1Department of Philosophy and History of Sciences, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague.
Psychol Sci. 2013 Sep;24(9):1664-72. doi: 10.1177/0956797613477117. Epub 2013 Jul 1.
Accurate assessment of competitive ability is a critical component of contest behavior in animals, and it could be just as important in human competition, particularly in human ancestral populations. Here, we tested the role that facial perception plays in this assessment by investigating the association between both perceived aggressiveness and perceived fighting ability in fighters' faces and their actual fighting success. Perceived aggressiveness was positively associated with the proportion of fights won, after we controlled for the effect of weight, which also independently predicted perceived aggression. In contrast, perception of fighting ability was confounded by weight, and an association between perceived fighting ability and actual fighting success was restricted to heavyweight fighters. Shape regressions revealed that aggressive-looking faces are generally wider and have a broader chin, more prominent eyebrows, and a larger nose than less aggressive-looking faces. Our results indicate that perception of aggressiveness and fighting ability might cue different aspects of success in male-male physical confrontation.
准确评估竞争能力是动物竞争行为的关键组成部分，在人类竞争中也可能同样重要，尤其是在人类祖先群体中。在这里，我们通过调查战士面部的感知侵略性和感知战斗力与实际战斗成功之间的关联，测试了面部感知在这种评估中的作用。在控制体重的影响后，我们发现感知侵略性与赢得的战斗比例呈正相关，而体重也独立地预测了感知侵略性。相比之下，对战斗力的感知受到体重的混淆，并且感知战斗力与实际战斗成功之间的关联仅限于重量级拳手。形状回归表明，具有攻击性外观的面孔通常比看起来不那么具有攻击性的面孔更宽，下巴更宽，眉毛更突出，鼻子更大。我们的结果表明，对侵略性和战斗力的感知可能提示了男性之间身体对抗的不同成功方面。
