Do humans prefer altruistic mates? Testing a link between sexual selection and altruism towards non-relatives

Authors: Phillips, Tim¹; Barnard, Chris¹; Ferguson, Eamonn²; Reader, Tom¹

Source: British Journal of Psychology, Volume 99, Number 4, November 2008 , pp. 555-572(18)

Publisher: British Psychological Society

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Abstract:

Humans are often seen as unusual in displaying altruistic behaviour towards non-relatives. Here we outline and test a hypothesis that human altruistic traits evolved as a result of sexual selection. We develop a psychometric scale to measure mate preference towards altruistic traits (the MPAT scale). We then seek evidence of whether mate choice on the basis of altruistic traits is present and find it in one study (N=170 couples). We also predict that a stronger female MPAT, as measured by responses to the MPAT scale, will be expressed - a result found in all three studies (Ns=380, 340, and 398). Both sets of results are consistent with the hypothesized link between human altruism towards non-relatives and sexual selection.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1348/000712608X298467

Affiliations: 1: School of Biology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK 2: School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

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