Biology subjects

Holzleitner, I. J.

Publications and source records attributed to Holzleitner, I. J..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

Facial masculinity is only weakly correlated with handgrip strength in young adult women

ObjectivesAncestrally, strength is likely to have played a critical role in determining the ability to obtain and retain resources and the allocation of social status among humans. Responses to facial cues of strength are therefore thought to play an important role in human social interaction. Although many researchers have proposed that sexually dimorphic facial morphology is reliably correlated with physical strength, evidence for this hypothesis is somewhat mixed. Moreover, to date, only one study has investigated the putative relationship between facial masculinity and physical strength in women. Consequently, we tested for correlations between handgrip strength and objective measures of face-shape masculinity.\n\nMethods531 women took part in the study. We measured each participants handgrip strength (dominant hand). Sexual dimorphism of face shape was objectively measured from each face photograph using two methods: discriminant analysis and vector analysis. These methods use shape components derived from principal component analyses of facial landmarks to measure the probability of the face being classified as male (discriminant analysis method) or to locate the face on a female-male continuum (vector analysis method).\n\nResultsOur analyses revealed that handgrip strength is, at best, only weakly correlated with facial masculinity in women. There was a weak significant association between handgrip strength and one measure of womens facial masculinity. The relationship between handgrip strength and our other measure of womens facial masculinity was not significant.\n\nDiscussionTogether, these results do not support the hypothesis that face-shape masculinity is an important cue of physical strength, at least in women.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2018

Does the strength of women’s attraction to male vocal masculinity track changes in steroid hormones?

Recent studies that either used luteinizing hormone tests to confirm the timing of ovulation or measured steroid hormones from saliva have found little evidence that womens preferences for facial or body masculinity track within-subject changes in womens fertility or hormonal status. Fewer studies using these methods have examined womens preferences for vocal masculinity, however, and those that did report mixed results. Consequently, we used a longitudinal design and measured steroid hormones from saliva to test for evidence of hormonal regulation of womens (N=351) preferences for two aspects of male vocal masculinity (low pitch and low formants). Analyses suggested that preferences for masculine pitch, but not masculine formants, may track within-woman changes in estradiol. Although these results present some evidence for the hypothesis that within-subject hormones regulate womens attraction to masculine men, we do not discount the possibility that the effect of estradiol on pitch preferences in the current study is a false positive.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2017

No evidence for correlations between handgrip strength and sexually dimorphic acoustic properties of voices

ObjectivesRecent research on the signal value of masculine physical characteristics in men has focused on the possibility that such characteristics are valid cues of physical strength. However, evidence that sexually dimorphic vocal characteristics are correlated with physical strength is equivocal. Consequently, we undertook a further test for possible relationships between physical strength and masculine vocal characteristics.\n\nMethodsWe tested the putative relationships between White UK (N=115) and Chinese (N=106) participants handgrip strength (a widely used proxy for general upper-body strength) and five sexually dimorphic acoustic properties of voices: fundamental frequency (F0), fundamental frequencys standard deviation (F0-SD), formant dispersion (Df), formant position (Pf), and estimated vocal-tract length (VTL).\n\nResultsAnalyses revealed no clear evidence that stronger individuals had more masculine voices.\n\nConclusionsOur results do not support the hypothesis that masculine vocal characteristics are a valid cue of physical strength.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2017

Women’s preferences for facial masculinity are not related to their hormonal status

Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial attractiveness judgments, evidence that preferences for masculine characteristics in mens faces are related to womens hormonal status is equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest ever longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of womens preferences for facial masculinity (N=584). Analyses showed no compelling evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in womens salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subject and between-subject comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of mens faces, particularly when assessing mens attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between womens preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2017

Within-Woman Hormone-Attractiveness Correlations Are Not Simply Byproducts Of Between-Women Hormone-Attractiveness Correlations

Putative associations between sex hormones and attractive physical characteristics in women are central to many theories of human physical attractiveness and mate choice. Although such theories have become very influential, evidence that physically attractive and unattractive women have different hormonal profiles is equivocal. Consequently, we investigated hypothesized relationships between salivary estradiol and progesterone and two aspects of womens physical attractiveness that are commonly assumed to be correlated with levels of these hormones: facial attractiveness (N=249) and waist-to-hip ratio (N=247). Our analyses revealed no evidence that women with more attractive faces or lower (i.e., more attractive) waist-to-hip ratios had higher levels of estradiol or progesterone. These results do not support the influential hypothesis that between-woman differences in physical attractiveness are related to estradiol and/or progesterone.

animal behavior and cognition↗