HC 8

Question 1

Sexual Conflict
• conflict about sexual access
• conflict between freedom of mate choice and mate guarding
• male rape that conflicts with female choice

Answer 1

– Vladimir wants to have sex at the end of the first date, whereas his date, Mashenka, prefers to wait (conflict about sexual access)
– Sue wants to go to a party without her husband Marc to check out whether there might be a better mate for her, whereas Marc wants to keep Sue at home to prevent her from interacting with other men (conflict between freedom of mate choice and mate guarding)
– Silvio gets Maria drunk and forces her to have sex while she is incapacitated (male rape that conflicts with female choice)

Question 2

Explain Sexual conflict

Answer 2

• When the genetic interests of a male and a female diverge, sexual conflict can ensue

– “a conflict between the evolutionary interests of individuals of the two sexes” (Parker, 2006, p. 235)
– “Evolutionary interests” =“genetic interests”

Question 3

Strategic Interference Theory (3)

Answer 3

– Strategic interference occurs when a person employs a particular strategy to achieve a goal and another person blocks the successful enactment of that strategy
– Strategic interference is predicted to occur whenever members of one sex violate the desires of members of the opposite sex
– “Negative” emotions such as anger, rage, and distress represent evolved solutions to the problems of strategic interference
• Alert people to the sources of interference and prompt action designed to counteract it

Question 4

Conflict over Sexual Access

• Inferences about Sexual Intent

Answer 4

Men sometimes infer sexual interest on the part of a woman when it does not exist

Question 5

Conflict over Sexual Access

• Deception about Commitment

Answer 5

Men report intentionally deceiving women about emotional commitment

Question 6

Conflict over Sexual Access

• Cognitive Biases in Sexual Mind Reading (2)

Answer 6

– Sexual overperception bias minimizes the costs of missed sexual opportunities
• M >F

– Commitment skepticism bias
• Women have evolved an inferential bias designed to underestimate men’s actual level of romantic commitment to her early in courtship
• F> M

Question 7

Mating conflict in humans

• Error management theory

Answer 7

Fear incoherent to danger

Sexual content detector incoherent M vs F

Question 8

Sexual Aggression and Evolved Defenses Against Sexual Aggression
• Sexual Harassment

Answer 8

“unwanted and unsolicited sexual attention from other individuals in the workplace” (Terpstra & Cook, 1985)

– Victims of sexual harassment are typically women
• Complaints filed with the Illinois Department of Human Rights over a two-year period
– women filed seventy-six complaints
– men filed five

Study of 10,644 federal government employees
– 42 percent of the women experienced sexual harassment
– 15 percent of the men experienced sexual harassment

Question 9

Do Men Have Evolved Rape Adaptations?

• Rape-as-adaptation theory

Answer 9

– Proposes that selection has favored ancestral males who raped in certain circumstances
– Six specialized adaptations might have evolved in the male mind (Thornhill & Palmer, 2000)

Question 10

Do Men Have Evolved Rape Adaptations? (6)

Answer 10

• Assessment of the vulnerability of potential rape victims (e.g., during warfare or in non-warfare contexts in which a woman lacks the protection of husband or kin)

> > > • A context-sensitive “switch” that motivates rape in men who lack sexual access to consenting partners (e.g., “loser” males who cannot obtain mates through regular channels of courtship)«<

• A preference for fertile rape victims
• An increase in sperm counts of rape ejaculates compared with those
occurring in consensual sex
• Sexual arousal to the use of force or to female resistance to consensual sex
• Marital rape in circumstances in which sperm competition might exist (e.g., when there is evidence or suspicion of female infidelity)

Question 11

Do Men Have Evolved Rape Adaptations?

• Individual Differences in Rape Proclivity

Answer 11

Men differ in their proclivity toward rape
• Men asked to imagine that they had the possibility of forcing sex on a woman against her will when there was no chance of being discovered
– 35 percent indicated a likelihood of rape

Question 12

Do Men Have Evolved Rape Adaptations?

• By-product theory of rape

Answer 12

Rape is a non-designed and non-selected-for by-
product of other evolved mechanisms
• Male desire for sexual variety
• Desire for sex without investment
• Psychological sensitivity to sexual opportunities
• General capacity to use physical aggression to achieve a variety of goals

Question 13

Do Women Have Evolved Anti-rape Adaptations?
• If rape has been a recurrent hazard for women, what defenses might have evolved to lower the odds of becoming a victim? (2 hypothesis)

Answer 13

Several have been hypothesized:
• The formation of alliances with other males as “special friends” for protection (Smuts, 1992)
• Bodyguard hypothesis

Question 14

Do Women Have Evolved Anti-rape Adaptations?

• “bodyguard hypothesis”

Answer 14

Mate selection based on qualities of men such as physical size and social dominance that deter other men from sexual aggression

Question 15

Do Women Have Evolved Antirape Adaptations? (3)

Answer 15

• The cultivation of female–female coalitions for protection (Smuts, 1992)
• The development of specialized fears that motivate women to avoid situations in which they might be in danger of rape (Chavanne & Gallup, 1998)
• The avoidance of risky activities during ovulation to decrease the odds of sexual assault when they are most likely to conceive (Chavanne & Gallup, 1998)

Question 16

Jealous Conflict
• Evolutionary psychologists have hypothesized that the cognitive/emotional complex of jealousy, and behavioral output of tactics of mate retention, have evolved to deal with…? (3)

Answer 16

– fending off mate poachers
– deterring a mate’s sexual infidelity
– retaining a mate for the long run

Question 17

Contexts Influencing the Intensity of Mate-Retention Tactics

• Women vs Men

Answer 17

For men:
• Young, Attractive Partner
• Low Mate Value Self
For women:
• Income and Status Striving of the Husband

Question 18

Evolutionary Theories of Dominance, Prestige, and Status

• An evolutionary theory of status must (3)

Answer 18

– Specify the adaptive problems that are solved by
ascending status hierarchies
– Explain why individuals accept subordinate positions within hierarchies
– Predict which tactics people will use to negotiate hierarchies

Question 19

Evolved status psychology

• Psychological adaptations for: (4)

Answer 19

– Assessing social status
– Improving your status
– Managing social status
– Capitalizing status into reproductive opportunities

Question 20

An Evolutionary Theory of Sex Differences in Status Striving

• Elevated dominance and status can give males greater sexual access along two paths:

Answer 20

1. Dominant men might be preferred as mates by women
   • High-status men can offer women greater protection and increased access to resources that can be used to help support them, and their children, and perhaps even access to better health care (Buss, 1994b; Hill & Hurtado, 1996)
2. – Dominant men gain increased access to women through intrasexual domination (Puts, 2010)
   • Dominant men might simply take the mates of subordinate men, leaving these low- ranking men helpless to retaliate (Bathsheba syndrome)

Question 21

An Evolutionary Theory of Sex Differences in Status Striving

• Woman in polygynous societies?

Answer 21

• Women in polygynous societies often prefer to share with other cowives a bounty of resources that a high- ranking man can provide, rather than have all of the smaller share of resources held by a lower-ranking man (Betzig, 1986)

Question 22

Status and Sexual Opportunity

• Evidence shows? (2)

Answer 22

• Empirical evidence supports the evolutionary rationale for predicting a sex difference in the strength of the motivation to achieve high status
• All available evidence suggests that high status in men leads directly to increased sexual access to a larger number of women

Question 23

Determinants of Dominance

• Verbal and Nonverbal Indicators of Dominance: dominant individuals tend to? (6)

Answer 23

Dominant individuals tend to
• stand at full height, often facing the group, with hands
on hips and an expanded chest
• gaze a lot, looking at others while talking
• do not smile much
• touch others
• speak in a loud and low-pitched voice
• gesture by pointing to others

Question 24

Determinants of Dominance

• Testosterone and Dominance

Answer 24

High T levels in men might lead to dominating behaviors that lead to high status in some subcultures, but reciprocally, elevations in status appear to lead to rises in T levels

Question 25

Determinants of Dominance

– Submissive individuals tend to (7)

Answer 25

• stand bent rather than straight
• smile a lot
• speak softly
• listen while the other is speaking and give many deferential head nods
• speak less than those who are higher in status
• don’t interrupt others who are speaking
• address the high-status persons in the group, rather than the group as whole

Question 26

Determinants of Dominance
• Self-Esteem as a Status-Tracking Mechanism
– Sociometer Theory?

Answer 26

Proposes that self-esteem functions as a subjective indicator or gauge of other people’s evaluations
– An increase in self-esteem signals an increase in the degree to which one is socially included and accepted by others
– A loss of self-esteem follows from a downward shift in the degree to which one is included and accepted by others

Question 27

Evolutionary Theories of Dominance, Prestige, and Status

• Dominance vs Prestige?

Answer 27

• Dominance
– involves force or the threat of force
> Schoolyard bully or a mafia “made man” may attain status through an ability to inflict physical punishment on others
• Prestige
– “freely conferred deference”such as to leaders

Question 28

Prestige Signaling, Reputation, and Leadership (3)

Answer 28

• Individuals acquire prestige by displaying high levels of competence on tasks that groups value
• Displaying generosity by giving more than taking
• Making personal sacrifices that signal commitment to the group

Question 29

Evolutionary leadership theory (5)

Answer 29

• Leadership as an evolved mechanism to coordinate group members
• Leadership common across social species
• Leadership is human universal
• Fast and automatic judgments
• Underpinned by evolved psychological mechanisms (heuristics) to follow leaders:
– “Want to dominate, follow a physically strong individual”