Environmental stress effects on appetite: Changing desire for high- and low-energy foods depends on the nature of the perceived threat

It is well-documented that harsh environmental conditions influence appetite and food choice. However, the experience of environmental harshness is complex and shaped by several underlying dimensions, notably threats to one's social support, economic prospects, and physical safety. Here, we examined the differential effects of these three dimensions of environmental harshness on desire for specific food items. We first showed 564 participants images of 30 food items. Next, they rated how much they desired each item. The participants were then randomly assigned to a condition where they read one of six scenario stories that described someone's current living conditions. Each scenario story emphasized one of the three dimensions (social support, economic prospects, physical safety), with two levels (safe, harsh). Following this, the participants once again rated how desirable each food item was. The results showed that exposure to cues of low social support and high physical threat reduce the desire to eat, whereas cues of economic harshness had little effect. Further analysis revealed a significant interaction between energy level of different foods and perceived threat to physical safety. These findings are important in helping to understand how current environmental conditions influence changes in appetite and desire for different kinds of food items.

Sense or non-sense? a critical discussion of a recent evolutionary–cognitive approach to “folk-economic beliefs”

Laypeople hold beliefs about economics and policy issues—so-called folk-economic beliefs (FEBs)—that are often wrong or misleading according to professional economists. Here, I critically discuss a recent evolutionary–cognitive approach to understanding folk-economic beliefs. According to this approach (Boyer & Petersen 2018a), some economic beliefs are more prevalent than others, because such beliefs (i.e., folk-economic beliefs) resonate with evolved features of the human mind. I refer to this as the “FEB hypothesis”. A central challenge to the FEB hypothesis, with its heavy reliance on universal cognitive features, is to explain individual and cultural differences in economic beliefs and behavior. This challenge is the starting point for the discussion. Overall, the conclusion of this paper is that the FEB hypothesis relies on unnecessarily strong and controversial theoretical assumptions (e.g., “massive modularity” and the “Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness”), and that it overlooks important findings from adjacent fields, but that the FEB hypothesis, following some modifications inspired by Dual Inheritance Theory, can be integrated with robust findings from the rest of the evolutionary, cognitive, and anthropological sciences, as well as standard political psychology. Based on this discussion, the paper ends with brief reflections on how to correct inaccurate folk-economic beliefs.

Evolutionary perspectives on human sex differences and their discontents

Evolutionary explanations of human behavior have produced many new insights, but also much resistance. This essay examines 2 books on sex differences written with very different approaches. Rosemary Hopcroft'sEvolution and Genderargues that men and women can be both equal and different and that average biological differences between the sexes, which are often small, do not threaten the ideal of political equality. In Hopcroft's view, understanding these differences with the help of evolutionary theory is aconditionfor the realization of equality, not an obstacle. Saini'sInferiordepicts an opposition between an ‘old science’, portraying sex differences as immense, and a ‘new science’, with most sex differences being so small that they cannot possibly account for social trends. WhileEvolution and Gendergives a concise and representative view of current evolutionary research on sex differences,Inferiorclaims that obsessions pervade entire research areas.Evolution and Genderhas a careful tone, whileInferioroften emphasizes the allegedly ‘controversial’ nature of studies. The essay ends with reflections on how to best communicate the results of evolutionary psychology to the public.

Altruism, costly signaling, and withholding information in a sport charity campaign

Are more generous altruists more likely to signal their altruism? According to the theory of costly signaling, altruists signal their altruism in order to enhance their reputations; this theory predicts that above-average altruists will be most likely to signal their altruism. However, previous empirical research has found that average altruists are more likely to signal their altruism than above- and below-average altruists, suggesting adherence to an egalitarian norm. Studies of real-life of altruism, reputation management, and signaling are rare. Here, we examined a sport charity database to look at the behavior of donors and fundraising runners. We observed that average donors are the most likely to publish both their names and the amount, whereas below-average donors are more likely to publish only their name (and hide the amount), and extremely generous donors are more likely to publish only the amount (and hide their name) than less generous donors. We also found that runners who targeted a higher sum or a longer distance garnered larger sums through larger individual donations. These results support egalitarian theories of signaling and show that humans actively manipulate the information about their altruistic act to maximize their reputation.

Self-perceived mate value influences intrasexual competitiveness attitudes in young people of both sexes

Individuals vary in their intrasexual competitiveness attitude, i.e., an important variable reflecting the potential threat or the extent to which one perceives other individuals of the same sex as social or mating rivals. In this study, we investigated the relationship between self-perceived mate value, a construct usually linked to intersexual selection, and intrasexual competitiveness attitude. We postulated that those psychological traits that increase mate value are related to psychological traits underlying intrasexual competitiveness attitude. The results obtained from a sample of 711 young participants of both sexes (M= 16.93 years ± SD = 0.86) indicated that mate value was positively related to intrasexual competitiveness attitude. Specifically, the subscales ofFear of Failure,Wealth, andLookswere positive predictors of intrasexual competitiveness attitude. Moreover, theLookssubscale was more relevant in determining intrasexual competitiveness attitude in women than in men. These three subscales were part of the same factorial structure that appears to be indicative of a self-promoting strategy based on the ostentation of traits through attitudes. As a conclusion, we argue that the individual differences in intrasexual competitiveness attitudes are associated with the differences in psychological features usually associated with intersexual selection.

What feeds the green-eyed monster: sociodemographic and sociosexual determinants of jealousy

Although studies consistently show gender differences in emotional vs. sexual jealousy, a substantial part of variance in jealousy is left unexplained. Here, we present two studies with aim to explore other correlates of jealousy, aside from gender. In the first online study (n = 2970), we found that participants who reported being more upset by the emotional infidelity scenario were older and more educated and had a higher income than those who reported being more upset by the sexual infidelity scenario. Those who expressed greater sexual jealousy gave higher ratings of importance of potential partner's mate value. Heterosexual women were more likely to report emotional jealousy than non-heterosexual women. Among men, sexual orientation did not predict type of jealousy. As the role of reproductive status was largely neglected in previous research, in the second study, we used a continuous measure to explore jealousy as a function of age (reproductive vs. post-reproductive; n = 199). We found that the older participants were less jealous overall, and that the previously reported gender differences disappeared in the post-reproductive group. These results provide further support for the notion that jealousy is a context-specific, adaptive response, which diminishes in both intensity and specificity as the threat that it was designed for wanes.