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Perceiving emotions in others is at the foundation of higher-order social cognition. The importance of emotions is evidenced by the fact that they receive prioritized attention at early stages of processing the environment in humans and some other primates. Nevertheless, we do not fully understand how emotion modulates attention over longer durations in primates, particularly in great apes. Bonobos, one of our closest relatives, stand out in emotion processing and regulation among great apes. This makes them an interesting comparison species and a valuable model for studying the evolution of emotion perception in hominids. We investigated how bonobos and humans spontaneously attend to emotionally valent scenes in a preferential looking task using eye-tracking. With Bayesian mixed modelling, we found that bonobos and humans generally looked longer at emotional scenes, mainly of conspecifics. Moreover, while bonobos did not have a bias toward emotional human scenes, humans sustained their attention toward bonobos playing, grooming and having sex. Furthermore, when exploring an immediate bias for emotions, humans showed a bias toward affiliative human scenes, and bonobos showed a bias away from bonobos-in-distress scenes. These findings suggest that emotions modulate attention at early and later attentional stages in bonobos, similar to humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orang-utans are well-known for their vocal flexibility. However, the described vocal repertoire of female orang-utans is relatively limited. This anecdotal report discusses the occurrence of long call-like vocalisations in two zoo-housed Bornean orang-utan females. While Temmy demonstrated these vocalisations in response to playbacks of male long calls, Eloise proactively produced vocalisations during her ovulation before her reproductive senescence. The vocalisations produced by Temmy and Eloise seem to differ in many aspects from known orang-utan calls, although they bear some similarities to male long calls. Thus, the vocal repertoire of female orang-utans may be more extensive than previously thought. We carefully suggest that these calls might indicate proceptivity, while also discussing methodological limitations and theoretical considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primate faces provide information about a range of variant and invariant traits, including some that are relevant for mate choice. For example, faces of males may convey information about their health or genetic quality through symmetry or facial masculinity. Because perceiving and processing such information may have bearing on the reproductive success of an individual, cognitive systems are expected to be sensitive to facial cues of mate quality. However, few studies have investigated this topic in non-human primate species. Orang-utans are an interesting species to test mate-relevant cognitive biases, because they are characterised by male bimaturism: some adult males are fully developed and bear conspicuous flanges on the side of their face, while other males look relatively similar to females. Here, we describe two non-invasive computerised experiments with Bornean orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus), testing (i) immediate attention towards large flanges and symmetrical faces using a dot-probe task (N = 3 individuals; 2F) and (ii) choice bias for pictures of flanged males over unflanged males using a preference test (N = 6 individuals; 4F). In contrast with our expectations, we found no immediate attentional bias towards either large flanges or symmetrical faces. In addition, individuals did not show a choice bias for stimuli of flanged males. We did find exploratory evidence for a colour bias and energy efficiency trade-offs in the preference task. We discuss our null results and exploratory results in the context of the evolutionary history of Bornean orang-utans, and provide suggestions for a more biocentric approach to the study of orang-utan cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emotional facial expressions of other individuals are a valuable information source in adapting behaviour to situational demands, and have been found to receive prioritized attention. Yet, enhanced attentional biases, such as a bias to social threat in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), or blunted attention to emotional information, as assumed in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), can easily become maladaptive in daily life. In order to investigate individual differences in attentional biases toward different emotional expressions (angry, happy, sad, and fearful versus neutral) and their links to social anxiety and autistic traits, we tested 104 healthy participants with an emotional dot-probe paradigm on a touch screen, and measured clinical trait levels associated with ASD and SAD. While confirming the presence of attentional biases toward all emotional expressions, we did not find robust evidence for systematic links between these biases and either clinical trait dimension. Only an exploratory Bayesian analysis pointed to a less pronounced bias towards happy facial expressions with higher autistic trait levels. Moreover, a closer examination of the attentional bias towards angry facial expressions suggested that alterations in this bias might depend on a complex interplay between both trait dimensions. Novel approaches in the assessment of attentional biases might yield the potential to describe disorder-specific biases in attention to emotions more validly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a series of three studies, we examined whether third-party observers can detect attraction in others based on subtle nonverbal cues. We employed video segments of dates collected from a speed-dating experiment, in which daters went on a brief (approx. 4 min) blind-date and indicated whether they would like to go on another date with their brief interaction partner or not. We asked participants to view these stimuli and indicate whether or not each couple member is attracted to their partner. Our results show that participants could not reliably detect attraction, and this ability was not influenced by the age of the observer, video segment location (beginning or middle of the date), video duration, or general emotion recognition capacity. Contrary to previous research findings, our findings suggest that third-party observers cannot reliably detect attraction in others. However, there was one exception: Recognition rose above chance level when the daters were both interested in their partners compared to when they were not interested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical attractiveness plays a crucial role in mate choice for both men and women. This is reflected in visual attention: people immediately attend towards and look longer at attractive faces, especially when they are motivated to find a partner. However, previous studies did not incorporate real-life dating decisions. Here, we aimed to combine attentional tasks with individual attractiveness ratings and a real-life mate choice context, namely a speed-dating paradigm. We investigated whether heterosexual non-committed young adults showed biases in immediate and voluntary attention towards attractive faces and preferred dating partners. In line with previous research, we found considerable individual differences in individual attractiveness preferences. Furthermore, our results showed that men had a bias towards attractive faces and preferred dating partners in the immediate attention task, while results for women were mixed. In the voluntary attention task, however, both men and women had an attentional bias towards attractive faces and preferred dating partners. Our results suggest that individual attractiveness preferences are good predictors of especially voluntary attention. We discuss these findings from an evolutionary perspective and suggest directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical attractiveness plays a crucial role in mate choice for both men and women. This is reflected in visual attention: people immediately attend towards and look longer at attractive faces, especially when they are motivated to find a partner. However, previous studies did not incorporate real-life dating decisions. Here, we aimed to combine attentional tasks with individual attractiveness ratings and a real-life mate choice context, namely a speed-dating paradigm. We investigated whether heterosexual non-committed young adults showed biases in immediate and voluntary attention towards attractive faces and preferred dating partners. In line with previous research, we found considerable individual differences in individual attractiveness preferences. Furthermore, our results showed that men had a bias towards attractive faces and preferred dating partners in the immediate attention task, while results for women were mixed. In the voluntary attention task, however, both men and women had an attentional bias towards attractive faces and preferred dating partners. Our results suggest that individual attractiveness preferences are good predictors of especially voluntary attention. We discuss these findings from an evolutionary perspective and suggest directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A consistent finding in the literature is that men overperceive sexual interest in women (i.e., sexual overperception bias). Several potential mechanisms have been proposed for this bias, including projecting one's own interest onto a given partner, sexual desire, and self-rated attractiveness. Here, we examined the influence of these factors in attraction detection accuracy during speed-dates. Sixty-seven participants (34 women) split in four groups went on a total of 10 speed-dates with all opposite-sex members of their group, resulting in 277 dates. The results showed that attraction detection accuracy was reliably predicted by projection of own interest in combination with participant sex. Specifically, men were more accurate than women in detecting attraction when they were not interested in their partner compared to when they were interested. These results are discussed in the wider context of arousal influencing detection of partner attraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to the African great apes, orangutans (Pongo spp.) are semisolitary: Individuals are often on their own, but form aggregations more often than expected by chance. These temporary aggregations provide social benefits such as mating opportunities. When fruit availability is high, costs of aggregating should be lower, because competition is less pronounced. Therefore, average party size is expected to be higher when fruit availability is high. This hypothesis would also explain why orangutans in highly fruit‐productive habitats on Sumatra are more gregarious than in the usually less productive habitats of Borneo. Here, we describe the aggregation behavior of orangutans in less productive Sumatran habitats (Sikundur and Batang Toru), and compare results with those of previously surveyed field sites. Orangutans in Sikundur were more likely to form parties when fruit availability was higher, but the size of daily parties was not significantly affected by fruit availability. With regard to between‐site comparisons, average party sizes of females and alone time of parous females in Sikundur and Batang Toru were substantially lower than those for two previously surveyed Sumatran sites, and both fall in the range of values for Bornean sites. Our results indicate that the assessment of orangutans on Sumatra as being more social than those on Borneo needs revision. Instead, between‐site differences in sociality seem to reflect differences in average fruit availability. Research Highlights: Sumatran orangutans in Sikundur were more likely to form parties when fruit availability was higher, but fruit availability did not significantly influence the daily party size on days with party formation. Orangutans in less productive Sumatran forest had a lower average party size than orangutans in highly productive Sumatran forest, and their average party size falls within the range of reported values for Bornean orangutans. Between‐site differences in orangutan sociality may be mediated by between‐site differences in fruit availability, and previously described differences in sociality between orangutans on Sumatra and Borneo may need revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]