bims-chumac 2022-07-03 papers

Issue of 2022–07–03
six papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society

Front Psychol. 2022 ;13 896514

Neural Processing of Facial Attractiveness and Romantic Love: An Overview and Suggestions for Future Empirical Studies.

Romantic love is universally observed in human communities, and the manner in which a person chooses a long-term romantic partner has been a central question in studies on close relationships. Numerous empirical psychological studies have demonstrated that facial attractiveness greatly impacts initial romantic attraction. This close link was further investigated by neuroimaging studies showing that both viewing attractive faces and having romantic thoughts recruit the reward system. However, it remains unclear how our brains integrate perceived facial attractiveness into initial romantic attraction. In addition, it remains unclear how our brains shape a persistent attraction to a particular person through interactions; this persistent attraction is hypothesized to contribute to a long-term relationship. After reviewing related studies, I introduce methodologies that could help address these questions.

Keywords: facial attractiveness; neuroimaging; romantic love; social cognition; social decision-making

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.896514

Front Psychol. 2022 ;13 859108

Enhanced Originality of Ideas in Women During Ovulation: A Within-Subject Design Study.

Katarzyna Galasinska, Aleksandra Szymkow.

The signaling theory suggests that creativity may have evolved as a signal for mates. Indeed, its aesthetic value might not have been necessary for survival, but it could have helped to attract a mate, fostering childbearing. If we consider creativity as such a signal, we should expect it will be enhanced in the context related to sexual selection. This hypothesis was tested mainly for men. However, both men and women display physical and mental traits that can attract a mate. Previous studies showed that women can be more creative during their peak fertility. We advanced these findings in the present study, applying reliable measures of menstrual cycle phases (examining saliva and urine samples) and the highly recommended within-subject design. We also introduced and tested possible mediators of the effect. We found women's ideas to be more original during ovulation compared to non-fertile phases of the ovulatory cycle. The results are discussed in the context of signaling theory and alternative explanations are considered.

Keywords: creativity; mating behaviors; ovulatory cycle; sexual selection; signaling theory; women

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.859108

Int J Psychol. 2022 Jun 28.

The role of interpersonal trust and romantic experiences in mate copying.

Tianshuang Zhou, Caihua Feng, Lijuan Cui.

Mate copying occurs when individuals imitate the mate choice of other same-sex individuals. These effects can be influenced by factors related to the rater and the model. The present study explored the roles of raters' interpersonal trust and models' romantic experiences in the decision-making progress. Study 1 replicated mate copying effects and found the effect of interpersonal trust was nonsignificant. Study 2 further tested the interaction effect among interpersonal trust, model's romantic experiences, and model's mate choice decision. Results showed that change in targets' attractiveness varied with the model's romantic experiences under the model acceptance condition. The attractiveness of targets showed a greater increase when models had one or two romantic experiences than when they had no or multiple romantic experiences. A three-way interaction effect occurred as well. Under the condition of model acceptance, for raters with a low or medium level of interpersonal trust, change in attractiveness increased with the model's romantic experiences and the relationship was non-monotonic. For individuals with high levels of trust, models' romantic experiences did not have any effect. These results reveal that both rater's interpersonal trust and models' romantic experiences matter in individuals' willingness to copy other's mate preference.

Keywords: Attractiveness; Interpersonal trust; Mate copying; Romantic experiences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12867

Front Psychol. 2022 ;13 925842

The Evolution of Playfulness, Play and Play-Like Phenomena in Relation to Sexual Selection.

Yago Luksevicius Moraes, Jaroslava Varella Valentova, Marco Antonio Correa Varella.

By conceptualizing Sexual Selection, Darwin showed a way to analyze intra-specific individual differences within an evolutionary perspective. Interestingly, Sexual Selection is often used to investigate the origins of sports, arts, humor, religion and other phenomena that, in several languages, are simply called "play." Despite their manifested differences, these phenomena rely on shared psychological processes, including playfulness. Further, in such behaviors there is usually considerable individual variability, including sex differences, and positive relationship with mating success. However, Sexual Selection is rarely applied in the study of play, with exception to what is concerned as infant training behavior for adult sex roles. We offer an integrated grounding of playful phenomena aligning evolutionary propositions based on sexual selection, which might stimulate further exploration of playfulness within evolutionary perspective.

Keywords: evolutionary psychology; gaming; human evolution; ludicity; mental mechanisms; play; playfulness; sexual selection

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.925842

Compr Psychoneuroendocrinol. 2021 Aug;7 100061

CortiLove: A pilot study on hair steroids in the context of being in love and separation.

Janis Renner, Miriam Stanulla, Andreas Walther, Lena Schindler.

While romantic infatuation and separation influence psychological and physiological functioning, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis with its biomarkers cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and progesterone central for coping and distress has been scarcely researched in this context. In particular, endocrine hair analyses assumed to be more valid than saliva or blood assessments for studying long-term processes have not yet been conducted in the context of romantic love. Thus, 101 female subjects in phases of infatuation (n = 16), separation (n = 14), long-term relationships (n = 40), and singlehood (n = 31) reported psychological distress and provided 1 cm hair samples for the assessment of long-term integrated cortisol, DHEA, and progesterone over the last month. Separated, infatuated, and single women exhibited higher cortisol levels than those in a long-term relationship (all ps ≤ .031), while self-reported distress was only evident in separated individuals. Further, no group differences for progesterone (p = .602), but higher DHEA levels in the separation (p = .009) and single group (p = .016) compared to the long-term relationship group were detected. This is the first study showing that compared to women in long-term relationships, infatuation, separation, and single groups exhibit higher levels of physiological, but not necessarily self-reported indicators of distress. These findings, albeit on a very small and preliminary sample, are discussed in the context of the stress-buffering effect of relationships, and provide important starting points for bigger, more balanced studies combining multimodal self-report and biological markers in psychological research of romantic love.

Keywords: Cortisol; DHEA; Endocrine hair analyses; Progesterone; Romantic love

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpnec.2021.100061

Compr Psychoneuroendocrinol. 2020 Nov;4 100017

Oxytocin makes inexperienced men more selective in their dating strategy.

Michaela Pfundmair, Verena Berthold.

Oxytocin (OT) is known to be involved in pair-bonding. This, however, does not take the form of an undifferentiated approach behavior but rather a behavior adapted to the current needs. Therefore, in this study, we hypothesized OT to promote adaptive pair-bonding strategies by increasing appropriate selectiveness in the dating context. To test this, 110 participants intranasally self-administered OT or placebo and then conducted a "Tinder" style task in which they rated pictures of medium attractive individuals in terms of their romantic and sexual interest. Two patterns of results revealed: First, we found a less selective dating strategy among males compared to females, both with regard to romantic and sexual dating. Second, this unselective strategy was mostly pronounced among the rather inexperienced males which, however, was restored to the level of experienced males by OT. These findings support previous insights on pair-bonding and add to the understanding of the neuromodulator OT. Specifically, OT seems to adjust behaviors during social interactions to help individuals fit into social environments.

Keywords: Adaption; Dating; Oxytocin; Pair-bonding

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpnec.2020.100017