Search

Life history theory proposes that it is adaptive for older people to shift investment away from reproductive effort (such as mating) to survivorship. However, it remains unclear whether the shift is also present at the psychological level. We investigated this question by comparing preferences for mate choice-relevant cues, sexually dimorphic facial images, between older (60 years and older, n = 92) and younger adults (18-40 years, n = 86). Results showed that older adults had significantly smaller preferences for sexually dimorphic faces of both sexes than young adults. Specifically, both older men and women showed no significant preferences for sexually dimorphic traits when judging opposite-sex faces, and smaller preferences for masculine male faces and feminine female faces when judging same-sex faces. Young adults generally showed strong preferences for masculine male faces and feminine female faces. In Study 2, we confirmed that the absent/reduced preferences in older adults for sexually dimorphic faces did not result from poor visual ability. The smaller preferences for sexually dimorphic facial cues in older adults compared to young adults suggest that older adults may shift away from mating-oriented psychology as they become less fertile., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Sex hormones are thought to influence human mate preferences. Previous studies have reported mixed results regarding the association between men's testosterone levels and their mate preferences. The present study investigated the effect of testosterone administration on men's facial femininity preference. Heterosexual Chinese male participants (n = 140) received a single dose of 150 mg testosterone or placebo gel in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-participant design. Results showed that Chinese men demonstrated general preferences for feminized women's faces, consistent with previous results from the Western population. More importantly, men showed stronger attraction to femininity in women's faces three hours after testosterone administration than at the beginning of the session. In the placebo group, no significant change in facial femininity preferences was found between time points. These results indicate that exogenous testosterone increases men's facial femininity preferences in a Chinese population., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial-attractiveness judgments, findings suggesting that women's preferences for masculine characteristics in men's faces are related to women's hormonal status are equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest-ever longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of women's preferences for facial masculinity ( N = 584). Analyses showed no compelling evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women's salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subjects and between-subjects comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men's faces, particularly when assessing men's attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women's preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.

Objectives: Recent research on the signal value of masculine physical characteristics in men has focused on the possibility that such characteristics are valid cues of physical strength. However, evidence that sexually dimorphic vocal characteristics are correlated with physical strength is equivocal. Consequently, we undertook a further test for possible relationships between physical strength and masculine vocal characteristics. Methods: We tested the putative relationships between White UK (N = 115) and Chinese (N = 106) participants' handgrip strength (a widely used proxy for general upper‐body strength) and five sexually dimorphic acoustic properties of voices: fundamental frequency (F0), fundamental frequency's SD (F0‐SD), formant dispersion (Df), formant position (Pf), and estimated vocal‐tract length (VTL). Results: Analyses revealed no clear evidence that stronger individuals had more masculine voices. Conclusions: Our results do not support the hypothesis that masculine vocal characteristics are a valid cue of physical strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]