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Extraneous color affects female macaques’ gaze preference for photographs of male conspecifics

Kelly D. Hughes, James P. Higham, William Allen Orcid Logo, Andrew J. Elliot, Benjamin Y. Hayden

Evolution and Human Behavior, Volume: 36, Issue: 1, Pages: 25 - 31

Swansea University Author: William Allen Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.08.003

Abstract

Humans find members of the opposite sex more attractive when their image is spatially associated with the color red. This effect even occurs when the red color is not on the skin or clothing (i.e. is extraneous). We hypothesize that this extraneous color effect could be at least partially explained...

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Published in: Evolution and Human Behavior
Published: Elsevier 2015
Online Access: http://europepmc.org/articles/pmc4269239
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa27994
first_indexed 2016-05-17T01:36:52Z
last_indexed 2018-02-09T05:11:39Z
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spelling 2016-07-06T11:43:43.2028656 v2 27994 2016-05-16 Extraneous color affects female macaques’ gaze preference for photographs of male conspecifics d6f01dd06d25fa8804daad86e251b8a5 0000-0003-2654-0438 William Allen William Allen true false 2016-05-16 BGPS Humans find members of the opposite sex more attractive when their image is spatially associated with the color red. This effect even occurs when the red color is not on the skin or clothing (i.e. is extraneous). We hypothesize that this extraneous color effect could be at least partially explained by a low-level and biologically innate generalization process, and so similar extraneous color effects should be observed in non-humans. To test this possibility, we examined the influence of extraneous color in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Across two experiments, we determined the influence of extraneous red on viewing preferences (assessed by looking time) in free-ranging rhesus monkeys. We presented male and female monkeys with black and white photographs of the hindquarters of same and opposite sex conspecifics on either a red (experimental condition) or blue (control condition) background. As a secondary control, we also presented neutral stimuli (photographs of seashells) on red and blue backgrounds. We found that female monkeys looked longer at a picture of a male scrotum, but not a seashell, on a red background (Experiment 1), while males showed no bias. Neither male nor female monkeys showed an effect of color on looking time for female hindquarters or seashells (Experiment 2). The finding for females viewing males suggests that extraneous color affects preferences among rhesus macaques. Further, it raises the possibility that evolutionary processes gave rise to extraneous color effects during human evolution. Journal Article Evolution and Human Behavior 36 1 25 31 Elsevier 31 12 2015 2015-12-31 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.08.003 http://europepmc.org/articles/pmc4269239 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University 2016-07-06T11:43:43.2028656 2016-05-16T09:58:58.2788493 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Kelly D. Hughes 1 James P. Higham 2 William Allen 0000-0003-2654-0438 3 Andrew J. Elliot 4 Benjamin Y. Hayden 5 0027994-06062016143133.pdf Hughes_2015_Extraneous_colour_EHB.pdf 2016-06-06T14:31:33.9970000 Output 329646 application/pdf Accepted Manuscript true 2016-06-06T00:00:00.0000000 © 2015. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ true
title Extraneous color affects female macaques’ gaze preference for photographs of male conspecifics
spellingShingle Extraneous color affects female macaques’ gaze preference for photographs of male conspecifics
William Allen
title_short Extraneous color affects female macaques’ gaze preference for photographs of male conspecifics
title_full Extraneous color affects female macaques’ gaze preference for photographs of male conspecifics
title_fullStr Extraneous color affects female macaques’ gaze preference for photographs of male conspecifics
title_full_unstemmed Extraneous color affects female macaques’ gaze preference for photographs of male conspecifics
title_sort Extraneous color affects female macaques’ gaze preference for photographs of male conspecifics
author_id_str_mv d6f01dd06d25fa8804daad86e251b8a5
author_id_fullname_str_mv d6f01dd06d25fa8804daad86e251b8a5_***_William Allen
author William Allen
author2 Kelly D. Hughes
James P. Higham
William Allen
Andrew J. Elliot
Benjamin Y. Hayden
format Journal article
container_title Evolution and Human Behavior
container_volume 36
container_issue 1
container_start_page 25
publishDate 2015
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.08.003
publisher Elsevier
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
url http://europepmc.org/articles/pmc4269239
document_store_str 1
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description Humans find members of the opposite sex more attractive when their image is spatially associated with the color red. This effect even occurs when the red color is not on the skin or clothing (i.e. is extraneous). We hypothesize that this extraneous color effect could be at least partially explained by a low-level and biologically innate generalization process, and so similar extraneous color effects should be observed in non-humans. To test this possibility, we examined the influence of extraneous color in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Across two experiments, we determined the influence of extraneous red on viewing preferences (assessed by looking time) in free-ranging rhesus monkeys. We presented male and female monkeys with black and white photographs of the hindquarters of same and opposite sex conspecifics on either a red (experimental condition) or blue (control condition) background. As a secondary control, we also presented neutral stimuli (photographs of seashells) on red and blue backgrounds. We found that female monkeys looked longer at a picture of a male scrotum, but not a seashell, on a red background (Experiment 1), while males showed no bias. Neither male nor female monkeys showed an effect of color on looking time for female hindquarters or seashells (Experiment 2). The finding for females viewing males suggests that extraneous color affects preferences among rhesus macaques. Further, it raises the possibility that evolutionary processes gave rise to extraneous color effects during human evolution.
published_date 2015-12-31T06:56:24Z
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