Abstract
Evolutionary psychology has emerged as a controversial discipline, particularly with regard to its claims concerning the biological basis of sex differences in human mate preferences. Drawing on theories of motivated inference, we hypothesized that those who are most likely to be privileged by specific aspects of the theory would be most likely to support the theory. In particular, we predicted that physical attractiveness would be positively associated with endorsement of predictions of evolutionary psychology concerning mating strategies. Two studies confirmed this hypothesis. In Study 1, participants rated as higher in physical attractiveness were more likely to support specific principles of evolutionary psychology. In Study 2, a manipulation designed to boost self-perceived physical attractiveness increased endorsement of those same principles. Observer-rated physical attractiveness generally predicted individuals’ support of the theoretical principles better than did gender, political orientation, or self-esteem. Results suggest that those most likely to benefit according to certain predictions of evolutionary psychology are also those most likely to be sympathetic toward its relevant principles.
Highlights
Evolutionary psychology, which attempts to explain the origins of psychological mechanisms by appealing to biological adaptation, has emerged as a controversial approach [1], in the domain of sex differences in mate preferences [2,3,4]
The evolutionary origin of putative sex differences in human behavior is among the most disputed [5]. Among those contested sex differences, perhaps most controversial is the contention held by many evolutionary psychologists that, while men and women may pursue similar mating strategies in many contexts involving heterosexual pair-bonding, males have generally evolved to place more priority than females on physical attractiveness in a mate, whereas females have generally evolved to place more priority than males on securing a mate with the ability to provide resources [6,7,8]
We investigated the relationship between physical attractiveness and endorsement of evolutionary psychology as it pertains to sex differences in mating behavior
Summary
Evolutionary psychology, which attempts to explain the origins of psychological mechanisms by appealing to biological adaptation, has emerged as a controversial approach [1], in the domain of sex differences in mate preferences [2,3,4]. The evolutionary origin of putative sex differences in human behavior is among the most disputed [5]. Among those contested sex differences, perhaps most controversial is the contention held by many evolutionary psychologists that, while men and women may pursue similar mating strategies in many contexts involving heterosexual pair-bonding, males have generally evolved to place more priority than females on physical attractiveness in a mate, whereas females have generally evolved to place more priority than males on securing a mate with the ability to provide resources [6,7,8].
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