1. Women’s Dangerous World Beliefs Predict More Accurate Discrimination of Affiliative Facial Cues Christopher J. N. Lustgraaf, M.A.1, Mitch Brown, M.A. 1, Donald F. Sacco, PhD1, & Steven G. Young, PhD2 The University of Southern Mississippi1, The City University of New York-Baruch College2
Background
It is critical for humans to identify exploitative conspecifics and subsequently avoid them (Neuberg et al., 2011). Given cost asymmetries posed by sexual dimorphism, such accuracy in identifying trustworthy conspecifics should be especially apparent among women seeking to mitigate male-enacted violence (Sell et al., 2012).
Identifying others who would better facilitate protection from physical violence is especially critical in threatening environments. Acute activation of self-protection motives heightens accuracy in identifying trustworthy conspecifics and preferences for physically dominant male faces (in women) that would mitigate exploitation(Sacco et al., 2015; Young et al., 2015). Furthermore, women with greater dangerous world beliefs prefer physically stronger male bodies (Snyder et al., 2011).
Duchenne smiles are veridical cues of genuine affiliative interest and communicate greater cooperative intent among conspecifics , whereas posed smiles are perceived as deceptive (Krumhuber et al., 2007; Lustgraaf et al., 2015). Since Duchenne smiles communicate genuine emotion, conspecifics displaying them may ultimately be perceived as more trustworthy, thus less likely to be exploitative.
Since dangerous world beliefs assist women in identifying less-exploitative conspecifics, women may also have heightened perceptual acuity toward Duchenne smiles as a cue of genuine affiliative interest as a function of such beliefs.
Figure 1. Example target faces with a Duchenne (left) and non-Duchenne smile (right)
Results
Accuracy (d’)
There was a significant Participant Sex × BDW interaction, which prompted us to individually correlate accuracy with BDW for both sexes (p=0.046, ηp2=0.027)
Women were marginally more accurate at discriminating between real and fake smiles (r=0.194, p=0.072)
No relation emerged for men (r=-0.144, p=0.265)
The magnitude s of these correlations were significantly different from each other (Z=2.01, p=0.044)
Criterion (β)
No effects emerged for β, suggesting men and women did not differ in setting criterion as a function of BDW
Discussion
Because women would have experienced greater threat from men’s larger size historically, results seem sensible in that women’s dangerous world beliefs would predict their accuracy in identifying affiliative intent. Women’s accuracy could assist in identifying those who would be less likely to exploit them.
Men’s lack of accuracy related to disposition may be related to the affordance of their physical size to defend against exploitative conspecifics.
These results align with previous research indicating Duchenne smiles’ ability to communicate affiliative intent while implicating non-Duchenne smiles as deceptive (e.g., Lustgraaf et al., 2015; Mehu et al., 2007). Further, results seem sensible in light of women’s greater accuracy in emotional recognition (e.g., Hall & Matsumoto, 2004).
Method
Participants: 149 MTurk workers (62 men, 87 women)
Material
Smile Discrimination Task: Participants categorized 20 images of an actor exhibiting “real” or “fake” smiles(Figure 1) while categorizing each face as such (Del Giudice & Colle, 2007). We calculated accuracy using d’ and criterion using β.
Belief in a Dangerous World (BDW): 12-item scale assessing dispositional beliefs of the world being a dangerous place (Altemeyer, 1988)
Notes
Data presented on this poster are published in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences.