Dark traits: Sometimes hot, and sometimes not? Female preferences for Dark Triad faces depend on sociosexuality and contraceptive use


Marcinkowska, Urszula M, Helle, Samuli and Lyons, Minna T (2015) Dark traits: Sometimes hot, and sometimes not? Female preferences for Dark Triad faces depend on sociosexuality and contraceptive use. Personality and Individual Differences, 86. pp. 369-373.

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Abstract

Although the Dark Triad personality (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) has been researched widely, only few studies have investigated women's preferences for men who present high and low Dark Triad features. With an on-line two-alternative forced choice questionnaire we investigated the interaction between preferences of 1962 Finnish women for facial stimuli that differed in the intensity of the Dark Triad traits, accounting for mating context, contraceptive use, and sexual openness (sociosexuality). Among non-contraceptive-using women, unrestricted sociosexuality was positively correlated with preference for high narcissistic male faces, whereas in contraceptive-using women, sociosexuality correlated negatively with preference for high Machiavellian male faces. We suggest that i) facial cues to Dark Triad traits are detectable by women, but ii) their effect on the judgments of attractiveness may vary depending on sociosexuality and contraceptive use, and that iii) preference for narcissism follows similar variation trends as masculinity preference, depending on sociosexuality and the use of hormonal contraception.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Contraception/Reproduction, Behavioral and Social Science, Clinical Research, 5 Gender Equality
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 15 Jul 2015 10:18
Last Modified: 16 Mar 2024 06:55
DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2015.06.030
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/2014989
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