TY - JOUR A1 - Lange, Benjamin P. A1 - Hennighausen, Christine A1 - Brill, Michael A1 - Schwab, Frank T1 - Only Cheap Talk after All? New Experimental Psychological Findings on the Role of Verbal Proficiency in Mate Choice JF - Psychology of Language and Communication N2 - Recent evolutionary experimental psychological research found that high verbal proficiency (VP) increased the perceived attractiveness of individuals (more so for males than females), especially in the context of a long-term relationship. Our study had the objective of replicating and extending this research. Similar to previous studies, audio files in which speakers performed scripted self-presentations that had equal content but varied on VP were used as stimuli for opposite-sex participants. VP was found to increase attractiveness ratings. The effects were mostly small for numerous variables relating to short-term mating, whereas they were moderate to large for long-term mating. Our participants attributed more future income, but not more total number of mates to speakers with higher VP. Female menstrual cycle effects on attractiveness ratings were not found. Contrary to former research, being more verbally proficient was not found to be more beneficial for one sex over the other. UR - https://doi.org/10.1515/plc-2016-0001 Y1 - 2016 UR - https://doi.org/10.1515/plc-2016-0001 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-47355 SN - 2083-8506 SN - 1234-2238 VL - 20 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 22 PB - De Gruyter Open CY - Warschau ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hennighausen, Christine A1 - Hudders, Liselot A1 - Lange, Benjamin P. A1 - Fink, Hanna T1 - What If the Rival Drives a Porsche? Luxury Car Spending as a Costly Signal in Male Intrasexual Competition JF - Evolutionary Psychology N2 - Previous research found that men conspicuously consume luxury products to attract a mate and to signal their mate value. However, these studies have yet neglected to investigate the function of male conspicuous consumption in same-sex competition. Given that intersexual selection and intrasexual selection are closely related processes, it stands to reason that a further function of male conspicuous consumption could be to impress and deter same-sex rivals. An 2 (intrasexual competition context vs. control) × 2 (conspicuous luxury vs. inconspicuous nonluxury) between-subjects experimental study conducted with an Amazon Mechanical Turk sample ( N = 160) revealed that men reported both higher liking of and an intent to purchase a conspicuous luxury car compared to an inconspicuous nonluxury car due to increased feelings of social status. This effect was stronger in the intrasexual competition than in the control context. An additional perception study using a single-factor between-subjects design (conspicuous luxury vs. inconspicuous nonluxury car) among German men ( N = 405) indicated that male participants rated a man who displayed a conspicuous luxury car more as a rival and mate poacher and less as a friend. They further perceived him to be superior on various mate value characteristics (i.e., attractiveness, intelligence, ambition, and status) and rated him as more oriented toward short-term mating. In sum, our findings add to previous research in the field of evolutionary consumer psychology by suggesting that male conspicuous consumption of luxuries may also serve a function in male–male competition. UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704916678217 Y1 - 2016 UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704916678217 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-47526 SN - 1474-7049 VL - 14 IS - 4 PB - SAGE CY - London ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Hennighausen, Christine A1 - Lange, Benjamin P. A1 - Schwab, Frank ED - Hammerl, Manfred ED - Schwarz, Sascha ED - Willführ, Kai P. T1 - Evolutionäre Medienpsychologie T2 - Evolutionäre Sozialwissenschaften: Ein Rundgang UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-43624-7_5 Y1 - 2024 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-43624-7_5 SN - 978-3-658-43623-0 SN - 978-3-658-43624-7 SP - 83 EP - 102 PB - Springer VS CY - Wiesbaden ER -