The Relation Between Individual Differences in Fundamental Societal Motives and Adaptive Face Perception

Abstract

Human motivational systems are designed to promote organismic reactions that facilitate survival and reproduction. Recent research suggests that there are individual differences in human motivation across evolutionarily salient domains, such as self-protection threat, status, mate-seeking and mate retention, and that these individual differences are distinct from other dimensions of personality (e.g., Big Five) and are related to numerous other life history variables. We hypothesized that individual differences in self-protection, status, mate-seeking, and mate-retention motives would be related to adaptive face preferences with respect to trust and dominance cues in male faces. We asked participants to complete a task that assessed the extent to which they preferred trust, versus dominance, in male faces and then asked them to complete the fundamental social motives inventory. For both men and women, individual differences in mate-seeking and mate-retention goals had the predicted effect on face preferences. Men higher in mate-seeking and mate retention motives demonstrated a greater preference for trustworthy male faces. Women higher in mate-seeking motives demonstrated a greater preference for dominant male faces, while women higher in mate-retention motives demonstrated a stronger preference for trustworthy male faces. No relation was found regarding individual differences in self-protection and status motives and face preferences. Findings provide preliminary evidence for how dispositional motives pertaining to mate acquisition and retention differentially influence preferences for certain facial features.