Historical and experimental evidence of sexual selection for war heroism
Historical and experimental evidence of sexual selection for war heroism
We report three studies which test a sexual selection hypothesis for male war heroism. Based on evolutionary theories of mate choice we hypothesize that men signal their fitness through displaying heroism in combat. First, we report the results of an archival study on US-American soldiers who fought in World War II. We compare proxies for reproductive success between a control sample of 449 regular veterans and 123 surviving Medal of Honor recipients of WWII. Results suggest that the heroes sired more offspring than the regular veterans. Supporting a causal link between war heroism and mating success, we then report the results of two experimental studies (N's = 92 and 340). We find evidence that female participants specifically regard men more sexually attractive if they are war heroes. This effect is absent for male participants judging female war heroes, suggesting that bravery in war is a gender specific signal. Finally, we discuss possible implications of our results
367-373
Rusch, H.
c1450681-e6bb-4afc-8fbb-cfdb8bc55eb6
Leunissen, J.M.
7f515e33-ceb7-49c8-95e9-d327a641f965
Van Vugt, M.
321c0e60-fcf6-485c-b85f-6ae83c2479ce
20 February 2015
Rusch, H.
c1450681-e6bb-4afc-8fbb-cfdb8bc55eb6
Leunissen, J.M.
7f515e33-ceb7-49c8-95e9-d327a641f965
Van Vugt, M.
321c0e60-fcf6-485c-b85f-6ae83c2479ce
Rusch, H., Leunissen, J.M. and Van Vugt, M.
(2015)
Historical and experimental evidence of sexual selection for war heroism.
Evolution and Human Behavior, 36 (5), .
(doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.02.005).
Abstract
We report three studies which test a sexual selection hypothesis for male war heroism. Based on evolutionary theories of mate choice we hypothesize that men signal their fitness through displaying heroism in combat. First, we report the results of an archival study on US-American soldiers who fought in World War II. We compare proxies for reproductive success between a control sample of 449 regular veterans and 123 surviving Medal of Honor recipients of WWII. Results suggest that the heroes sired more offspring than the regular veterans. Supporting a causal link between war heroism and mating success, we then report the results of two experimental studies (N's = 92 and 340). We find evidence that female participants specifically regard men more sexually attractive if they are war heroes. This effect is absent for male participants judging female war heroes, suggesting that bravery in war is a gender specific signal. Finally, we discuss possible implications of our results
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Rusch Leunissen Van Vugt 2015.pdf
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Published date: 20 February 2015
Organisations:
Psychology
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Local EPrints ID: 374564
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/374564
ISSN: 1090-5138
PURE UUID: 6417b10f-112e-4d2b-9368-4fc72feeb94f
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Date deposited: 20 Feb 2015 16:24
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 19:08
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Author:
H. Rusch
Author:
J.M. Leunissen
Author:
M. Van Vugt
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