Activation of Self-Protection Threat Increases Women's Preferences for Dominance in Male Faces

Abstract

Women’s self-reported vulnerability to aggression has been linked to a stronger preference for male body types communicating physical formidability and aggressive dominance. This preference shift is considered an adaptive trade-off whereby women in more dangerous environments increase their preference for men with a greater capacity to protect them and their offspring, even though such men are also more likely to be coercive toward them as a mate. The current study extends these findings in two critical ways. First, we primed women with a self-protection threat, versus a control experience, to determine if acute activation of vulnerability to aggression results in an increased preference for physically dominant men. Second, we utilized male faces that varied in the extent to which they communicate dominance and trust to determine if preferences for physical formidability and aggressive dominance extend to face preferences. Women exposed to a video which activated self-protection concerns displayed a stronger preference for male faces communicating high dominance (versus high trust) compared to women in a control video condition. These results suggest that women’s preferences for dominance in men coincides with acutely activated self-protection threat, and also extends to dominance cues in faces.