People can assess men’s strength from their bodies, faces, and even their voice.
Theories of animal conflict predict that humans should have an evolved specialization for assessing fighting ability. See Human adaptations for the visual assessment of strength and fighting ability from the body and face by Aaron Sell, Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, Daniel Sznycer, Christopher von Rueden, and Michael Gurven in Proceedings of the Royal Society London, (Biological Sciences), October 2008. Click here for more on Adaptations for assessing physical strength.
Cross cultural research demonstrates that the male voice contains cues of fighting ability and upper body strength. See Adaptations in humans for assessing physical strength from the voice by Aaron Sell, Gregory Bryant, Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, Daniel Sznycer, Christopher von Rueden, Andre Krauss, and Michael Gurven in Proceedings of the Royal Society London, (Biological Sciences), 277, 3509-3518.
Why does the anger face look like it does?
Is the anger face arbitrary, or is there a functional advantage that caused the specific appearance of the anger face to evolve? Sell et al present evidence that The human anger face evolved to enhance cues of strength. Click here to read the press release explaining the logic behind this study.
Is there a relationship between men’s strength and their sense of entitlement–and does it follow an ancestral logic? See these…
Do humans view issues of economic redistribution through the lens of cognitive adaptations for contests over resources? To find out, see The ancestral logic of politics: Upper-body strength regulates men’s assertion of self-interest over economic redistribution. by Michael Bang Petersen, Daniel Sznycer, Aaron Sell, Leda Cosmides, and John Tooby in Psychological Science, 2013.
Why does anger exist, what is its evolved function, and why are some people more anger prone than others? See Formidability and the logic of human anger by Aaron Sell, Leda Cosmides, and John Tooby, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 2009. Click here for more
See also: Physically stronger men are more militant: A test across four countries.
