Posters
Morning Poster Session
Assortative mating across relationship domains
Previous findings indicate that human and non-human animals tend to mate assortatively for long-term relationships. The current research investigates how human’s minimum standards for mate value (i.e., a composite of multiple desirable traits) in ‘short-term’ as well as ‘long-term’ sexual partners vary as a function of their own mate value. Study 1 indicated differential assortative mating for long-term and short-term partners. Self-reported mate value predicted minimum standards for both long-term and short-term partners, although the relationship was stronger for long-term partner preference. Study 2 explored how individual differences in short-term sexual strategies influence assortative mating for mate value. A four-way interaction indicated that sociosexuality moderates assortative mating differently for men and women, and this difference was expressed differently between preferences for short-term and long-term partners. For long-term partners, mate value predicted minimum standards for both sexes equally regardless of sociosexuality. For short-term partners, women’s minimum standards for mate value were better predicted by their own mate value as sociosexuality decreased, whereas men’s minimum standards for mate value were better predicted by their own mate value as sociosexuality increased.
Sociosexual attitudes and behaviors: Why two factors are better than one
Sociosexuality has been described as "individual differences in willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations" (Simpson & Gangestad, 1991, p. 870). To measure sociosexuality, Simpson and Gangestad developed the seven-item Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI). Although the SOI contains both attitudinal and behavioral items, they are typically averaged together. The SOI has enjoyed growing popularity and has been cited 100 times through 2005, with 21 citations appearing in 2005 alone. Recently, the purported unidimensionality of the SOI has been criticized (Asendorpf & Penke, 2005; Voracek, 2005), yet no study (of which we are aware) has empirically addressed its possible dual-factor nature. The present study critically examined the dimensionality of the SOI and developed a more diagnostic scoring system for the SOI. Nearly 2,800 undergraduates completed the SOI and measures of narcissism and hostility. A series of confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the fit for a single-factor model was poor (χ2(14)=1,047, p<.01, CFI=.86, RMSEA=.16), whereas, for our dual-factor model, which allowed for separate behavioral and attitudinal components, the fit was good (χ2(12)=75, p<.01, CFI=.99, RMSEA=.043), and significantly better than the single-factor model (Δχ2(2)=972, p<.01). The single-factor SOI also masked differential relationships among SOI-attitude, SOI-behavior, and narcissism and hostility. These findings suggested that the SOI may not be a unidimensional measure, and need not be scored as such. Instead, we recommend scoring the SOI as separate behavioral (Items 1-3) and attitudinal (Items 2, 5-7) components; doing so allows researchers to make more diagnostic inferences regarding the relationships between sociosexuality and its many correlates.
A mediation hypothesis to explain the sex difference in reported number of sexual partners
Men may compare their number of sexual partners against those of other men in aid of assessing their social status. Specifically, they may conclude that men with more sexual partners have greater status. In study 1, men were more likely than women to use their perceived sexual success as a means of assessing status: accounting for the sex difference in reported sexual success. In study 2, men viewed a sexually successful man as more prestigious than women. This association between sexual success and perceived status among men may account for the tendency of men to over-report their sexual success in comparison to women. Perceiving sexual success as prestigious may be a mediator between participant's sex and their reported number of sexual partners.
"I felt bad but also got a sense of satisfaction": Mixed evaluations of revenge in romantic relationships
The purpose of the present study was to examine people's mixed evaluations of revenge within the context of romantic relationships. As part of a larger study aimed at identifying the parameters of revenge within romantic relationships, 88 undergraduates were interviewed. Participants were asked to talk about a specific time when they got even with a romantic partner and believe that it was (a) good to get even, (b) bad to get even, or (c) a time when they wanted to get even with a romantic partner but chose not to. Regardless of the type of revenge episode they were asked to recall, participants demonstrated mixed evaluations of revenge by expressing (1) why they thought revenge was both good and bad in their relationship, (2) how they felt both good/better and bad/guilty about seeking revenge, (3) why they thought revenge was good at the time but not now, (4) why it was uncharacteristic of them to seek revenge, and (5) how their motives for revenge paralleled their assertions for why they thought revenge was bad. The results suggest that people's cognitive and affective reactions to revenge against a romantic partner entail both positive and negative thoughts and feelings, that there is a disconnect between immediate affect-oriented responses and later cognitive-oriented evaluations of revenge, that there is an underlying conflict between adhering to existing social norms and seeking revenge, and that people's evaluations of revenge within romantic relationships are indeed mixed. Theoretical implications of these findings will be discussed.
The selective amplification of physical human beauty
Past studies have shown, to reduce dissonance, everyone becomes more attractive as "closing time" nears. In the present studies, we explore how motivation to affiliate also increases ratings of physical attractiveness. We propose that those who have higher motivation for affiliation perceive others to be more physically attractive compared to those who have low motivation for affiliation so that others who may not otherwise possess sufficient levels of beauty may, which could lead to initial contact to them by those motivated to affiliate. We hypothesized that those who score higher on shyness and those who have smaller social networks would manifest higher motivation for affiliation, and thus, be more likely to perceive others as attractive. Male participants (Study 1, n = 85) and female participants (Study 2, n = 66) completed questionnaires assessing shyness and size of social network, and rated the physical attractiveness of either an “unattractive” or “attractive” opposite-sex stimulus. Two conditions were used since the potential to become more attractive varies. In Study 1, males with few friends rated the unattractive female to be significantly more attractive than males with many friends which implies that males extend their social network by being less discriminating on a characteristic they value -- physical beauty. Study 2 found that shy females and females with few friends amplified the beauty of an attractive male stimulus while their counterparts did not which suggests that females may define their social network by quality not quantity.
Testing the sociometer: The role of self-esteem as a domain specific mediator
The current research tested the domain specificity sociometer model proposed by Kirkpatrick and Ellis (2001). Study 1 examined the association between relationship quality and the mediating role of state self-esteem (N=80) for participants in a current intimate heterosexual relationship. The DVs were relationship commitment and satisfaction, and friendship compatibility and investment, with state self-esteem, commitment, and satisfaction all measured pre/post. We hypothesised that manipulating mate value self-esteem would result in a change in perceived relationship quality in the intimate relationship domain but not the friendship domain. The results showed an interaction between the mating value manipulation and state self-esteem pre/post; an interaction between the manipulation and relationship commitment and satisfaction pre/post; and a relation between the manipulation and commitment that was mediated by self-esteem acting as a suppressor (Sobel’s z=2.6, p<.05) Similar suppressor mediational results were found with relationship satisfaction. The manipulation did not effect friendship investment, but did move friendship compatibility thus tentatively indicating domain specificity. Study 2 (N=82) replicated Study 1 and was conducted with participants not currently dating. Mate compatibility was substituted for relationship commitment and satisfaction. The results from this study strongly support the mediational domain specificity sociometer model. Explanations and implications for sociometer theory are discussed.
Up & Down, In & Out: Graphical icons are interpreted as the same conceptual primitives and preferences for them predict inter-group attitudes, resource distribution, and psychological well-being amongst Inuits, Shuar, Swiss, Danes, and Americans
We present the Circles in Relational Configuration Arrays (CIRCA), a new, non-verbal and iconic measure of conceptual primitives that structure a grammar of social relations. We first demonstrate that the abstract, spatio-relational primitives depicted by CIRCA are valid measures of specific social relationships (Study 1); that people’s interpretations of and preferences for CIRCA icons are internally consistent and temporally reliable (Study 2); and that people generate new icons of social relations by intuitively using the same conceptual primitives as utilized by CIRCA (Study 3). We then demonstrate that the domain of inter-group relations is structured by preferences for different CIRCA icons. Amongst other variables, such preferences predict SDO, RWA, multiculturalism, racism, xenophobia and mediate cross-national differences hereof (Study 4). Interpersonal and personal phenomena, such as attachment, self-reported health, happiness, life-satisfaction and clinical depression, anxiety and stress, are also predicted by interpretations of and preferences for CIRCA icons (Study 5). Finally, Shuar and Inuit adults and children interpret the CIRCA icons in the same way as do American, Swiss, and Danish students and the effects of preferences for the conceptual primitives captured by CIRCA on resource distribution and psychological well-being replicate amongst Inuit hunters and children (Study 6).
The fitness alignment model: An evolutionary explanation for Schadenfreude, sympathy, antipathy, and apathy
Schadenfreude, pleasure at another’s misfortune, is a folk concept that conflates different adaptive problems, such as status competition (fall of a high achiever) and moral transgression (stealing a laptop; van Dijk, Ouwerkerk, Goslinga, Nieweg, & Gallucci, 2005) and ignores events not caused by a third party or circumstance (van Dijk, Ouwerkerk, Goslinga, & Niewedg, 2005). Alternatively, the fitness alignment model (FAM), here proposed, asserts that the hedonic valence of a perceiver’s reaction to a target’s event depends on whether the event results in cues for a fitness increase or decrease for the perceiver. Cues of fitness increase are pleasant; cues of fitness decrease are unpleasant (Johnston, 1999). Consideration of the alignment of fitness outcomes between the event-experiencing target and the perceiver results in three alignments of interpersonal feelings: antipathy, sympathy, and apathy. The FAM identifies four key variables for interpersonal feeling alignment: perceiver-target relationship, event domain, event cause, and perceiver and target fitness outcomes. A study evaluated the importance of event domain and event cause. Thirty-eight participants provided autobiographical antipathy stories, i.e., when the writer felt pleasure at an event that was unpleasant for another person. Stories were coded by event domain (status competition or moral transgression) and by event cause (third party/circumstance or writer, i.e., Schadenfreude or not). Event domain, but not event cause, was associated with different perceptions of deservingness and target status reduction. These findings suggest that Schadenfreude ignores, whereas FAM highlights, key variables for predicting interpersonal feelings.
Humor and laughter on the campaign trail: An ethological exploration of the 2004 Presidential Election
Humor and the Presidency has long been a topic of interest to both journalists and pundits who have seen the value of humor in facilitating communication between the President and the public. However, to the knowledge of the authors, it hasn't been the subject of serious ethological study. Our study draws from Richard Alexander's contention in 1986 that "humor is invariably either direct or indirect ostracism" (1986: 253) to analyze the different uses of humor in political settings. Specifically, we consider President George W. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry's use of humor in three different campaign situations. For President Bush: a campaign rally in York, Pennsylvania, a campaign dinner in Washington, DC and a town hall meeting in Annandale, Virginia are considered, while for Senator Kerry, we look at campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, an address to the NAACP in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a campaign event in St. Louis, Missouri are analyzed. Here we use the presence of laughter as an indicator that humor "might" have occurred. We compare the candidates on the basis of how they used humor, the targets of the humor, and the presence of mitigating off-record displays, namely the Duchenne (real) smile, and laughter.
The centrality of evolved motives on the nonconscious evaluation of objects across their life span
Previous research suggests that motivational states linked to survival and reproductive success, such as self-protection and mating goals, drive the selective processing of social information (e.g., Neuberg et al., 2004). The present research considers such evolved motives, along with concepts gained through early experience in the physical world, as "core" concepts upon which further concepts are based (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Priming these core concepts influences psychological phenomena including evaluation, goal pursuit, and social perception (Bargh, 2006), but has yet to address innate or evolved motivational concepts. Accordingly, we tested the hypothesis that the nonconscious activation of a mate-search goal would have a more general influence on perception and judgment beyond the interpersonal domain. A set of participants were primed with a mate-search goal by reading a book passage about people on a date; control group participants read a description of a building. Participants then rated the attractiveness of different objects presented at various stages of their lifespan (e.g., unripened fruit, ripe fruit, and rotten fruit). As predicted, the evaluations of objects by participants primed with the mate-search goal were more affected by the object's stage in its "lifespan" than were the ratings by the control group. In a manner analogous to age preferences in mate selection (Kenrick & Keefe, 1992), immature and past-prime objects were devalued and "ripe" or peak objects were enhanced in value. Overall, these findings suggest the central importance of evolved motives on judgments and evaluations across diverse real-world contexts.
Can same sex behavior have contributed to human paedomorphosis?
In theories of sexual selection, female selection of males and male selection of females have been considered and proposed, with emphasis on appearance of various characteristics relative to the selection favored in a theory. Further, a "two-way" selection theory has been proposed, with both types of selection working in tandem. The proposal here is male selection of males, with the result of increased paedomorphosis through neoteny. It is suggested that if this type of selection has occurred it would have been more effective than the others that have been considered.
Afternoon Poster Session
Blatant benevolence and conspicuous consumption: When romantic motives elicit strategic costly signals
Conspicuous displays of consumption and benevolence might serve as “costly signals” of desirable mate qualities. If so, they should vary with manipulations of mating-related motives. A series of experiments examined this possibility. For men, mating motives increased their willingness to spend on conspicuous luxuries (such as vacations, lavish dinners, and cars), but did not increase men’s spending on basic necessities (such as aspirin, toothpaste, or tissues). For women, mating motives boosted prosocial behaviors in public contexts (such as volunteering at a homeless shelter or other pro-social community organizations), but did not boost women’s prosocial behaviors in private contexts (such as picking up trash by oneself at a park or conserving energy). Although mating motivation did not generally inspire helping in men, it did induce more helpfulness in contexts allowing men to display heroism or dominance. Conversely, although mating motivation did not lead women to conspicuously consume, it did lead women to spend more on helpful causes. Overall, romantic motives seem to produce highly strategic and sex-specific self-presentations best understood within a costly signaling framework.
Gifted gabbers get the girls: Verbal creativity predicts short-term mating success in males but not females
Men may try to impress potential mates with their verbal cleverness (Griskevicius, Cialdini, & Kenrick, 2006), but do their tactics work? Self-reported creative individuals report having more sexual partners (Nettle & Clegg, 2005). To directly test Miller’s (2000) hypothesis that creativity is a sexually selected fitness indicator and is sexually dimorphic, we used both ratings of participants’ actual creative output and information about their sexual history. 229 University of New Mexico students completed 6 verbal creativity tasks and 13 pictorial creativity tasks, as if for a dating agency profile, expecting their output to be rated by opposite-sex individuals. Participants also completed measures of sexual history as well as general intelligence (Raven's matrices), Big Five personality traits, schizotypy, mating effort, mate value, sociosexuality, sensational interests, and drug and family psychological histories. Ratings of verbal and pictorial creativity showed good inter-rater reliability; composite creativity ratings were positively associated in multiple regressions with general intelligence and openness. Verbal creativity predicted male (but not female) short-term mating success, lending evidence to the theory that male creative display may be an effective signal of good genes. Those men who are capable of a convincing creative display do indeed gain in terms of short term mating.
Live organ donation decisions as a function of genetic relatedness and emotional closeness
Altruism has long been of interest to both social and evolutionary psychologists. However, few studies simultaneously consider evolutionary and social psychological variables in predicting altruism. Live kidney donation offers a unique context in which to study altruism, where the benefits and costs are dramatic. The recipient, who could die without a transplant, is given a chance to live. The donor undergoes a surgical procedure, with all of the inherent risks, and may suffer complications due to the removal of part of a vital organ. The current study utilized Hamilton's (1964) theory of inclusive fitness to predict an individual's willingness to donate a kidney to people of varying degrees of relatedness, while also investigating the role of social psychological variables such as emotional closeness. One hundred participants completed surveys in which they were asked to imagine donating a kidney to a particular recipient. Willingness to donate was tested in a 4 (recipient relatedness) x 2 (recipient gender) x 2 (recipient age) x 2 (participant gender) mixed factorial design. Overall, there was a significant linear effect of relatedness, such that individuals were more willing to donate to relatives as genetic relatedness increased. The relationship between relatedness and likelihood to donate was partially but not fully mediated by emotional closeness to the recipient. These findings suggest that, while social psychological variables are important to altruistic decisions, they are unable to fully account for the effect of genetic relatedness. The implications of this study for both the altruism and transplantation literatures are discussed.
Love at first sniff: Testosterone and olfactory cues to attraction
Recent empirical findings challenge the longstanding assumption that human ovulation is concealed and support the potential role of olfaction in human reproductive behavior. Evidence suggests that some men prefer the scent of fertile women to the scent of women using oral contraceptives and women who are in less fertile phases of the menstrual cycle. Other studies suggest that both human and nonhuman primate males experience a reduction in their olfactory capacity to discriminate between fertile and infertile females when under the influence of testosterone. Additionally, ovulating women demonstrate a preference for men with masculine facial features evincing higher testosterone and immunocompetence. Forty-nine men rated the pleasantness, sexiness, and intensity of the scent of t-shirts worn for two nights by seven women who were not using oral contraceptives. Photographs of the men’s faces were used to measure jaw prominence as an index of facial masculinity. The analysis revealed that the men rated t-shirt odor more positively if the woman was likely to be near ovulation. Men with smaller jaws rated the shirts as more pleasant smelling, but this did not interact with nearness to ovulation. Although the former of these findings supports previous evidence, the latter contradicts our hypothesis that lower testosterone, less attractively perceived men might have a compensatory advantage of a more discriminative preference for fertile women. The findings of this study raise new questions regarding the relationship between testosterone, olfaction, and human mate selection.
Teasing apart utility: Knowing vs. choosing
The actual choices individuals make (decision utility) and their subjective feelings states associated with these choices (e.g., experienced utility) may be theoretically and empirically distinct (Kahneman, Wakker, Sarin, 1997). Bechara and colleagues (1994) developed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a simple card choice task, to examine the dissociation between behavioral choices and subjective experiences; however, their research did not directly measure experienced utilities. In two studies we employed the IGT to distinguish between participants’ behavioral decision utility (i.e., their actual choices) and their experienced utility (i.e., their self-reported feeling associated with the outcome of their choice). In the first study, decision utility was measured via actual choices and experienced utility was measured via self-reports of how much the participants liked (or disliked) the actual outcomes. In study two, these procedures were extended to include a measure of subjective decision utility, in the form of self-reports of how much the participants wanted to make particular choices. Results are discussed in terms of participants’ actual choices and the feelings associated with their choices.
Tend and defend? Territory may buffer stress among human males
In recent years, evolutionary models of human stress have explored mechanisms beyond the modal fight-or-flight response, with a focus on gender differences and the stress-buffering hormones oxytocin and vasopressin. Among mammals, both of these hormones are associated with behaviors linked strongly to female reproductive success such as nurturance and affiliation. But vasopressin is also associated with certain classically male behaviors, including mate guarding, exploratory activity, and territory defense. This raises the intriguing but untested possibility that, just as nurturant and affiliative behaviors buffer stress in human females, behaviors geared towards territory and defense may buffer stress in human males. One prediction this model yields is that, among males, having territory to defend should buffer stress. The present study tested this prediction in a large representative sample of Americans (N = 1711, 51.8% female) who completed five surveys about recent stressors and psychological distress over a three-year period. Multilevel models examined whether territory, assessed by home ownership and home size, would moderate the within-person associations between stressful event occurrence and distress for males but not females. Tests of three-way (housing X stress X gender) interactions revealed that, among males only, stressful events were less predictive of distress for homeowners or those with larger homes. Moreover, results remained the same controlling for three-way interactions for education (education X stress X gender) and income (income X stress X gender), suggesting that this effect was not merely one of social status. Possessing territory may act as a stress buffer for human males.
Emotional contagion: A mechanism underlying mental state attribution or a mechanism signaling cooperation?
The process of emotional contagion has been posited as a pathway for understanding the mental states (beliefs, desires, feelings) of others. According to this view, by mimicking the emotional expression of others, one experiences the relevant emotion and thus comes to know the mental state of others. Emotional contagion has been found to operate between members of the same group (e.g., between friends) raising the question of whether this process functions as the general mechanism underlying mental state attribution or whether it functions more specifically as a signal that an individual is likely to be a cooperative partner (e.g., potential friend or mate). To distinguish between these two hypotheses we designed an emotional contagion experiment employing the minimal group paradigm. Individuals were randomly assigned to one of two groups (the red or blue group) based on their responses to a series of questions and were then shown pictures of individuals from both groups expressing different facial emotions. During the presentation of faces, a hidden pinhole camera recorded the participant’s facial expressions. If emotional contagion is the process governing mental state attribution and if it is equally important to infer the mental states of ingroup and outgroup members, then regardless of group membership, participants should mimic facial expressions. If, however, emotional contagion is a signal of cooperation, individuals should be more likely to mimic the expression of in-group members compared to out-group members. Data collection is complete (N=67) and the video of participants’ faces is being coded to determine the extent of emotional contagion.
Evolved disease-avoidance processes and implicit antipathy toward the elderly
Anomalous facial features elicit aversive responses from perceivers – possibly because these features heuristically indicate disease. One implication is that perceivers who are more worried about contagion are biased toward showing especially powerful aversive responses to any person with features that deviate from a population prototype. The present research investigated whether disease-avoidance processes might lead young people to respond negatively to old people. We examined whether chronic and/or temporary feelings of disease-vulnerability might be associated with more powerful implicit antipathy toward the elderly. 55 university students completed a computer-based reaction-time measure assessing the extent to which negative words were implicitly associated with faces of old people. Prior to this task, participants watched a slide show designed to make salient the threat of contagious disease (or, in a control group, a disease-irrelevant threat). Participants also completed two measures assessing chronic concerns with contagious disease: Perceived Vulnerability to Disease (PVD) and Disgust Sensitivity. Results from regression analyses revealed that the individual differences measures predicted implicit antipathy towards old people: PVD, beta = .31 (p = .021); Disgust Sensitivity, beta = .263 (p =.051). There also was a trend toward an interaction between the experimental manipulation and Disgust Sensitivity (p = .098): implicit antipathy toward old people was higher among individuals who either had greater chronic concerns with contagion (high Disgust Sensitivity scores) or for whom the threat of disease had been made temporarily salient. These results provide preliminary evidence that evolved disease-avoidance processes may contribute to ageist attitudes.
The roles of race and gender in the persistence of learned fear
Research in aversive conditioning demonstrates that fears towards evolutionarily “prepared” targets such as spiders and snakes are difficult to extinguish. More recently, studies have observed that race bias and fear conditioning may indeed rely on overlapping neural systems, suggesting a potential mechanistic link and the opportunity to use classical fear conditioning as a model for prepared learning in an intergroup context. Employing this model we investigate whether a conditioned fear response to a racial outgroup resists extinction whereas the learned fear of an ingroup target does not. More importantly, we explore the extent to which the gender of the target is important in the acquisition and extinction of anxious arousal towards outgroups. Preliminary analyses show that learned fear towards outgroup targets (as measured in skin conductance response conditioned by electric shock) persists during the extinction phase only when paired with a male member of the outgroup. Learned fear returned to baseline for all other race/gender targets. Potential moderators of conditioned fear such as intergroup contact, ethnic identity, and explicit/implicit intergroup bias are explored. The results are consistent with the notion that outgroup males may have posed persistent fitness threats to ingroup individuals throughout our evolutionary history.
I only have eyes for you: Dynamics of gazing to attractive targets
When a man and women first meet, non-verbal cues often communicate their motives subtly. One important aspect of their non-verbal behavior is their gazing. Research suggests that gazing and eye contact in mixed-sex interactions serve an important function in communicating interest. In the current experiment we investigated dyadic gazing as a function of physical attractiveness. Earlier findings on the importance of attractiveness in potential partners predict that men will show more interest to high attractive women than to low attractive women. However, because attractiveness of a potential partner seems less important to women, a smaller effect of attractiveness on gazing behavior is predicted. Five minute conversations of single participants with confederates of a relative high and low level of attractiveness were recorded and coded. Gazing was analyzed on an individual level (time gazing at partner, length of stares) and a dyadic level (eye contact, gazing response to confederates’ gazing behavior). As predicted, men gazed at the female confederate for longer instances and a larger percentage of the conversation in the high (vs. low) attractive condition, whereas no difference between conditions was found for women. The same effect was found for the duration of eye contact, while controlling for the gazing of the confederate. Analyses of transitional propensities showed lower probabilities of men averting their gaze during eye contact in the high (vs. low) attractiveness condition, but women did not. Interestingly, women displayed more short glances when the confederate was not looking in the high (vs. low) attractive condition. Women also showed behavior more similar to the confederate in terms of length and number of gazes than men. Finally, participants’ ratings of attractiveness of and attraction to their interaction partner correlated with male, but not female, gazing behavior. These findings suggest an overt communication of interpersonal interest and attraction by men, as opposed to a covert strategy together with behavioral accommodation by women.
Facial displays of emotion in folk vs. elite advertisements
Consumer purchase of folk vs. elite products (Miller, 1999) may be one way to advertise social status to potential mates or competitors. Previous studies have shown that facial displays of emotion may be one way to signal social status or dominance in intrasexual competition contexts, i.e. athletes lower in status and dominance are more likely to smile (Koenig & Ketelaar, 2006). The current study investigated the relationship between facial displays of emotion and social status using a content analysis of advertisements for men’s and women’s clothing and sunglasses. Advertisements were categorized as folk or elite according to price of the product advertised. Participants compared models in folk and elite advertisements to pictures of six standard facial emotions: embarrassment, happiness, contempt, disgust, anger, and neutral. Facial emotions in the elite advertisements were rated as more similar to the anger, contempt, disgust, and neutral pictures than facial emotions in the folk advertisements. Facial expressions in the folk advertisements were rated as more similar to the happy and embarrassed pictures than facial emotions in the elite advertisements. Results are discussed in terms of the role that emotional displays may play in signaling social status or dominance.