 2005 for a summary). Recently, Wilson (1998) has argued that Darwinian theory is the meta-framework that can yield consilience across a wide range of human endeavors (e.g., bridging the schism between the natural and social sciences). In the current work, we apply scientometric techniques to gauge the intellectual structure of two fields varying in their level of within-discipline consilience. While evolutionary psychology is rooted in a highly codified and consilient meta-framework, consumer behavior consists of disjointed, confused, and contradictory theoretical bases. Thus, the current work attempts to apply a quantitative approach (scientometrics) to gauge the epistemological status of disciplines (e.g., consilience).

Contact information:
gadsaad@jmsb.concordia.ca
514-848-2424 x2900

John Molson School of Business
1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd.
Montreal, QC, CANADA
H3G 1M8

Behavioral traits and sleeping hours as well as relationship status affect evening testosterone levels
*Poster session II

It has been reported that salivary testosterone levels of men in committed relationships ("paired" men) had lower testosterone (T) levels especially in evening samples. We investigated relative strength of relationship status, behavioral traits associated with reproductive strategy, and daily rhythm affecting evening T levels. Saliva samples were collected from Japanese university students (18-35 yrs, n = 87) two times a day (7:00-8:30, 20:00-22:00). Participants self-reported their relationship status, behavioral traits (Self-Monitoring: SM, associated with unrestricted sociosexuality; Type A personality), regularity of daily life rhythm, and sleeping hours in the night before sample collection. Paired men had lower salivary T levels only in evening samples (t(80) = -1.70, p = 0.09). Some subscales of SM and Type A were lower among paired men. Lower SM and Type A scores associated with the sharper T decrease during the day. GLM analyses revealed that relationship status associated with evening T levels and behavioral trait scores with diurnal T fluctuation respectively. However, the effect of sleeping hours was superior to these independent variables, though regularity of daily rhythm did not affect the variables.

Contact information:
ksakaguti@bird.zero.ad.jp
81 -3 -5454 -6260

3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku
Tokyo 153-8902
JAPAN

The Effects of Sexualized Images and Stress on Body Image and Dieting: An Evolutionary Perspective
*Poster session II

Research has shown that, since reproduction is costly for female mammals, those facing social or ecological conditions unfavorable for reproduction can sometimes increase her fitness by delaying reproduction until the situation improves. One way to do this is by adjusting body fat to alter the probability of conception. The reproductive suppression hypothesis suggests that the widespread desire for thinness among women and the resultant dieting undertaken to achieve it are the result of the activation of such a mechanism to temporarily delay reproduction in the face of cues indicating a poor environment for reproduction. In this study, the impact of sexualized images of women in the media and female-female competition on the inclination to diet were measured via the EDI (Eating Disorders Inventory). The attractiveness of the images had a greater impact on the EDI scores than the degree of sexualization.

Contact information:
catherine_salmon@redlands.edu
909-793-2121 x3868

Psychology Department
University of Redlands
1200 E. Colton Ave
Redlands, CA 92373

IQ and the Wealth of Nations: A Reanalysis of Lynn and Vanhanen's Data
*Poster session I

In their book IQ AND THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, Lynn and Vanhanen show very high correlations between IQ and economic development in the world's societies between 1820 and 1992. They claim that IQ and, secondarily, markets, are the most important determinants of a society's level of economic development. However, their study does not use proper statistical controls. The present study attempted to overcome this deficiency. Regression analyses confirm Lynn and Vanhanen's original results. IQ remained the strongest determinant of economic development, and markets the second strongest determinant, even when levels of educational attainment were added to the regression equation. Although there are probably a number of factors that determine economic development, societies appear to have a developmental advantage if their members have high average intelligence and a developmental disadvantage if their members have low average intelligence.

Contact information:
sksander@iup.edu
724-349-4889

112-D McElhaney Hall
Indiana, PA 15705

Low waist-to-hip ratio grasps male attention
*Poster session II

Questionnaire and historical data show that women's waist to hip ratio (WHR) is a perceptual cue men use to assess a female's attractiveness; low WHR is preferred to high WHR. We've examined attentional consequences of this preference. In the present study we conducted two within-subjects experiments where we investigated consequences of briefly priming photos of women with low or high WHR. Only males participated. Reaction times and accuracies were used as dependent variable. Experiment 1 (N=20), an affective priming paradigm, found significant slower classification of first-names when WHR was low rather than high. In Experiment 2 (N=40), a Stroop-like paradigm, we found the same significant slower reaction time after low WHR priming. In neither experiment could participants report detecting varying WHR. We conclude that low WHR distracts male participants more than high WHR, bolstering former findings on declarative preference for low WHR.

Contact information:
petter.sannum@student.uib.no
92869913

Harald Hårfagresgate 9
5007
Bergen
Norway

Food Sharing Among the Meriam: A Social Network Analysis
*Poster session I

While classic biological models such as kin selection and reciprocal altruism have been able to use traditional statistical methods to test their hypotheses, finding the appropriate quantitative methodology for testing more complex social models has been problematic. This is mainly due to a historical lack of ability to deal with dependent, relational data -- key to any study of complex human sociality. New methods of social network analysis are applied here to a study of human food sharing among Meriam foragers. The data support conclusions previously drawn by Bliege Bird et al (2002) that food sharing does not appear to be reciprocal. The research also shows that neighborhood was a stronger predictor of food sharing than being a member of the same kin group. This is an important finding because traditional evolutionary models have put great weight on the importance of kin. The idea that people might favor those they are geographically closer to indicates that social structure is also dependent on cohesion between non-kin. Furthermore, the proximity predictor could provide an important starting point for more research on the importance of social sub-groups.

Contact information:
bscelza@u.washington.edu
206-390-6422

Box 353100
Department of Anthropology
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195

The Effect of Altruistically Goal-Oriented Appeals on Organ Donation Registration
*Poster session I

Seventeen people died today marooned on an organ recipient waiting list in the United States and the gap between those who are in need and those who donate is widening. Consequently, there is an urgent need for greater participation in organ donor registration programs. Existing research has shown a positive correlation between an individual's measured level of altruism and subsequent willingness to donate. Unfortunately, these findings have not been applied to the informational material designed to encourage participation in donor registration programs. The present study tested whether, one or all, of three current evolutionary explanations for altruism (Familial; Reciprocal; and Cultural) could improve the persuasive effectiveness of donation encouraging information. Each theory of altruistic behavior was used to design a goal-oriented appeal for organ donor registration. These appeals were manipulated within direct (facts and statistics) and indirect (emotional story) informational materials. Materials that orient individuals towards specific altruistic goals are expected to be more effective then non-directed messages. Data collection is currently in progress.

Contact information:
waringda@appstate.edu
828-262-2738

Department of Psychology
Smith-Wright Hall
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608

Social closeness of MZ and DZ twin parents toward their nieces and nephews
*Poster session II

Marriages of twins to non-twins yield an array of informative kinships. MZ twin parents become "genetic mothers and fathers" of their nieces and nephews; nieces and nephews become the twins' "genetic children." Children from the two marriages are first cousins, but because they have a genetically identical parent they become "genetic half-siblings." In contrast, the usual aunt/uncle-niece/nephew and cousin relationships remain in DZ twin families, because they share 50% of their genes, on average, like ordinary siblings. The twin-family design has never been used to study social relatedness. Hypotheses were based on Hamilton's inclusive fitness theory: MZ twin aunts/uncles will feel closer to their nieces/nephews than DZ twin aunts/uncles; female twins from same-sex pairs will feel closer to their nieces/nephews than male twins from same-sex pairs; male twins from opposite-sex pairs will feel closer to their nieces/nephews than female twins from opposite-sex pairs. The sample included 283 MZ and 76 DZ individual twins. This study contributes to growing interest in links between behavioral genetics and evolutionary psychology.

Contact information:
nsegal@fullerton.edu
714-278-2142

800 N. State College Blvd.
Psychology, H830M
Fullerton, CA 92834

A Theory and Celebration of Male Sexual Arousal by Females: The Foundations of Male Heterosexuality
*Poster session II

On the basis of evolutionary theory, the proposal is made that males are innately predisposed to respond with increasing levels of pleasurable sexual excitement when they see and/or have sexual relations with real, live, nude females presenting increasing levels of beauty. Male sexual delight in response to beautiful females is considered to be an emotional arousal involving neurochemical, autonomic, somatic, behavioral, and self-perception of excitmenet reactions (in this descending order of automaticity and unconsciousness), that prepares and orients males to contine, and to repeat, the enjoyable experiences (i.e., an approach orietation). This emotional response forms the foundation for male sexual desire for females. Research methodology will be outlined to test hypotheses concerning male sexual arousal by, and male sexual desire for, females, derived from evolutionary theory and emotion concepts, with special emphasis given to the construct validity of proposed arousal and desire measures.

Contact information:
Marvin681@cs.com
914-693-0379

7 Concord Road
Ardsley, NY 10503

The Interaction between Earning Potential and Phase of the Menstrual Cycle on Female Mate Preferences
*Poster session II

Much evidence documents that economic resources are a more important indicator of mate value for women than men, and Buss has further suggested that women's preference for a man a few years older allows assessment of earning potential while insuring against the loss of financial support due to death. This study investigates whether the same principles can also explain variations in female mate preference as a function of phase of the menstrual cycle and women's independent access to resources. A saliva sample provided data on their phase in the menstrual cycle. The results showed a significantly increased tolerance for age variation in a spouse as a woman's earning potential increased as measured by verbal SAT scores. Women in the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle showed significantly increased preferences for Dependable Character, Refinement, and Good Financial Prospect. There was a significant interaction between the effects of SAT scores and menstrual phase on preferences for traits signaling a good financial provider.

Contact information:
cstanik@gmail.com
734-277-7055

403 Nob Hill Ct.
# 2
Ann Arbor, MI 48103

Metaphorical Kinship
*Poster session I

The paper proposes a Darwinian explanation of metaphorical kinship behavior. In all human societies there is a tension between true kinship and false, or metaphorical, kinship. True kinship is where the degree of altruism is correlated with genealogical distance, and is explainable by Hamilton's work. False kinship is altruism not so correlated. In all human societies, leaders encourage followers to act as if they were close kinsmen when they are not. Various theories, including group selection, have been put forward to explain such behavior, but they don't fit the relevant facts. Because of marriage, individuals acquire all the identifiable kin of both parents, regardless of their group. Because of prohibitions on marriage between closer kin, individuals rarely marry within the same local group. In tribal societies, often great numbers of kin are encouraged to behave as if they were close kin, referring to each other as "father", "sister", "son", etc. In modern societies people are urged to treat even non-kin as if they were close kin. "Father" George Washington makes all Americans siblings. Ataturk means the father of the Turks. Every religion encourages family-like behavior among its followers, sometimes even toward outsiders.

Contact information:
Lyle.Steadman@asu.edu
480-966-9487

Department of Anthropology
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ, 85281

Self-deception and the brain: Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to investigate the evolutionary origins of deception
*Poster session I

There are few studies that have directly examined the cortical underpinnings of self-deception. In terms of evolutionary theory, a number of theorists have speculated about the origins, benefits, and costs of self-deception. In the current study, we examined the possibility that self-deception and non self-deception are related in terms of cognitive origin. Employing Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, we investigated self- and other- deception in a normal population. It was found that both self- and other-deception occupied similar brain regions, though differences were noted. Further, on a behavioral level, both types of deception were related to other measures of higher-order cognition (i.e., self-awareness). These data are discussed in terms of current evolutionary theories of self-deception.

Contact information:
selfawareness@prodigy.net
973-655-7634

219 Dickson Hall
Department of Psychology
Upper Montclair, New Jersey 07043

Male and Female Jealousy? Why Mating Strategy and Sociosexuality are Essential for Differences in Jealousy
*Poster session II

While previous research in jealousy has focused on differences between sexes, the current study investigated the relationship between sociosexuality and sex differences in jealousy. Participants filled out the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI), and the classic force choice question regarding jealousy. Results show that in addition to expected sex differences for the classic forced choice question, participants who chose emotional infidelity as most upsetting scored higher on the SOI than participants who chose sexual infidelity as most upsetting. In addition, a sex difference was found for the SOI scores, with men scoring higher than women on the SOI. However, there was no interaction between sex and type of infidelity on the SOI scores. Previous research in our lab found that both women and men who preferred success, education, commitment and faithfulness in a mate (suggesting a long term strategy) compared to men and women who did not prefer these qualities (suggesting a short term strategy) were more likely to choose emotional infidelity as most upsetting. These results suggest that mating strategy and sociosexuality contribute to differences in jealousy.

Contact information:
sstrout@clarku.edu
508-963-6729

Social, Evolutionary, & Cultural Psychology
Clark University
900 Main Street
Worcester, MA 01610

Non-Darwinian processes in the evolution of morphology and behavior in humans and other animals: the role of genetic drift and neutral evolution.
*Poster session I

Genetic drift and selection (natural and sexual selection) are two major driving forces for biological evolution. However, there is a clear divide between biologists working at the molecular level (protein and DNA) and those working at higher levels (such as morphology or behavior) as for which mechanism is more important. The former tend to argue for genetic drift, whereas the latter lean to selection. Researchers in other fields including anthropology, psychology, and sociology are inclined to side with selectionists while dismissing the relevance of genetic drift. To reconcile the conflicting views, I show here that the critical differences between neutralists and selectionists lie in both semantics and perspective. By analyzing the evolution of eyes, hands, and mating systems in humans and other animals, I demonstrate the importance of genetic drift and neutral evolution, in addition to selection, in shaping behavioral and morphological traits.

Contact information:
lixing@cwu.edu
509-963-2780

Department of Biological Sciences
400 University Way
Ellensburg, WA 98926-7537

Intentions to cooperate in Prisoner's Dilemma based vignettes: Relationships among self-deception, trust, and reputation management.
*Poster session I

Self-deception may facilitate cooperation by relegating the selfish motives of oneself and others to the subconscious (Alexander, 1987; Nesse & Lloyd, 1992). Previous findings of a relationship between heightened levels of self-deception and intentions to cooperate (Surbey & McNally, 1997) were extended by testing the predictions that 1) high levels of trust relate to the ability to self-deceive and 2) reputation concerns would increase the level of cooperation when actions are made public. Participants completed the Self-Deception Questionnaire (SDQ), the Paulus Deception Scale (PDS), and two measures of trust. Cooperation was measured by responses to vignettes conforming to the payoff matrix of the PD Game presented in written or computer format, where participants believed they were playing against another person. The findings largely supported the predictions. Participants with high scores on the SDQ received high scores on the Interpersonal Trust Scale. High scores on the SDQ, PDS, and one measure of trust predicted heightened cooperation. In the computerized games, participants tended to cooperate more when they thought responses would be made public.

Contact information:
michele.surbey@jcu.edu.au
617-4781-5157

School of Psychology
James Cook University
Townsville, QLD 4811
Australia

Error Management and Perception of Aggression
*Poster session I

Error Management Theory is based on an assumption that evolution has shaped cognitive biases -- not to minimize cognitive effort involved in decisions -- but to minimize the fitness costs associated with judgmental errors. Using this framework, we predicted that people would overperceive aggressive tendencies in others. We also expected that this bias would be facultatively accentuated in the presence of one's children (for women) and/or the presence of a mating partner (for men). Several hundred students were presented vignettes describing a potentially violent situation and asked to indicate their expectations of the aggressive intent that would be displayed by another individual. A control group rated their own aggressive potential in such a situation. Results revealed evidence of a general overperception in the likelihood that others would become aggressive, but offered no support for a facultative accentuation of this bias in the hypothesized conditions. The implications of the findings for error management theory and their overlap with the hostile attribution bias are discussed.

Contact information:
v-sheets@indstate.edu
812-237-2451

Department of Psychology
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, IN 47809

Interpersonal Leveling, Independence, and Self-Enhancement: A Relational Practice Framework for Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology as Illustrated in Danish and North American Samples
*Poster session I

The capacity to coordinate social arrangements requires a set of evolved psychological potentials that have evolved in conjunction with a range of cultural norms that orient adaptive, status-relevant strategies allowing for the enactment of functional forms of sociality. Comparing North American and Danish samples, we demonstrate that self-enhancement is one such domain. We show that some cultural differences in self-enhancement may be accounted for by universal relational grammars. In Study 1 Danes self-enhanced considerably less than did Americans, although Danes described themselves as more independent. Explicit measures of independence predicted self-enhancement within the US, but not in Denmark. Interpersonal leveling strongly and inversely predicted self-enhancement within both cultures, and fully mediated Danish-American differences of self-enhancement. Study 2 replicated elements of these findings in all Scandinavian countries using data from national probability samples. Study 3 demonstrated that preferences for non-verbal and graphical depictions of socio-relational forms predict self-enhancement. These studies provide evidence for the notion that universal social grammars may underlie cultural differences in the expression of self-enhancement.

Contact information:
lthomsen@ucla.edu
310-458-2907

1285 Franz Hall - Box 951563
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563

The Role of Facial Resemblance in Behavior Toward Others
*Poster session II

Facial resemblance may be a kin identification cue. Several recent papers have shown that perceptions of facial resemblance increase positive attitudes toward faces that share resemblance. Here we extend these investigations by conducting a multi-part study that investigates the role facial resemblance plays in a number of different social situations such as friendship, altruism, platonic and romantic attraction, as well as child care. Preliminary evidence suggests that the positive perceptions and reactions to facial resemblance emerge under specific social situations and individual differences exist. Additionally, facial analysis software was used to interpret how the degree of facial resemblance among genetic relatives impacts social interactions amongst family members.

Contact information:
jwt26@drexel.edu
267-240-1835

1529 Porter St. #2
Philadelphia, PA 19145

Altruism and War: Divergence and convergence in group identity differentiation
*Poster session I

War is inseparable from, and impossible without, altruism. Group commitment combined with negative bias oriented in-group/out-group differentiation, and a psychological defense mechanism capable of convincing even the worst of us that we are basically good, allows us to employ altruistic impulses for war. Humans universally commit to, and identify with, groups which differentiate themselves culturally and psychologically. In-group/out-group differentiations that view the out-group as not having inherently different behavior or desire attributes allow in-group commitment to out-group inclusive higher level groups; for example, humanity. Differentiations that ascribe inherent positive attributes to in-group and, oppositionally, inherent negative attributes to out-group, begin the psychological justification process for racism, aggressive war, and genocide. Commitment connects individual self-image to the group. We are good, therefore our group is good. Conformity and commitment are strengthened by perceived threat, which causes differentiation to become oppositional. We altruistically kill and die.

Contact information:
tribalypredisposed@Yahoo.com
520-481-4209

1104 E Manlove St.
Tucson, AZ 85719

The impact of unprotected vaginal, oral and anal sex on depression
*Poster session II

Unprotected vaginal intercourse has been shown to correlate negatively with depression, possibly due to the effects of seminal compounds in the female bloodstream. To determine whether other routes of administration also have effects, we surveyed over 150 undergraduates regarding frequency of unprotected vaginal intercourse, fellatio, and receptive anal intercourse. First of all, even in a predominantly heterosexual sample, the majority of participants had engaged in fellatio and roughly a third engaged in receptive anal sex. All three behaviors showed the same patterns; "receptive" partners who never used condoms reported the lowest levels of depression with depression increasing with more frequent condom use (and lower semen exposure). However, semen exposure scores (frequency of acts combined with frequency of condom use) for fellatio did not correlate as highly as vaginal intercourse. It is possible that the digestive process diminishes the impact of certain seminal compounds.

Contact information:
RBURCH@OSWEGO.EDU
315-312-3463

404 Marah Hall
SUNY Oswego
Oswego, NY 13126

The effects of winning or losing a brief laboratory-based competition on testosterone in women and men
*Poster session II

Following direct competition, winners sometimes show higher testosterone (T) levels than losers. We created a computer-based competitive vocabulary task in which win/loss status was highly salient to participants. We tested 39 women and 37 men individually in 30 min afternoon sessions. The session included a precompetition saliva sample, competition, questionnaires (competition parameters, mood, background), and post-competition sample. Precompetition T was negatively correlated with correct responses, and male winners had lower T pre- and post-competition, suggesting a high-T impairment on our task. In men only, losers had a larger decrease in T from pre to postcompetition, suggesting that winning attenuated a competition-related decline in T. Our competition task thus provides a novel and practical laboratory model for disentangling the possible contributing factors (e.g. effort, outcome, mood) to the competition effect on T in men. Implications for research with women are discussed.

Contact information:
saria@sfu.ca
604-314-1989

SFU Psychology
RCB 5246, 8888 University Drive
Burnaby BC V5A 1S6
Canada

Sex, gender and adolescent risk-taking: a biosocial extension of control theories
*Poster session II

Control theories are considered one of the leading paradigms for the understanding of adolescent risk-taking. It has been argued, however, that they do not fully explain - theoretically nor empirically - the gendergap in these phenomena. This is problematic as gender is one of the most important correlates of adolescent risk-taking and its explanation is sometimes seen as the 'litmus-test' for criminological theories. Some argue that the existing theories should be revised or extended to take more fully into account the potential biological basis of sex-differences, some of which are the result of hormones. This paper tries to assess the relevance of hormonal masculinisation for the field of for adolescent crime and risk-taking in general and for social control theory in particular. Data are presented from a sample of 600 adolescents at the age of 14-15, including serum steroid hormone assays, measurement of hormone related physical characteristics and a questionnaire containing a range of adolescent crime/risk-taking indicators and social control variables. Implications for future research and theory in the field of sex, gender and adolescent crime/ risk-taking are suggested.

Contact information:
hans.vermeersch@ugent.be
329-264-6729

Korte Meer 5
B-9000 Gent
Belgium

Men or babies, that is the question: Working memory as a function of menstrual cycle
*Poster session I

It has been shown repeatedly that estrogen enhances various memory functions. The aim of this study was to explore the influences of task content and estrogen level on working memory performance. We hypothesized that a shift in attention toward evolutionary relevant stimuli in different phases of menstrual cycle might occur. Therefore, we used two sets of cards in a memory game, one with photographs of adult male faces, and the other one with photographs of babies. Two groups of women were tested: with regular menstrual cycles (n=56) and on oral contraceptives (n=16). The performance on the task had the same pattern in both groups: women were significantly more efficient in recognizing male faces during high-estrogen phases of the cycle than in low-estrogen phases, while the recognition of baby faces did not change during cycle. Results are discussed in terms of importance of shifts in attention toward evolutionary relevant stimuli.

Contact information:
andrea.vranic@ffzg.hr
385-1-6120-154

Luciceva 3
10000 Zagreb
Croatia

Towards a valid evolutionary domain-specific risk-taking scale
*Poster session I

From an evolutionary viewpoint, human risk-taking behaviors should be viewed in the context of evolutionarily recurrent survival and reproductive problems. In response to recent calls for domain-specific measures of risk-taking, this study emphasized the need of evolutionarily valid domains. As part of a larger project on "evolutionary domains of risk and life-history", a total of 693 participants from the University of South Dakota (316 females, 132 males) and the University of Michigan (131 females, 114 males) responded on-line to a set of questionnaire items and rated them in terms of the likelihood of engaging in each risky behavior. Here, we report first results aiming to validate a short risk scale containing multiple evolutionary domains. An exploratory factor analysis identified five domains of risk-taking (i.e. within-group competition, between-group competition, survival and physical risks, mating, and reproduction) with three items in each domain. The total variance explained by these items was 55 percent. In all domains, men were significantly more risk-taking than women.

Contact information:
xtwang@usd.edu
605-677-5183

Psychology Department
University of South Dakota
414 E Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069, USA

Environmental Uncertainty Influences Mate Preferences
*Poster session II

Attractiveness can be conceptualized as a preference for phenotypes that tend to promote fitness. What constitutes a "high-quality" phenotype, however, can vary as a function of the environment. Environmental uncertainty, for instance, may influence mating preferences since successful phenotypes might be more difficult to predict. Japanese participants at Hokkaido University played a "Descendants Game" in which they were asked to choose between a certain-outcome-face and an uncertain-outcome-face as a potential mating partner in order to gain additional family members. The preference for three aspects of facial attractiveness (juvenilization, averageness, and symmetry) was tested under two conditions of uncertainty, during which the probability of success or failure associated with selecting the uncertain-outcome-face was either known (Outcome Uncertainty), or unknown (Outcome Uncertainty + Outcome Distribution Uncertainty). Results indicated that the degree of uncertainty had an effect on mating preference, whereby greater uncertainty led to a greater emphasis on physical attractiveness.

Contact information:
pwehr@lynx.let.hokudai.ac.jp
090-9431-3201

Department of Behavioral Science
Bungakubu, N10 W7 Kita-ku,
Sapporo 060-0810, JAPAN
Office: Bungakubu E403

Women's claims of false pregnancy as a commitment detection device
*Poster session II

Women and men evaluate long-term mates on the basis of different characteristics (Buss, 2003). Women may tactically propose false pregnancies to partners to evaluate their reactions as a basis for maintaining or terminating relationships because the costs of parental investment are larger for women than for men (Trivers, 1972). The current study tested several hypotheses and predictions derived from the possibility that women use this strategy to assess a partner's commitment in the relationship. Results support several of the hypotheses and reveal that a partner's reaction to a proposed pregnancy predictably impacts various aspects of their relationships. Discussion situates this evidence within the research on women's evaluation of a partner's commitment and suggests several areas of future research. We suggest that women may benefit most by artificially triggering reactions by claiming false pregnancies early in relationships. Additionally, we suggest that the greater frequency of irregular menstrual cycles early in relationships may facilitate the use of this psychological strategy.

Contact information:
hwilberger@hollins.edu
540-362-6586

P.O. Box 9678
Department of Psychology
Roanoke, VA 24020

The Neglect of Cognitive Mechanisms in Evolutionary Psychology
*Poster session I

Cosmides and Tooby (1987) criticized a "widespread tendency to overlook a crucial link in the causal chain from evolution to behavior: the level of innate psychological mechanisms, described as information processing systems" and proposed guidelines for conducting adequate research in evolutionary psychology. Almost 20 years later, we investigate how the tendency to overlook psychological mechanisms in terms of process-models of human cognition developed in the past decades. In two bibliographic studies we quantify the prevalence of papers proposing detailed models of psychological mechanisms in both the evolutionary psychology and general psychology literatures. We additionally test the hypothesis that papers proposing process-models generate more testable predictions and interest by looking at citation records.

Contact information:
wilke@mpib-berlin.mpg.de
49-30-82406240

MPI for Human Development
Lentzeallee 94
14195 Berlin
Germany

EvoS: Using evolutionary theory to change the culture of education and research at a campus-wide scale
*Poster session I

EvoS (http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~evos) is a unique campus-wide program that strives to make evolutionary theory a common language for the study of all subjects relevant to human affairs in addition to the natural world. It is available to all undergraduate and graduate students, resulting in a certificate in evolutionary studies along with one's degree. Introductory courses teach the basis principles of evolution and their wide ranging applications, followed by a menu of courses the provide both depth in particular subject areas and breadth across subject areas. At the faculty level, EvoS began with core strengths in biology, anthropology, and psychology but quickly expanded to include over 50 faculty from 15 departments. The basic ingredients that have made EvoS a success can be emulated at most colleges and universities, suggesting that the future of transdisciplinary evolutionary studies can be different in the future than in the past.

Contact information:
dwilson@binghamton.edu
607-777-4393

Binghamton University
Binghamton NY 13902

Responding to a Hypothetical Extra-Pair Involvement: Sex Differences in the Nomination of Cues of Sexual Infidelity
*Poster session I

In a novel test of the hypothesis that men's jealousy more than women's focuses on signals of sexual (vs emotional) infidelity, we asked 158 young adults to list pieces of evidence that would lead them to believe that their partner was involved with someone else. The nature of the extra-pair involvement was intentionally ambiguous, under the expectation that if men more than women focus on cues of sexual infidelity, then men should be more likely than women to nominate sexual cues as evidence of extra-pair involvement. As predicted, men's first cue involved explicit sexual evidence (e.g., catching her having sex with someone else, finding used condoms) more frequently than did women's. Further, despite that men nominated fewer cues, on average, than did women, a greater proportion of men's cues referenced sexual behavior. Because this study did not rely on the forced choice method, the findings provide original support for the existence of an evolved sexual jealousy adaptation in men.

Contact information:
bleskeal@uwec.edu
715-836-4641

105 Garfield Ave
Eau Claire, WI 54701

The effect of intergroup threat priming on ingroup cooperation in a different context: A view from coalitional psychology
*Poster session I

Prior studies have demonstrated that competition between ingroup and outgroup increases cooperation within the ingroup. Based on the theory and findings of coalitional and relational psychology (Hardin & Conley, 2001; Navarrete & Fessler, in press) we predict a generalization effect; that is, priming of intergroup threat in one context will increase cooperation within ingroup in different intergroup contexts, because the former should activate the generalized psychological mechanism to defend one's ingroup. One-hundred and one undergraduate students (52 males & 49 females) participated in an experiment, where half were first primed with an intergroup threat in an international context. Then, in an ostensibly "irrelevant" second experiment, all participants were divided into one of two groups based on their "administrative" artistic preference, and performed a one-shot social dilemma game within their ingroup. Results were, as predicted, participants in the primed condition cooperated more than in the non primed condition. In addition, the amount of ingroup cooperation was positively correlated with self-reported motivation to derogate the outgroup only in the primed condition.

Contact information:
yokota@lynx.let.hokudai.ac.jp
+81 11 706 3057

Department of Behavioral Science, Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University
N10 W7, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, JAPAN

Self-Reported Parental Investments in Children: An Examination of Family Type and Parental Respondent Effects
*Poster session II

Data from the U.S. Early Childhood Longitudinal Study were examined to investigate self-reported parental time, monetary, and welfare investments in children. Consistent with hypotheses derived from the logic of inclusive fitness theory, contrasting children with two genetic parents with children from stepparent households on a multivariate composite of investment indicators revealed that stepchildren received relatively fewer resources from parents. To examine whether reported investments were associated with the parental respondent's relationship to the focal child, additional analyses contrasting the responses of stepfamily parents were performed. Analysis of stepfamily responses revealed that stepparents reported lower levels of investment in children when considered relative to the self-reported investments indicated by stepfamily genetic parents. These within family type reporting discrepancies imply that the effect of stepparent influence may be misestimated in results that are derived from the questionnaire responses of children's genetic parent.

Contact information:
zvochk@unlv.nevada.edu
702-895-3953

University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Department of Educational Psychology
4505 Maryland Parkway, Box 453003
Las Vegas, NV 89154-3003