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  • Human adaptations for the visual assessment of strength and fighting ability from the body and face

    Author(s)
    Sell, Aaron
    Cosmides, Leda
    Tooby, John
    Sznycer, Daniel
    von Rueden, Christopher
    Gurven, Michael
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Sell, Aaron N.
    Year published
    2009
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    Selection in species with aggressive social interactions favours the evolution of cognitive mechanisms for assessing physical formidability (fighting ability or resource-holding potential). The ability to accurately assess formidability in conspecifics has been documented in a number of non-human species, but has not been demonstrated in humans. Here, we report tests supporting the hypothesis that the human cognitive architecture includes mechanisms that assess fighting ability-mechanisms that focus on correlates of upper-body strength. Across diverse samples of targets that included US college students, Bolivian horticulturalists ...
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    Selection in species with aggressive social interactions favours the evolution of cognitive mechanisms for assessing physical formidability (fighting ability or resource-holding potential). The ability to accurately assess formidability in conspecifics has been documented in a number of non-human species, but has not been demonstrated in humans. Here, we report tests supporting the hypothesis that the human cognitive architecture includes mechanisms that assess fighting ability-mechanisms that focus on correlates of upper-body strength. Across diverse samples of targets that included US college students, Bolivian horticulturalists and Andean pastoralists, subjects in the US were able to accurately estimate the physical strength of male targets from photos of their bodies and faces. Hierarchical linear modelling shows that subjects were extracting cues of strength that were largely independent of height, weight and age, and that corresponded most strongly to objective measures of upper-body strength-even when the face was all that was available for inspection. Estimates of women's strength were less accurate, but still significant. These studies are the first empirical demonstration that, for humans, judgements of strength and judgements of fighting ability not only track each other, but accurately track actual upper-body strength.
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    Journal Title
    Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
    Volume
    276
    Issue
    1656
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.1177
    Subject
    Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified
    Biological Sciences
    Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
    Medical and Health Sciences
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/39112
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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