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| Author(s): |
Kamila Janaina Pereira
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Psicologia (IP/SBD) |
| Defense date: | 2014-12-09 |
| Examining board members: |
Vera Silvia Raad Bussab;
José Henrique Benedetti Piccoli Ferreira;
Marco Antonio Corrêa Varella
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| Advisor: | Vera Silvia Raad Bussab |
| Abstract | |
Men in general are more permissive on casual sex, for that reason they are considered more unrestricted. From an evolutionary perspective, this sexual strategy was selected because men have shown less parental investment and, for that reason, greater investment in competition and in search for partners. On the other hand, women were selected to be more selective due to their greater parental investment and reproductive success related to the offspring quality. From a proximate view, the level of prenatal and pubertal masculinization may cause these intersexual differences, as well as intrasexual variations, but the evidence is ambiguous. Moreover, it is not clear the relation among hormones and attractiveness (self-rated and evaluated by others). We assessed the inter- and intrasexual variation in the sociosexuality by using anatomical, cognitive, and psychological indicators of masculinization and the evaluation of attractiveness (self-rated and evaluated by others). Participants were 54 women (mean age = 24.02, SD = 4.86) and 51 men (mean age = 23.57, SD = 3.89), all students of Sao Paulo city, comprising different university courses. First, they answered, voluntarily and anonymously, a questionnaire that included facial, bodily, vocal, and behavioral self-reported femininity/masculinity and attractiveness; the revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory; and the Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test. Then we then measured the 2D:4D digit ratio of both hands, the female waist-to-hip ratio and the male waist-to-shoulder ratio. The participants faces were photographed and rated for attractiveness: 27 women (mean age = 23.81, SD 3.87) assessed the male faces, and 24 men (mean age = 23.66, SD 3.70) judged the female faces. The intersex differences we found were: men that were more unrestricted declared themselves as more masculine, their cognition was more masculine, and they were judged as less facially attractive. We found no differences between the 2D:4D ratio and the self-rated attractiveness. In the female intrasexual variations, we found that only the psychological indicators were associated with the sociosexuality: more unrestricted women rated their voices as more masculine and as less attractive. Moreover, women who were more cognitively masculine were judged as more facially attractive; participants who had more masculine 2D:4D evaluated their body as more attractive; women who rated themselves as more attractive also judged themselves as more feminine, females who evaluated their behavior as more feminine had more feminine waist-to-hip ratio. As for the male intrasexual variations: men who rated themselves as more attractive, more bodily masculine, older, and who had more feminine 2D:4D ratios were more unrestricted. Furthermore, men who were judged as more attractive declared themselves as more facially attractive and were more behavioral feminine; the more feminine 2D:4D ratios were associated with more masculine self-rated faces; and participants who evaluated themselves as more bodily attractive had wider shoulders. This study showed that part of the male sociosexuality might be explained by some anatomical measures and by the indicators of mate value, while only the psychological indicators might be related to the female sociosexuality. However, indicators of masculinization were not associated to each other or with the sociosexuality; some measures had opposite relations, and some associations were contradictory. This indicates that the development of the indicators of masculinizing and their effects may be partly independent. New studies are needed to examine those associations and other Brazilian samples (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 12/24951-1 - Influence of indicators of masculinization on human attractiveness and sexuality |
| Grantee: | Kamila Janaina Pereira |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |