Abstract Purpose The aim of the study was to determine whether there were any differences in women’s evaluations of facial masculinity, beardedness, body shape and muscularity according to their age and menopausal status. Methods The women assessed warp-modified photographs of a man in which the prominence of his secondary sexual characteristics was altered in three areas of evaluation: physical attractiveness, degree of aggression and social dominance. The material consisted of 122 Polish women, aged 19–70 years (mean age: 45.6 y., SD = 15.1 y.), representing three menopausal stages: premenopause, perimenopause and postmenopause. Results Significant differences in women’s assessments were found. Both age and menopausal status had a significant impact on the rating of physical attractiveness. Older women rated men with medium and full facial hair as more attractive, while menopausal status had no effect. Postmenopausal women rate V shaped bodies as less attractive. Women’s age had no effect on their ratings of male body shape attractiveness. Older women rated men with light muscularity as more attractive than younger women. No effect on menopausal status was found. There was no significant effect of age nor menopausal status on ratings of aggression and social dominance. Conclusion The degree of development of the secondary sexual characteristics is an important biological signal to others in the population, as it indicates the biological fitness of the individual. A man with outstanding sexual characteristics is perceived by women as a carrier of ‘good genes’, which indicates his readiness to undertake the parental investment.

Burnout is a pandemic and costly public health problem. Studies link leadership and peer behavior to burnout, but explanations are constrained to proximate mechanisms. Evolutionary models describe depression as an ancient appeasement response to avert dangerous physical conflict with higher-ranking group members and coalitions. In turn, psychometric research consistently finds high construct overlap between burnout and depression. This shared phenomenology suggests that burnout in response to workplace social stressors reflects appeasement. The purpose of the current study is to test the relationship between rank and competition related variables and burnout. Participants (N = 256) completed an online survey comprised of burnout and rank-related variables. Domineering leadership, self-perceived low rank, negative workgroup gossip, and perceptions of physical vulnerability predicted burnout. Negative workgroup gossip mediated the relationship between dominant leaders and burnout. Results suggest that occupational burnout may be rooted in an ancient appeasement response to powerful individuals and coalitions. Clarifying evolutionary mechanisms of burnout can inform prevention and treatment, while deepening our understanding of burnout as a construct.

PurposePsychology and social science research offer some promising work in the field of decision-making science. However, given the qualitative nature of much of this research, understanding some physiological bases of decision-making may assist by providing more objectivity. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to explore hormonal and neurophysiological biomarkers of stress relative to strategic decision making, with and without an accompanying exercise stress.MethodsTwenty-one competitive male chess players were recruited to this study. On two separate occasions prefrontal cortex (a brain region involved in executive decision making which is sensitive to stress) hemodynamics were measured while participants played a standardized game of chess against a computer bot, once after exposure to a physical stressor (experimental condition) and once without (control condition). Participant’s stress hormones (testosterone and cortisol) were also measured in the morning of each test and immediately prior to the game of chess.ResultsParticipants were more likely to win under experimental conditions. Interestingly, there was no difference between conditions for baseline testosterone and cortisol concentrations, and the exercise protocol did not elicit a hormonal change. However, significant differences were observed for prefrontal cortex hemodynamics following the physical stressor (vs. control condition), and changes in prefrontal cortex hemodynamics were observed as games progressed (p ≤ 0.034).ConclusionOur results speculatively suggest several independent pathways exist to explain how stress affects decision making. This work opens several vistas for future research exploring decision making using neurohormonal/physiological biomarkers.