The evolutionary psychology of attractiveness preferences in Hadza foragers: Explorations of the face, body and voice

Attractiveness, broadly defined as physical attributes considered pleasing to the senses, is an important criterion for mate choice across many cultures. Why humans possess preferences for certain characteristics has been a source of debate. Until about 15 years ago, the prevailing assumption in the social sciences was that preferences for attractiveness were arbitrary and culturally-driven. Recently this view has been challenged by evolutionary theorists who suggest that preferences in part reflect adaptations for mate choice. It is now widely accepted that biological standards of attractiveness evolved because individuals with preferences for traits that reflect mate quality have enhanced their fitness relative to individuals without those preferences. Still, critics argue that shared preferences could instead reflect exposure to Western culture and ideals and that there is little evidence that attractiveness is related to aspects of mate quality such as health or reproductive success. One way to address these issues is it to study attractiveness preferences and their relationship to mate quality in isolated and evolutionarily relevant populations.;This dissertation concerns the study of attractiveness preferences in the Hadza, a traditional hunter-gatherer population living in remote areas of northern Tanzania. Specifically, I am interested in whether there are shared preferences for facial, body and vocal attractiveness between the Hadza and Western populations as well as determining whether attractive traits serve an adaptive function. The first two studies support the notion that both facial averageness and symmetry are universally preferred. In the case of averageness, I argue that it is experience that determines our internal facial prototypes and consequently influences which faces we find most attractive. For symmetry, the Hadza actually exhibit a stronger preference for symmetrical faces than to a Western population. In so far as symmetry is an indicator of genetic quality, symmetry may be more important to the Hadza given their higher mortality rates from birth onwards.;In a study on preferences for profile waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) in women, it was found that Hadza men prefer lower profile ratio's compared to American men. This result stands in contrast to the finding that Hadza men prefer higher ratios in frontal view than men in the West. Taken together, men's preferences for women's "actual" WHR may not differ as much as previously suggested. The results also suggest that men's preference for WHR map onto the mean WHR for reproductive-aged women in their population.;The last two studies concern vocal attractiveness. The first study reports a relationship between voice pitch and reproductive success in men, but not in women. That is, men with lower-pitched voices report greater reproductive success. This could be because men with lower-pitched voices have more mates, higher-quality mates, shorter inter-birth intervals and/or start reproducing at an earlier age. The last study in this dissertation examines preferences for and attributions to voice pitch in the opposite-sex. The results show that lower-pitched voices in both sexes are associated with greater perceived foraging ability. While, men prefer women with higher-pitched voices, women, in general, did not discriminate in their preferences for male voice pitch. However, women who were breast-feeding preferred higher-pitched voices while women who were not breast-feeding preferred lower-pitched voices. It is suggested that women experience strategic shifts in their preferences so that at times when care and resources are needed they may look for traits that signal investment and during times of possible conception they may look for traits that may indicate immunocompetence or good genes and dominance.