It can be argued that humans have evolved sophisticated cognitive skills that facilitate complex interactions between individuals in our distinctly ultra-social environments. One goal of social cognitive psychology is to examine the cognitive mechanisms that have evolved that allow humans to uniquely and extensively socialize. The goal of this paper is to address a few cognitive mechanisms that allow humans to pursue and achieve functional goals, specifically related to reproduction. The adaptive allocation of attention in social environments, by both men and women, to stimuli that enables successful mating to occur will be discussed. Furthermore, the impact of females’ ovulatory status on selective attention to and bias towards mating-relevant stimuli will be discussed. The paper will address evolved motivations that directly influence cognition, which impacts social interactions with predominately opposite-sex members of the species. Hopefully this paper will highlight the necessity of examining the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the social consequences of the downstream behaviors we are most interested in as researchers.
The first steps in creating a
mental representation are attention and encoding. Whether it’s the sight of a double-scoop
mint chocolate chip ice cream cone on a hot day, or noticing the beautiful face
of a passerby who just might be your ideal romantic partner: one must first
attend to the stimuli and in doing so, the sensory and perceptual information becomes
encoded internally, creating a mental representation that can be further
processed and manipulated cognitively. Fiske and Taylor note that there are
several stages of encoding that are practical to social cognition: first, we
analyze our environment pre-attentively, this process drives what we focus our
attention on, and we then apply meaning to this stimuli by drawing upon our
stores of knowledge to further engage in complex interactions with the stimuli.
Attention, also known as the extent of selective cognitive work you engage in,
is especially focused to stimuli that are social in nature; this includes the
people we encounter in our lives, the self we never part with, and the
interactions between the two. Alongside the preference for social stimuli,
information processing is even more selective, in that some information or
categories are inherently more fascinating and captivating than others (Fiske &
Taylor, 2008). Deciding what information is naturally more interesting and
relevant relies on examining the goals that affect social cognition. Ecological
and evolutionary approaches to motivation and cognition have stressed that
goals with a proximate impact on the perception of the social environment
should be goals that have had the most impact on ultimate adaptive outcome. It
is practical to conclude that the upstream processes in social situations are
persistently attuned to motivations linked to survival and reproduction. The
purpose of this paper is to highlight how functional motivations can influence
upstream cognition, specifically attention and person perception.
Perception of, and memory for,
events or behaviors are strongly influenced by the motivations of the perceiver.
Fiske and Taylor (2008) noted five primary motivations that hold sway in our
social cognitive processes: belonging, understanding, controlling, enhancing
self, and trusting in-group members. Our goals and motivations seem to have power
over lower-level cognitions and perceptions. For example, the threat of social
exclusion, a threat that impinges on the belonging motivation, leads
individuals to selectively attend to smiling faces: these threatened
individuals identified smiling faces much quicker, fixated on those smiling
faces, and disengaged from those faces much slower (DeWall, Maner, & Rouby,
2009). The results reveal the impact of motivation on downstream processes,
specifically how social exclusion increases attention towards stimuli
displaying social acceptance. This enhanced, selective attention towards
smiling faces highlights the individual’s need to seek out and garner social
acceptance following the exclusion event, subsequently satisfying the
belongingness motivation. The influence of the motivation to belong on
early-stage perceptual processing can help expand our understanding of how and
why more downstream processes, pro-social or aggressive behaviors occur. In
addition to Fiske and Taylor’s five motivations, it is pertinent to examine the
two motivations that serve a well-defined functional purpose, survival and
reproduction, which can further shed light on how upstream cognitive processes
of attention and perception lead to downstream, adaptive behaviors (Neuberg,
Kenrick, Maner, & Schaller, 2004).
Humans tend to be unceasingly attuned
to features of others that are telling of qualities indicating desirability as
potential mating partners. Physical attractiveness is one such feature that
plays a pivotal role in reproductive relationships. It is predicted that
individuals will have their attention directed selectively to individuals that
are physically attractive, and this selectiveness should be exaggerated in
individuals with mating goals activated. Maner et al. (2003) conducted studies
in which participants viewed arrays of both male and female faces of varying
levels of attractiveness. Both sexes estimated high proportions of attractive
women under conditions in which the arrays were only present for a very short
period of time. Nevertheless, when arrays were presented longer, this
overestimation for attractive females disappeared; together these first two
studies imply early stage visual processing is captured by female
attractiveness for both men and women. Likewise, women did not show this bias
towards attractive men in their estimations. Taken together, these results
support the notion that men utilize level of physical attractiveness as in
indicator of fertility, a desirable trait in a potential romantic partner, and
women gauge other women to evaluate their potential as competitors; both are
reproductive motivations that selectively direct the perceivers’ attention.
As noted in the studies by Maner et
al. (2003), the presence of an attractive opposite sex member in the
environment cues reproductive goals for both men and women, which in turn directs
upstream processing. Maner et al. (2003) did not further explore the
consequences of this attentional bias towards attractive female faces, what
downstream processes were impacted, merely the studies highlight the existence
of such a bias: the attention of the perceiver, male or female, was directed
and held by attractive female faces. It can be assumed, however, that this
attentional bias should lead to greater chances of successfully completing the
motivation. This attention bias facilitates downstream behavioral responses
that are altered in a way in which options most readily activated are behaviors
that were associated with an increase in reproductive success in our ancestral
past (Neuberg et al., 2004). The mating goal not only directs the attention
towards the target, but the perceiver has an activated repertoire of behaviors
specific to those used in mating that can lead to a greater likelihood of reproductive
success. For example, once a mating goal is active, the perceiver can quickly
and effortlessly access and engage in behaviors that could lead to success with
the target mate; for example, conveying intelligence through a joke or kindness
through a smile (see Buss, 2002).
Examining research regarding the
impact of ovulatory status on cognition might help to explore this notion of
upstream attentional biases directing downstream behaviors to the successful
completion of a reproductive motivation. Hormonal influences may act as a
temporary motivational factor that can regulate our downstream behaviors, which
in turn can lead to the successful goal attainment. Depending on where a woman
is in her cycle, her sensitivity to perceptual cues of maleness can be
described as a behavior that offers a myriad of further reproductive benefits
(Macrae, Alnwick, Milne, & Schloerscheidt, 2002). At peak fertility, an
ovulating woman does not need to engage in effortful processing to determine
whether a potential mate is fit to reproduce with, since masculinity is used as
a proxy for immunological competence, or how well the body can fight disease,
which is an aptly desired mating characteristic (Thornhill & Gangestad,
1999). Results of study one revealed women who were at high risk for conception
categorized male faces much quicker than those women who were at low risk;
here, participants that were ovulating could attend to facial features that
were indicative of masculinity, and their heightened attention to these
features allowed for downstream advantage when categorizing the face as either
male or female. Further research might examine how skilled an ovulating female is
at delineating between varying degrees of masculinity, and subsequently actual
testosterone levels. If ovulating women had increased abilities in discriminating
between which males were in fact more
masculine, signaling the increased immunocompetence, and thus the optimum mate would
highlight the adaptive motivational function of this attentional bias and
stimuli discriminatory advantage as allotted during peak fertility. In the
second study, participants were evaluated on how quickly they could classify
words that were either stereotypically matched or mismatched after primed by
male or female faces; overall, stereotype matching was quickest when primed by
male faces overall, but participants with a high risk of conception classified
stereotype-matching words more rapidly than low risk individuals. Females with
high conception risk had increased attentional biases towards physical indicators
of maleness in faces, and this increased biases led to downstream advantages: superior
access to categorical information about men as well. When females are at the
highest risk of conception, their lower level perceptual processes are altered
in a way that allows for more skillful appraisal of potential mating partners
via the activation of information that is masculine. Furthermore, this study
implicates the influence of hormones on directing upstream perceptual processes
to achieve functional goals efficiently (Macrae et al., 2002).
Once a motivation is activated, it
directs attention selectively to features of the social environment that have qualities
related to attaining the activated goal. Reproductively relevant goals would
most likely direct attention towards attaining a good mate: sex of the
individual, level of physical attraction, and level of social dominance. The
activation of mating goals would influence lower level processes in a way that
is biased towards successful completion of the goal through downstream
processes. The alteration of person perception processes during ovulation
provides evidence for upstream processes that facilitate successful mating. Results
from Macrae et al. (2002) support the notion that women can have reproductive
motivations chronically, yet temporarily, activated. Since an ovulating female
is at the highest risk for conception, it makes sense that she might have reproduction
on the mind, implicitly or explicitly. However, it is unclear whether the
mating goal comes first and subsequent perception of the environment is altered
accordingly, or the presence of a potential sexual partner cues the mating
goal, which subsequently alters further processing of stimuli in the
environment. Results from Maner et al.’s (2003) study four also supports the
notion that individuals can be dispositionally inclined to reproduce, or to
have the motivation of reproduction habitually activated. Further examining of individuals
that are dispositionally attuned to reproduction might shed light on the order
of events.
Individuals
can differ along the sociosexuality continuum, that is, there are individual
differences in what mating strategies are preferred. Sexually restricted
individuals prefer long-term mating strategies, commitment, and emotional
intimacy prior to sexual intercourse. Sexually unrestricted individuals prefer
short-term mating strategies, casual sex, sexual variety, and one-night stands
(Simpson & Gangestad, 1991). Duncan, Park, Faulkner, Schaller, Neuberg, &
Kenrick’s (2007) study utilized a task that presented participants with both
attractive and unattractive faces at the same time, and had participants detect
a feature change in a face (disappearing eye or nose) as a source of
attentional constraint. Sexually unrestricted men, those who dispositionally
prefer short-term mating strategies, selectively allocated attention to
attractive females: they were quicker to detect changes in attractive female
faces and slower to detect changes in unattractive female faces. The fourth
study by Maner et al. (2003) utilized eye-tracking technology to measure
fixation; results revealed both sexes were biased in attention towards the physically
attractive female targets. In this fourth study, women did exhibit a bias
towards physically attractive male faces, yet, this fourth study also measured
sexual restrictedness; sexually unrestricted men and women selectively attended
to attractive opposite-sex faces, supporting the notion that motivation to mate
steered their attention. Finally, women’s attention to attractive men and
attention to attractive women was strongly positively related; women who were
dispositionally motivated to search out possible mates are also interested in
assessing their potential competitors for these mates. Results of both Maner et al.’s (2003) fourth study and
Duncan et al.’s (2007) study highlight the impact of mating goals on attention,
specifically dispositional motivations: individuals with reproduction
motivations chronically activated perceive their environment accordingly, to attain
their goal. Males that were sexually restricted did not display an attractive
opposite sex preference; perhaps indicating the motivation must be activated
first in order for the upstream processing to be altered.
The adaptive nature of this low
level attention biasing process suggests evolved perceptual processes that are elastic
in their response to contextual cues, and are subject to influence by the
perceiver’s disposition (Duncan et al., 2007). The men with personalities more
inclined to engage in mating behaviors exhibited a stronger attentional bias
towards attractive opposite-sex faces, faces that reveal indicators of increased
fertility and increased reproductive value. This attentional bias serves to
increase the likelihood of a mating event occurring, fulfilling the functional motivation
of reproduction. It is worthy to note, however, that the most attractive female
faces are ones that are symmetrical; symmetry has been found to connote
increased genetic quality (Thornhill & Gangestad, 1999). Most research on
facial attractiveness employ faces that are symmetrical; as faces become less
symmetrical, they become less attractive. Duncan et al.’s (2007) study can
support the assumption that men have a bias for symmetry since it serves as an
indicator of mate quality. Challenging this however, is results indicating a
preference for visual symmetry is only found in men: men, not women, exhibit a
preference for visual symmetry across multiple domains, including abstract and
real world objects (Shepherd & Bar, 2011). Since this preference
generalizes to stimuli unrelated to mating, it can be questioned as to whether
or not the preferences satisfy the motive for reproduction or due to enhanced
perceptual processing; unusually, this preference is not exhibited by women, so
future studies would need to examine this male dominant preference.
The effects of goal activation on attention
and perception consequently influence the downstream processes as well. The
aforementioned effects of attention direction and perception should influence
memory. In three experiments, Becker, Kenrick, Guerin, and Maner (2005)
utilized the matching game Concentration to determine if early perceptual
processing enhanced encoding and retrieval; specifically they examined whether
a target’s sex and level of physical attractiveness impacted how well their
spatial location is remembered. Study one utilized same sex arrays of faces to
be matched, and results indicated biases in memory for the location of
attractive female faces and subsequently both sexes exhibited this spatial
location memory enhancement. Study two utilized mixed sex arrays for the matching
task, and results supported the first study in which attractive female faces
were matched in fewer turns than attractive men. Study three supported the previous studies and
revealed there were a lower proportion of mismatches for attractive women, opposed
to average-looking women. Intriguingly, they also found that attractive male
faces were mismatched at a higher proportion, and attractive female faces were
matched first. This strong tendency to recall the location of attractive female
faces for both men and women reveals the selective direction of attention
towards the location of cues relevant to reproductive motivations, either in
pursuit of a mate or evaluation of a potential competitor. Also, this
physically attractive female face permeates early processing at both stages,
first, it selectively directs perceivers’ attention, and second, it possesses
features distinct enough to garner extended encoding into memory. From study
one to study three, the task became more and more difficult with the addition
of faces; nevertheless, the advantage in spatial location memory for attractive
female faces remained. It seems as though this ability to capture attention, as
displayed by attractive female faces is immune to distraction; however, further
studies should examine to what extent this bias remains, if other motivations
are activated (e.g., survival) how salient will the attractive female faces remain?
Still, the enhanced spatial memory for attractive faces supports the notion
that motivations can impact upstream processing. It would be of great
importance to remember where you saw
an attractive face, not so much the actual face itself, in order to engage with
that individual further. This enhanced spatial location memory for attractive
faces occurs automatically, whether the perceiver wishes to engage with the
face further in pursuit of their reproduction motivation should recruit more
effortful processing of the face, and subsequent facial recognition. Challenging
the assumption that females attend to attractive same-sex faces to serve
intra-sexual competition is the notion that females are prone to seek
affiliation when stressed (Taylor, 2006). Perhaps the matching task induced a
level of stress that would direct attention towards individuals that would
fulfill the motivation to affiliate; future research will need to tease apart
which motivation more strongly directs female attention towards attractive
same-sex faces, perhaps through explicit activation of either goal prior to
completing the matching task.
Early cognitive processes are guided
by evolutionarily relevant motivations, which in turn impacts downstream
processes. Interestingly, the fifth study by Maner et al (2003) revealed
women’s memory for attractive men is poor. The initial selective attention to
attractive men is strong, but the processing might end there since women are
not inclined to mate with male strangers and physical attractiveness isn’t a
feature that women (during the majority of their cycle) are interested in. A
study by Anderson et al. (2010) supports this notion that ovulation status
redirects attention towards attractive men, but the subsequent memory for these
attractive male faces is not improved. It is assumed that increased visual
attention to stimuli should increase memory for that target; however, results
revealed women near ovulation did not have better memory for the male faces
they selectively attended to. This lack of memory for attractive male faces
could indicate these women were not truly cognitively processing these faces,
but instead engaging in a different reproductively relevant strategic behavior,
such as increased eye contact to convey romantic interest. Furthermore, the
ovulating females might not engage in effortful encoding of these attractive
male faces, since they are strangers, and the cost of mating with this unknown
male is too high, thus shutting down the continued processing. Either way, the implicit
redirection of ovulating women’s attention towards attractive male faces serves
as support of a reproductive motivation being activated. Determining what mechanism would enhance memory for attractive
male faces is not essential though, since females evaluate males on different
reproductive-relevant cues, such as social dominance or intelligence (Li &
Kenrick, 2006).
The
activation of a motivational system leads to social cognitive consequences that
facilitate adaptive behavioral responses; the functional motives perspective is
vital in revealing this relationship, above and beyond the associative priming
perspective (Neuberg et al., 2004). We perceive and think in ways that serve
our goals most effectively and efficiently. The motivational states of
reproduction and survival cannot be condensed purely to the dichotomy of
approach and avoid proclivities, instead, each motivation has a distinct
cascade of perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral consequences (Kenrick,
Neuberg, Griskevicius, Becker, & Schaller, 2010). However, much of early
social cognitive research focuses on pure epistemic goals (Neuberg et al.,
2004). There arises a mutual benefit between the fields of Social Cognitive
Psychology and Evolutionary Psychology: the evolutionary perspective benefits
greatly from learning of basic cognitive processing to study these human social
goals, and the social cognitive perspective can benefit from examining these
processes as they are influenced by functional motives. This framework can lead
to more precise predictions of human motivations: by ascertaining functionally
distinct motivational states that have repercussions for reproduction and
survival, when activated, is predicted “to exert a specific set of consequences
for human attention, perception, cognition, and behavior in relation to specific
kinds of fitness-relevant stimuli in the social environment” (Kenrick et al.,
2010, p.64).
In conclusion, upstream processes
such as attention and perception are directed in functional ways by fundamental
goals of survival and reproduction. The importance of studying these lower
level cognitions and perceptual processes, as they are directed our
motivations, will enlighten individuals researching potential nuances in downstream
judgments, cognitions, and behaviors. Furthermore, these results, results from
Maner et al.’s (2003) fourth study, and results Macrae et al. (2002) highlight
the notion that the reproduction motivation can be activated dispositionally,
and then subsequently, attention and person perception processes are directed
accordingly. Future studies will need to empirically assess if the motivation
of reproduction is triggered after encountering a potential sexual partner, of
if the motivation of reproduction, being essentially fundamental in nature, is
chronically and implicitly activated at all times. Further research will hopefully
expand upon and branch out to examine proximate goals that serve the ultimate
motivations of survival and reproduction.
