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

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 sp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2009-02, Vol.276 (1656), p.575-584
Main Authors: Sell, Aaron, Cosmides, Leda, Tooby, John, Sznycer, Daniel, von Rueden, Christopher, Gurven, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Physiological - genetics
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aggression
Aggression - physiology
Body size
Estimate reliability
Evolutionary Psychology
Face
Female
Formidability
Human aggression
Humans
Legs
Male
Masculinity
Materials
Men
Middle Aged
Physical Fitness
Physical Strength
RHP
Selection, Genetic
Social Behavior
Testosterone
Visual Perception - genetics
Visual Perception - physiology
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2008.1177