Sexual selection and the evolution of altruism: males are more altruistic and cooperative towards attractive females

Abstract

Explaining altruism through an evolutionary lens has been a challenge for evolutionary theorists. Where altruism towards kin is well understood through kin selection, altruism towards non-kin is an evolutionary puzzle. Contemporary research has found that, through a game-theoretic framework, sexual selection could be an explanation for the evolution of altruism. Research suggests that males are more altruistic towards females they are interested in engaging with, sexually or romantically when distributing stakes in economic games. This study, adopting a between-groups design, tested the sexual selection explanation for altruism by asking participants to self-report altruistic and cooperative intention when reading moral scenarios accompanied by attractive or unattractive images. We find that participants, particularly males, report being more altruistic and cooperative when viewing an attractive image of a female. This study replicates the sexual selection hypothesis in explaining altruism through an alternative experimental framework to game theory.

The synergistic effect of prosociality and physical attractiveness on mate desirability

“…The second experiment follows a similar procedure to that of Experiment 1; however, behaviour in the trust game, considered here to be a reliable measure of trustworthiness (Berg et al, 1995;Evans & Revelle, 2008;Glaeser et al, 2000), was used. The trust game has been used previously in research into the role of prosocial traits in mate choice (Bhogal et al, 2016a;Tognetti et al, 2014). Arguably, finding a loyal and trustworthy partner may be even more important than finding a partner who is merely generous.…”

“…Prosociality is also positively linked to mating success (Arnocky, Pich e, Albert, Ouellette, & Barclay, 2016) and the likelihood of entering a relationship (Stavrova & Ehlebracht, 2015) as well as there being evidence of assortative mating for prosociality among partners (Tognetti, Berticat, Raymond, & Faurie, 2014). Due to female choice being a stronger selection force due to differences in parental investment (Trivers, 1972), the majority of this research has concentrated on showing the importance of prosociality in women's mate choice (e.g., Bhogal, Galbraith, & Manktelow, 2016a;Bhogal et al, 2016b;Farrelly, 2011;Van Vugt & Iredale, 2013). Due to female choice being a stronger selection force due to differences in parental investment (Trivers, 1972), the majority of this research has concentrated on showing the importance of prosociality in women's mate choice (e.g., Bhogal, Galbraith, & Manktelow, 2016a;Bhogal et al, 2016b;Farrelly, 2011;Van Vugt & Iredale, 2013).…”

“…Furthermore, it has also been shown that prosocial individuals are consistently considered more desirable than their non-prosocial counterparts (Barclay, 2010;Farrelly, 2011Farrelly, , 2013Guo, Feng, & Wang, 2015;Moore et al, 2013;Oda, Okuda, Takeda, & Hiraishi, 2014;Oda, Shibata, Kiyonari, Takeda, & Matsumoto-Oda, 2013;Phillips, Barnard, Ferguson, & Reader, 2008). Due to female choice being a stronger selection force due to differences in parental investment (Trivers, 1972), the majority of this research has concentrated on showing the importance of prosociality in women's mate choice (e.g., Bhogal, Galbraith, & Manktelow, 2016a;Bhogal et al, 2016b;Farrelly, 2011;Van Vugt & Iredale, 2013). However, studies that examined both sexes showed prosociality to be important in men's mate choice as well (e.g., Farrelly, 2013;Moore et al, 2013;Stavrova & Ehlebracht, 2015).…”

Mutual mate choice drives the desirability of altruism in relationships

“…The possible role of altruistic behaviours in romantic relationships has been widely investigated recently, mainly based on the premise that such traits signal qualities that are adaptive in mate choice (Miller, 2000(Miller, , 2007. As such, it has been shown empirically that individuals behave more altruistically in a potential mating scenario (Bhogal, Bartlett, & Farrelly, in press;Bhogal, Galbraith, & Manktelow, 2016, 2017Farrelly, Lazarus, & Roberts, 2007;Iredale, Vugt, & Dunbar, 2008;Raihani & Smith, 2015;Tognetti, Berticat, Raymond, & Faurie, 2012;Tognetti, Dubois, Faurie, & Willinger, 2016) and also that having an altruistic/prosocial character leads to greater mating success in the real world (Arnocky, Piché, Albert, Ouellette, & Barclay, 2016;Stavrova & Ehlebracht, 2015).…”

Physical Attractiveness and Altruism in Two Modified Dictator Games

“…Altruism is attractive because it signals concern for others (Barclay, 2010). Furthermore, recent evidence suggests that sexual/dating intention are drivers of altruism in men (sexual intention leads to higher altruism and cooperation in men; see Bhogal, Galbraith, & Manktelow, 2016a). As a result, we should expect men to showcase altruism toward attractive women in a variety of contexts.…”