Skip to main content

Male Adaptations to Assess Fighting Ability

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Book cover Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alcock, J. (2005). Animal behavior: An evolutionary approach. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, R. (1961). Aggressiveness, territoriality, and sexual behavior in field crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). Behaviour, 17, 130–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnott, G., & Elwood, R. W. (2009). Assessment of fighting ability in animal contests. Animal Behaviour, 77, 991–1004. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.02.010.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhasin, S., Storer, T. W., Berman, N., Callegari, C., Clevenger, B., Phillips, J., … & Casaburi, R. (1996). The effects of supraphysiologic doses of testosterone on muscle size and strength in normal men. New England Journal of Medicine, 335(1), 1–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrier, D. R., & Morgan, M. H. (2015). Protective buttressing of the hominin face. Biological Reviews, 90, 330–346. doi:10.1111/brv.12112.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, S. (2000). Men’s voices and women’s choices. Animal Behaviour, 60, 773–780. doi:10.1006/anbe.2000.1523.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dabbs, J., & Mallinger, A. (1999). High testosterone levels predict low voice pitch among men. Personality and Individual Differences, 27, 801–804. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(98)00272-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1983). Sex, evolution, and behaviour (2nd ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doll, L. M., Hill, A. K., Rotella, M. A., Cardenas, R. A., Welling, L. L. M., Wheatley, J. R., & Puts, D. A. (2014). How well do men’s faces and voices index mate quality and dominance? Human Nature, 25, 200–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edmonds, E., & Briffa, M. (2016). Weak rappers rock more: Hermit crabs assess their own agonistic behaviour. Biology Letters, 12(1), 20150884.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Enquist, M., Leimar, O., Ljungberg, T., Mallner, Y., & Segerdahl, N. (1990). A test of the sequential assessment game: Fighting in the cichlid fish Nannacara anomala. Animal Behaviour, 40, 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fink, B., Neave, N., & Seydel, H. (2007). Male facial appearance signals physical strength to women. American Journal of Human Biology, 19, 82–87.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fitch, W. T. (1997). Vocal tract length and formant frequency dispersion correlate with body size in Rhesus macaques. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 102, 1213–1222. doi:10.1121/1.421048.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hodges-Simeon, C. R., Gurven, M., Puts, D. A., & Gaulin, S. J. C. (2014). Vocal fundamental and formant frequencies are honest signals of threat potential in peripubertal males. Behavioral Ecology, 25, 984–988, aru081.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hogue, M., Beaugrand, J., & Lague, P. (1996). Coherent use of information by hens observing their former dominant defeating or being defeated by a stranger. Behavioural Processes, 38(3), 241–252.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, S., Dispenza, F., & Gallup, G., Jr. (2004). Ratings of voice attractiveness predict sexual behavior and body configuration. Evolution and Human Behavior, 25, 295–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huntingford, F. A., & Turner, A. K. (1987). Animal conflict. New York: Chapman & Hall.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lassek, W., & Gaulin, S. (2009). Costs and benefits of fat-free muscle mass in men: Relationship to mating success, dietary requirements, and natural immunity. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30, 322–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Little, A. C., Třebický, V., Havlíček, J., Roberts, S. C., & Kleisner, K. (2015). Human perception of fighting ability: Facial cues predict winners and losers in mixed martial arts fights. Behavioral Ecology. doi:10.1093/beheco/arv089.

    Google Scholar 

  • Penton-Voak, I., & Chen, J. (2004). High salivary testosterone is linked to masculine male facial appearance in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior, 25, 229–241. doi:10.1016/S1090-5138(99)00033-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinker, S. (2011). The better angels of our nature: Why violence has declined. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pisanski, K., Fraccaro, P. J., Tigue, C. C., O’Connor, J. J., Röder, S., Andrews, P. W., Fink, B., DeBruine, L. M., Jones, B. C., & Feinberg, D. R. (2014). Vocal indicators of body size in men and women: A meta-analysis. Animal Behaviour, 95, 89–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puts, D. A. (2005). Mating context and menstrual phase affect female preferences for male voice pitch. Evolution and Human Behaviour, 26, 388–397. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.03.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puts, D. A., Apicella, C. L., & Cárdenas, R. A. (2011). Masculine voices signal men’s threat potential in forager and industrial societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 279, 601–609, rspb20110829.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rendall, D., Vokey, J. R., & Nemeth, C. (2007). Lifting the curtain on the Wizard of Oz: Biased voice-based impressions of speaker size. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 33, 1208–1219. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.33.5.1208.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sell, A. (2012). Evolved cognitive adaptations. In J. Vonk & T. Shackelford (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of comparative evolutionary psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sell, A., Bryant, G. A., Cosmides, L., Tooby, J., Sznycer, D., Von Rueden, C., Krauss, A., & Gurven, M. (2010). Adaptations in humans for assessing physical strength from the voice. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 277(1699), 3509–3518.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sell, A., Cosmides L. & Tooby, J. (2014). The human anger face evolved to enhance cues of strength. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35(5), 425–429.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sell, A., Cosmides, L., Tooby, J., Sznycer, D., von Rueden, C., & Gurven, M. (2009). Human adaptations for the visual assessment of strength and fighting ability from the body and face. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 276(1656), 575–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sell, A., Hone, L., & Pound, N. (2012). The importance of physical strength to human males. Human Nature, 23, 30–44.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L. (1990). The past explains the present: Emotional adaptations and the structure of ancestral environments. Ethology and Sociobiology, 11(4), 375–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toscano, H., Schubert, T. W., & Sell, A. N. (2014). Judgments of dominance from the face track physical strength. Evolutionary Psychology, 12(1), 147470491401200101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Třebický, V., Havlícek, J., Roberts, S. C., Little, A. C., & Kleisner, K. (2013). Perceived aggressiveness predicts fighting performance in mixed-martial-arts fighters. Psychological Science, 24, 1664–1672.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Windhager, S., Schaefer, K., & Fink, B. (2011). Geometric morphometrics of male facial shape in relation to physical strength and perceived attractiveness, dominance, and masculinity. American Journal of Human Biology, 23(6), 805–814.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zilioli, S., Sell, A. N., Stirrat, M., Jagor, J., Vickerman, W., Watson, N. V., & Jagore, J. (2015). Face of a fighter: Bizygomatic width as a cue of formidability. Aggressive Behavior, 41, 322–330.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aaron Sell .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this entry

Cite this entry

Sell, A. (2016). Male Adaptations to Assess Fighting Ability. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_937-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_937-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics