Facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men

Abstract Trust is essential in initiating social relationships. Due to the differential evolution of sex hormones as well as the fitness burdens of producing offspring, evaluations of a potential mating partner’s trustworthiness likely differ across sexes. Here, we explore unknown sex-specific effec...

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Autores principales:	Johanna Brustkern, Markus Heinrichs, Mirella Walker, Bastian Schiller
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/287ca06eb0b742e6ae8d884ba803af21
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:287ca06eb0b742e6ae8d884ba803af212021-11-21T12:20:40ZFacial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men10.1038/s41598-021-01775-52045-2322https://doaj.org/article/287ca06eb0b742e6ae8d884ba803af212021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01775-5https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Trust is essential in initiating social relationships. Due to the differential evolution of sex hormones as well as the fitness burdens of producing offspring, evaluations of a potential mating partner’s trustworthiness likely differ across sexes. Here, we explore unknown sex-specific effects of facial attractiveness and threat on trusting other-sex individuals. Ninety-three participants (singles; 46 women) attracted by the other sex performed an incentivized trust game. They had to decide whether to trust individuals of the other sex represented by a priori-created face stimuli gradually varying in the intensities of both attractiveness and threat. Male and female participants trusted attractive and unthreatening-looking individuals more often. However, whereas male participants’ trust behavior was affected equally by attractiveness and threat, female participants’ trust behavior was more strongly affected by threat than by attractiveness. This indicates that a partner’s high facial attractiveness might compensate for high facial threat in male but not female participants. Our findings suggest that men and women prioritize attractiveness and threat differentially, with women paying relatively more attention to threat cues inversely signaling parental investment than to attractiveness cues signaling reproductive fitness. This difference might be attributable to an evolutionary, biologically sex-specific decision regarding parental investment and reproduction behavior.Johanna BrustkernMarkus HeinrichsMirella WalkerBastian SchillerNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Johanna Brustkern Markus Heinrichs Mirella Walker Bastian Schiller Facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men
description	Abstract Trust is essential in initiating social relationships. Due to the differential evolution of sex hormones as well as the fitness burdens of producing offspring, evaluations of a potential mating partner’s trustworthiness likely differ across sexes. Here, we explore unknown sex-specific effects of facial attractiveness and threat on trusting other-sex individuals. Ninety-three participants (singles; 46 women) attracted by the other sex performed an incentivized trust game. They had to decide whether to trust individuals of the other sex represented by a priori-created face stimuli gradually varying in the intensities of both attractiveness and threat. Male and female participants trusted attractive and unthreatening-looking individuals more often. However, whereas male participants’ trust behavior was affected equally by attractiveness and threat, female participants’ trust behavior was more strongly affected by threat than by attractiveness. This indicates that a partner’s high facial attractiveness might compensate for high facial threat in male but not female participants. Our findings suggest that men and women prioritize attractiveness and threat differentially, with women paying relatively more attention to threat cues inversely signaling parental investment than to attractiveness cues signaling reproductive fitness. This difference might be attributable to an evolutionary, biologically sex-specific decision regarding parental investment and reproduction behavior.
format	article
author	Johanna Brustkern Markus Heinrichs Mirella Walker Bastian Schiller
author_facet	Johanna Brustkern Markus Heinrichs Mirella Walker Bastian Schiller
author_sort	Johanna Brustkern
title	Facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men
title_short	Facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men
title_full	Facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men
title_fullStr	Facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men
title_full_unstemmed	Facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men
title_sort	facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/287ca06eb0b742e6ae8d884ba803af21
work_keys_str_mv	AT johannabrustkern facialthreataffectstrustmorestronglythanfacialattractivenessinwomenthanitdoesinmen AT markusheinrichs facialthreataffectstrustmorestronglythanfacialattractivenessinwomenthanitdoesinmen AT mirellawalker facialthreataffectstrustmorestronglythanfacialattractivenessinwomenthanitdoesinmen AT bastianschiller facialthreataffectstrustmorestronglythanfacialattractivenessinwomenthanitdoesinmen
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Facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men

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