Dominant Displays: The Collection

Courtship display

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The cowering, subordinate chimpanzee may choose to use one of many forms of submissive behavior to pacify the angry aggressor. While dominance displays don't usually erupt into full scale fighting, those chimpanzees that don't get out of the way fast enough are likely to be slapped. Among the 50 or so members of a chimpanzee hierarchical community, one adult male is recognized as the highest ranking or "alpha" male. While several males may exercise dominance over other males, the alpha male is dominant over all the members of the community, male and female.

He attains his high-ranking position through intimidation, strength, and at least on one occasion, by exercising his intelligence. There is no equivalent to the alpha male among female chimpanzees. Most females are of low dominance rank, but a few females do appear to exercise dominance over others. Very few females are recognized as being of high dominance. High-ranking females may provide their infants and young children with some immunity from the anger of other mothers whose children they have been fighting with or made angry.

Chimpanzees in zoos have a variety of objects to incorporate into their dominance displays to create an illusion of greater size and strength. A zoo chimpanzee can create a grand spectacle for the captivated viewing public by making use of swinging ropes, enrichment objects found in the enclosure such as bags, balls and boxes and the high beams, towers and multi-levels of a modern exhibit to intensify the power of his display.

Excited chimpanzees slap, stomp or jump on large glass viewing windows that separate them from a fascinated public.

Often the displaying chimpanzee runs wildly down a man-made hill or around the enclosure while banging and kicking on walls and objects to the thrill of the viewing crowd. This noisy fuss known as a display, usually ends in a peaceful resolution like those of their wild cousins. Dominance Displays Dominance displays occur when a male or female is attempting to intimidate a subordinate or to gain rank. Captive Chimpanzees Chimpanzees in zoos have a variety of objects to incorporate into their dominance displays to create an illusion of greater size and strength. Table S1 presents the details of each behavior coded, along with interrater reliability statistics for each coded behavior.

For each video, individuals were coded without sound except when coding for laughs , one at a time visible on-screen partners were occluded. An online field experiment was conducted using a free and widely used dating application for mobile devices.

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This GPS-based application matches nearby single persons with one another. One profile is presented at a time. Profiles do not remain idle for browsing on this application—when a profile is presented, the user must respond to have the next profile revealed, and once the user has responded to a profile, it is not presented again. Two different profiles—an expansive and contracted version—were created for each confederate, resulting in 12 profiles total.

Dominance Displays

Each profile featured four different photographs of the confederate in various scenes; depending on the profile condition, all the photographs were of the confederate in either an expanded or contracted pose Fig. The study was run over a h period i.

For each confederate, either the expansive or contracted profile was active for the first h period to collect potential matches, and their other profile was active for the second h period. Preferences for a romantic partner were set to be within a mile user radius and within the ages of 20—30 y. The total number of matches i. Informed consent was obtained from all study participants, and the study was approved by The Institutional Review Board of the University of California, Berkeley.

Each participant was presented with one of 12 photograph collages. Thus, there were two photograph collages representing each target: The order of questions was randomized across participants. Data were collected on speed-dates from dating-age heterosexuals in the Midwest.

Dominant, open nonverbal displays are attractive at zero-acquaintance

Female—male pairs were videotaped during a real speed-date which lasted 4 min. After each date, individuals rated their date and indicated whether they would like to see the person again. Data were analyzed at the dyadic date-level, and multilevel modeling was used to account for the repeated assessments of each individual speed-date participant i.

For continuous outcome variables, multilevel linear modeling was used. No data were excluded. Specifically, the odds ratio resulting from the model was 1. Postural expansiveness was the only predictor in this model; alternative models that included affiliative displays and gender as covariates showed neither to be independently significant; there were no interactions. Including all variables in the model did not detract from the significant direct effect of expansiveness.

Table 1 presents the results of eight separate linear models. In each model, a rated characteristic of the individual e. Results demonstrated that people who displayed more postural expansiveness garnered higher ratings on romantic attraction. They also received marginally higher ratings on attractiveness and earning prospects; nonverbal affiliative behaviors did not show the same effects.

In addition, people who displayed either more nonverbal affiliation or more postural expansiveness garnered higher ratings from their interaction partner on the dimensions of vitality, warmth, dominance, and perceived chemistry. There were no significant interactions of affiliation displays with postural expansiveness or with gender and either affiliation displays or postural expansiveness in any of the eight models.

Each row is a separate multilevel linear model, with coded postural expansiveness, affiliative display, and gender entered as simultaneous predictors.

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Displaying more postural expansiveness garners higher ratings of romantic attraction and marginally higher ratings of attractiveness and earning prospects. Multilevel mediation models were assessed using the Monte Carlo method, which calculates a confidence interval CI for a specified indirect effect based on repeated data simulations and accounts for the repeated assessments of each individual speed-dating participant 41 , Results are summarized in Fig.

Thus, nonverbal expansiveness was a statistically significant mediator even when controlling for nonverbal affiliation. Statistics for direct effect unstandardized betas are shown above the path and for total indirect effect are shown below the path. The indirect effect of each model is similarly significant when affiliative displays are not included in the model.

The Monte Carlo method accounts for repeated assessments of each individual speed-date participant i. However, the correlational nature of study 1 made it unclear whether the speed-dating participants were engaging in postural expansion because they were liked or if they were liked because of their postural expansion.

Although dominance was a significant mediator, the role of openness—also embodied by the expansive posture—was not tested. Testing the causal role of postural expansiveness and the role of both perceived dominance and openness were the goals of the controlled field experiment reported here as study 2. The data for study 2a were collected using a dating application for mobile devices details are given in SI Materials and Methods.

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We launched profiles of six different confederates onto the dating application in the Bay Area region of California. Different profiles—an expansive and contractive version—were created for each confederate, resulting in 12 profiles total. We excluded 17 male responders who indicated suspicion by messaging the confederates [e. Why do you have the exact same profile pics as another Jessica: The data also revealed an odds ratio of 1. An exploratory analysis also showed a significant interaction effect of gender and profile type e.

We also hypothesized that the expansive, open postures also may signal willingness to share resources and that perceived openness may mediate the link between expansive postures and romantic attraction. Thus, each target was represented by two photograph collages: Participants were randomly assigned to view one collage and to rate the amount of trait dominance. Because the expansive vs. These descriptive results suggested that in rapid attributions about the expansive vs. We next tested if these ratings mediated the causal link established in study 2a between expansiveness and getting a match.

As in study 1, a multilevel mediation model with the Monte Carlo method was used. All variables examined were at the lower level i.

The aim was to test the mediating link between expansive photographs and the number of online matches found in study 2a. Thus, mediation models were tested for dominance and openness separately, for each gender. Dominance and openness ratings were centered and entered as a mediator.

Therefore, the contribution of each dominance and openness as a mediator was tested separately. As shown in Fig. Based on a resampling size of 20,, dominance mediated the effect of profile photograph pose on match outcome. Comparing the magnitude of the two effect sizes computed for each model based on the product of the partial correlations between photograph pose and the mediator and each mediator and match outcome; refs. These results are consistent with the conclusion that one way in which postural expansiveness exerts its effects on romantic attraction is through perceived dominance, but that dominance appears to be an open, inviting type of dominance.

Dominance is a stronger mediator than openness linking expansive photographs and number of online matches. Statistics for direct effect unstandardized betas are shown above the path, and for total indirect effect are shown below the path. An examination of the variance inflation factor revealed high redundancy between the pose in the photograph and the mediator which produces reversed beta coefficients such as this one We also tested the multilevel models reported above split by gender. It is important to note that, given our sample size of target stimuli i.

Across two field studies—one observational and one experimental, which included a third study that offered additional insight—we arrived at three main conclusions: Consistent with past research in sociology and animal research, these findings underscore the importance of both nonverbal expansiveness and dominance in initial romantic attraction. In humans, appearing open is almost as important as dominance.

To our knowledge, these findings are the first test linking human nonverbal expansiveness and initial romantic attraction, particularly in modern romantic attraction contexts in which potentially crucial components of the courtship process are increasingly reduced to quick responses at zero acquaintance.

These findings are consistent with past nonhuman animal research demonstrating that expansiveness bids for better reproductive outcomes e. Moreover, in the context of the very brief romantic interactions in the current studies, the findings suggest that dominance, signaling possible resources, may be a functional preference when making quick inferences about a potential partner 23 , and it is hypothesized that openness may be preferred because it signals a willingness to share those resources.

We hope our initial test opens the door to the investigation of a suite of other, more important nonverbal, physical, and ornamental variables causally predictive of romantic attraction. Alongside inferences of dominance in a potential partner, past research suggests that people may make inferences about associated traits, such as low neuroticism and general relaxedness However, dominance displays and general relaxedness are nonverbally conveyed in different ways. Thus, the role of immediacy cues was not tested further in the causal field study that is study 2.

However, some of these variables likely need more attention in future studies of attraction. We emphasize that a limitation of the current research—a tradeoff resulting from the use of a study design that establishes high external validity—is that, although internal validity was high and deeply rooted in theory and nonverbal communication research, the photograph manipulation in study 2a does not allow an explicit dissection of dominance and openness from additional and related characteristics in judging a potential partner.

That is, any given body posture will necessarily convey a suite of interrelated qualities rather than a single quality in isolation , which future research may wish to examine in addition to when each cue causes more attraction and for whom. As with many other past studies of human romantic attraction, our results suggest a more complicated picture when comparing males with females: Specifically, a gender difference in the impact of expansiveness on romantic attraction was nonexistent in study 1 speed-dating ; however, although both genders benefitted from expansiveness in study 2, males benefitted more.

There are many empirical cases in which gender differences that emerge in online profile-type study designs do not translate to live interaction designs such as speed-dating However, interpretations of gender effects in study 2a must remain tentative, given that target gender is confounded with confederate in this design In other words, the current study design is perfectly sufficient for drawing conclusions about expansiveness which we manipulated within-confederate , but the strength of the gender difference awaits future research that uses a larger sample size of male and female stimuli i.

Instead, the current research suggests that both men and women garner more romantic interest by expressing some dominance, and this finding holds timely implications for modern dating in which women play a more active role in recruiting sexual partners More generally, the current work has practical implications for romantic attraction in nontraditional courtship contexts. Today, in addition to in-person structured speed-dating events, romantic zero-acquaintance interactions occur online. Meeting someone through some form of online dating has become the second most common way of finding a partner, after connecting through friends However, initial attraction is only the first step in a romantic relationship.

Examining expansiveness in romantic relationships as they develop over time would be one direction for future research. For example, the longer-term effects of varying degrees of dominance and openness among partners on the quality and longevity of a relationship would be an interesting direction for future research. What about expansiveness in initial attraction in nonromantic contexts?

In general, in their social networks people desire individuals who have access to resources, regardless of context We speculate that the attraction to dominant, resource-rich others is especially strong as the degree of interdependence in the relationship increases. Romantic relationships are highly interdependent 60 ; thus in romantic contexts, one should be tuned into the type of dominance that signals both access to resources and a willingness to share them. We theorize that in the context of a highly interdependent romantic attraction a person considers the resource benefit of selecting a particular partner.

We suggest that an open, expansive posture may signal not only dominance but perhaps openness to sharing the resource benefits often accruing to the most dominant members of a society. For a less interdependent interaction, such as hiring a plumber, expansiveness may be less relevant, and hiring a babysitter may fall somewhere in the middle. The exact degree to which expansiveness, and associated inferences regarding dominance and resource-sharing, are unique to romantic contexts, as compared with nonromantic contexts, is an area for future research.

To close, the present dating landscape is one in which mates are selected differently and, in some cases, instantly. To what degree does what we know about historical mate selection and attraction hold true in the modern online landscape? There are likely many other controllable cues—physical, nonverbal, and ornamental—that people could leverage to present themselves optimally.

We hope our results inspire additional investigations of which cues have functional utility, under which conditions, and for whom. The authors declare no conflict of interest. This article contains supporting information online at www. Aspects of an expansive display also may trigger perceptions of other closely associated traits that reflect subfacets of the dominance construct e. However, only one event was coded; this event was chosen because data were reasonably complete and it had an equal number of men and women. Other articles draw from this same speed-dating dataset 74 — Research assistants who were blind to study hypotheses handled confederates' profiles.

The most popular male and female names in the United States in https: National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Published online Mar Eastwick , c Eli J. Finkel , d, e and Dana R. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Edited by Susan T. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.

Significance This set of studies tested whether humans are more attracted to individuals displaying their bodies expansively, a behavior considered to express both dominance and openness. Abstract Across two field studies of romantic attraction, we demonstrate that postural expansiveness makes humans more romantically appealing. Materials and Methods We tested the predictions in two studies of heterosexual human dating interactions.

Coded behavior descriptions and inter-rater reliabilities. All types of smiles e. Open in a separate window. SI Materials and Methods Study 1. Data structure and overview of analyses. Postural expansiveness predicts more romantic attraction on a speed-date. Postural expansiveness predicts romantic attraction on a speed-date.

Dominance mediates the link between expansiveness and romantic attraction. Dominance and openness mediate the link between expansive photographs and the number of online matches. Discussion Across two field studies—one observational and one experimental, which included a third study that offered additional insight—we arrived at three main conclusions: Footnotes The authors declare no conflict of interest. The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.

Is there a gender difference in strength of sex drive? Theoretical views, conceptual distinctions, and a review of relevant evidence. Pers Soc Psychol Rev. Lundberg S, Pollak RA. Human Capital in History: Univ of Chicago Press; Chicago: Cohabitation and the uneven retreat from marriage in the US, An evolutionary perspective on human mating.

Tickle-Degnen L, Rosenthal R. The nature of rapport and its nonverbal correlates. Why are you smiling at me? Social functions of enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles.

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