ANTH 332 ASSIGNMENT 6- Hawks

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Anthropology

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Apr 3, 2024

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1 ANTH 332 ASSIGNMENT 6 This assignment is designed to allow you to demonstrate what you have learned in this class in a creative (and hopefully fun) way. It was suggested in conversation with past students in the live version of the class. Due to the nature of the assignment, YOU MUST FOLLOW LIMITATIONS closely. Overview: Your assignment is to design a fictitious dating app profile that is optimally designed to be successful for a particular mating strategy studied in class, including as many attractiveness cues and signals as possible/reasonable for the target audience. You will then list or label the components of the ad with the cues or signals you have included, and why they are included for the mating strategy your fictitious person is pursuing. The fictitious ad is fictitious and for class assignment only. Simply make up the ad in a Word document on one (or a few) page(s), and then answer the questions on the following pages.

3 B.Once you have created your ad:, answer the following questions about it: 1. a) State and explain the specific mating strategy that is being pursued by the advertiser/signaler? The mating strategy pursued by the signaler is a short-term mating strategy, someone who can keep up with her fast-paced lifestyle and offer her fun, short-term experiences through monetary or physical means. My persona matches this mating strategy as it is proven that more attractive women may be more likely to mate switch, desert, or engage in epcs. Also, as this correlates to the prevalence of hookup culture, there is behavioral evidence that females are more likely to orgasm with a short term partner, another benefit of pursuing a short term mateship. b) To what kind of person (in terms of characteristics and mating strategy) is the ad targeted? Explain the desired mating strategy of that person. This ad targets someone with perceived social clout through a party scene or a certain level of fame. In the region of the ad, this could apply to Los Angeles influencers, low-level celebrities, and athletes. This mating strategy works for these targeting individuals as these are also people who have busy lifestyles and share a likeness in having many potential mates. For a beautiful woman, she has many options because many people are interested in mating with her. Hence, she matches a lifestyle similar to a man with a higher social status, as a handsome man alone will not have the same potential partners to compete with her on a short-term mating scale. Additionally, In Little’s et al. 2014 study, it was proven that men had a greater preference for more feminine female faces for short-term mateships and when they already had a long term mateship. c) Describe the features of mate value that the optimal respondent would have, based on the mating strategy being pursued in the ad. The features of a mate that she would most likely be interested in include those indicating a more masculine male, such as strength or a high shoulder-to-hip ratio, as these traits are highly correlated with female preferences for a short-term mate. Males with a high shoulder-to-hip ratio have sexual intercourse earlier and are proven to have more sex partners. While women tend to pursue taller men, strength is a much more prominent predictor of attractiveness than either height or weight, as height is associated with perceived strength but adds independently to attractiveness as it does not correlate directly to masculinity. Biologically, more masculine males can provide the genes for more successful offspring but are not viewed as potential long-term mateships. Women prefer men who will not be aggressive towards them or their children. This applies to the current mating context as women will prefer males with more masculine musculature for short-term mateships, especially when they are ovulating, but will choose a less masculine male otherwise. d) Bonus points for picking a local market where your persona’s strategy and ad is likely to be particularly attractive (e.g., STM ad in a region with indicators that there is a higher proportion of short-term mateships; LTM strategy on a Christian dating site)

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4 In my ad, my persona’s strategy is a short-term mating context in Los Angeles, CA. In this region, epc relationships are the norm, and she would not be judged or discriminated against for pursuing that type of relationship. 2. a. What are the context-sensitive trade-offs involved in pursuing this mating strategy for the persona depicted in the ad (be specific)? The context-sensitive trade-offs in pursuing this mating strategy for my persona as a woman are: ● Risk of violence ● Potential costs of pregnancy ● Risk of STDs ● Possible reputational damage to long-term mate value The benefit of modern birth control, however, limits many of the context trade-offs for women in short-term mateships, as women do not have to identify men who can provide for their children in the long run. Still, today, many women pursue short-term mateships for the potential benefits of a short-term resource provider to elevate their lifestyle. 3. What elements of the profile photo provide either cues or signals found attractive by targets/recipients of the advertiser/signalers mating strategy? Make sure to specify whether the trait is a cue or signal. a. For each cue or signal: ➔ Shorter narrower, lower jar ➔ Fuller lips ➔ Larger rounder eyes ➢ These traits are estrogen markers as cues to facial attraction ➔ Smooth skin ➢ Smooth skin is a cue of attractiveness ➔ Symmetry ➢ Symmetry is a cue of health in attractiveness ➔ Low waist to hip ratio (WHR) ➢ signal peak reproductive value We can determine if a trait is a cue vs a signal because a cue is a trait that psychology uses in computing assessment, but did not evolve for that function and a signal evolved to transmit information to others. Briefly explain the underlying reason why it is attractive to the target audience (citations get bonus points). A shorter jaw, full lips, and large round eyes are more attractive to the target audience because these features are associated with youth, health, and higher maternal tendencies. Besides the obvious reasons these features are more attractive, preferences for these traits may reflect “male attention to

5 youth, fertility, fecundity, and male effort” (Smith, 2005). Smooth skin is attractive to the target audience because an absence of blemishes and lines indicates youth and health, and in Fink’s et al. (2001) study, male subjects are more attracted to healthier, younger women. Symmetry is also attractive to males because it is a cue of health and is regulated by nutrition and hormone levels. “Averageness and symmetry are attractive in male and female faces, with medium to large effect sizes in all cases. Sexual dimorphism is also attractive. Femininity is attractive in female faces and is preferred to averageness” (Gillian Rhodes 208). A low waist to hip ratio (WHR) is associated with higher attractiveness, “a lower WHR was associated with higher fecundity and was a better predictor than other variables such as body mass index” (Marlow Apicella 459). 4. As with the photo, list each element of the text and how it provides a cue or signal that is attractive to recipients of the particular mating strategy being pursued by the advertiser, and why. Make sure to state whether the element is a cue or a signal. My ad begins with quick “get to know me” anecdotes which are markers of many dating apps today. The first, “my love language is physical touch,” suggests a cue of a more promiscuous persona. Despite love languages being a popular topic in the media, leading with that premise on a dating app suggests that you are more sexually experienced. The following anecdote is “my simple pleasures: Tequila,” which creates a persona of someone who enjoys partying and going out, another cue of someone looking for a short-term mate. On the dating app profile, her age is listed as 22 because that is a marker of her youth, a cue attractive to males. To answer the question, “most people who know me would say I am.” the persona begins with a spontaneous attitude associated with a “down to do anything” mindset. Then she says, I love to travel, go out, and have new experiences. Traveling indicates that she could be looking for a partner to fund this lifestyle but is looking to attain resources with little investment, which is a signal of wanting short-term mateship. Expressing interest in having new experiences shows the advertiser that she is looking for new experiences with them and possibly pulls in interest from the user. The persona then finishes with, “if you want to keep me around, you better keep me on my toes,” which shows that she is looking for someone to keep up with her lifestyle and make it worth her while, or she will mate switch, which is compatible with her being an attractive woman. 5. Once you are done, go back and look at your ad. What do you think you could have done to better optimize the mating strategy you picked (if you had sufficient time and graphic skills, for example)? Looking back, I could have optimized the mating strategy through more pictures of partying, as those pictures signal a certain notion or culture the individual is interested in. Especially in our era of hookup culture, partying is directly correlated to short term mating strategies.

ANTH 332 ASSIGNMENT 6- Hawks

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