Altruism & Sexual Selection

This psychology report investigates Darwin's 1871 hypothesis on altruism as a basis for sexual selection. The study uses a 2x2 MANCOVA design to examine the relationship between facial attractiveness (attractive vs. unattractive) and altruistic behavior (financial and non-financial) in male and female participants. Undergraduate students rated images of the opposite sex and answered questions assessing their altruism. Results indicated that participants exhibited more altruistic behavior towards attractive individuals, supporting the hypothesis that altruism serves as a mating signal. The study also notes that males displayed more altruism than females, and that the intention to date may influence altruistic behavior. Limitations include the focus on opposite-sex pairings and the potential for homosexual participants to skew results. The report concludes by supporting Darwin's sexual selection theory and highlighting the halo effect, where attractiveness influences perceptions of cooperation and altruism.

Altruism the basis of sexual selection
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Altruism the basis of sexual selection
Abstract
The study was done to explain the human altruism of sexual selection hypothesis which was
given by Darwin in the year 1871 (Bhogal, M. S., Galbraith, N., & Manktelow, K. (2016). This
hypothesis told that altruism is a form of mating signal, so as to know about the characteristics of
opposite sex. This may increase the chance of selection to mate. This hypothesis states that
altruism is a sexually selected trait so as to increase the chances of being attracted, retain and
reproduce with the other sex (Kotlikoff, L. J., 2016). For the study, various participants were
chosen and were asked to read the information and then were presented a series of images which
were attractive and non-attractive. The observations were to be done in order to check the
financial altruism or non-financial altruism and was noticed that the participants were choosing
on the basis of attractiveness. This explained the evolution of altruism which determines that the
people show altruism for more attractive people. The 2- D facial images and online facial
database were used for the methodology and paired sample t-test for non-financial altruism were
utilized for the experimentation or the study. The more attracted people were assumed to give
more positive attribute range than the non-attractive ones (Bhogal, M. S., Galbraith, N., &
Manktelow, K., 2016). Various studies have been reported for the past ten years. The whole
experiment was based on the attractive and non-attractive images.
Introduction
Altruism is the word coined by Auguste Comte, a French philosopher; it is derived from Latin
word ‘alteri' which means ‘someone else.' In French it is termed as ‘altruisme’ which means
selflessness; used as an antonym for selfishness. Altruism is defined as welfare to others which

may or may not harm or benefits themselves. There are many sexual selection theories which
talk about the natural selection of the living creatures on the basis of their mating patterns or
attractiveness towards opposite sex. One is the reproductive success theory determines the
natural selection by measuring the fitness of offsprings and by measuring the number of
offspring left. According to sexual propaganda theory mate was lead opportunistically, by
strength of mate signals, trophic resource, phenotypic characteristics, etc. and explained the
genetic diversity maintenance within the population. The Hola effect tells about the observer's
feelings, overall impressions of a person on others (Liu, S. Q., Liu, S. Q., Mattila, A. S., &
Mattila, A. S., 2016). Darwin and Ronald Fisher gave a great contribution in the sexual theories
by explaining that for natural selection the sexual selection is also important and mating with the
opposite partner the sperm competitiveness, physical features are also important factors to get
attracted (Taborsky, M., Frommen, J. G., & Riehl, C., 2016). The study is done to give an
explanation to the sexual selection hypothesis given by Darwin in the year 1871. Altruism is
known to be the mating signal which is important to attract and influence the opposite partner for
sex behaviour (Shaver, P. R., Mikulincer, M., Gross, J. T., Stern, J. A., & Cassidy, J. A.,
2016).The altruism was studied non-financially and financially using DV and IV. IV was the
study done on the basis of facial attractiveness that too within the group while the DV determines
the dependent variable which can be measured by social dilemma or online dictator game.
Participants would be more altruisic towards facial attractiveness.
Method
An experiment was designed within the group of few people or may consider them as
participants. Various images were pre-set into the category of attractiveness and unattractiveness;
participants were allowed to rate those attractive and non-attractive images.

Design
A between groups 2 x 2 MANCOVA design was adopted in which the independent variables
were attractiveness (high and low) and sex (male and female) (Bhogal, M. S., Galbraith, N., &
Manktelow, K., 2016). The dependent variables were altruism and cooperation. The
experimental design included IV and DV (Bhogal, M. S., Galbraith, N., & Manktelow, K.,
2016). IV is the facial attractiveness that includes 2 levels; the attractive and unattractive. This
was a within groups IV. Another one was dependent variable in which participants were asked to
rate themselves which was accompanied by a 1, low to 5, high Likert scale.
Participants and materials
For the study purpose, a large group of undergraduate students was invited to participate. It was
whole voluntary participation. All the participants were presented with the images; males viewed
female’s images and female viewed male’s one. 5 were attractive and 5 were unattractive i.e.
with 10 images in series. They were asked few questions about the images on the screen. The
whole experiment completed within 20 minutes. They were tested to respond to financial
altruism and other non-financial altruism. Researchers were involved in collecting and analyzing
the data.
Online facial images database was used as a source for 2 –D images (Sutherland, C. A.,
Young, A. W., & Rhodes, G., 2016). Images were preset into 2 categories and the paper is
provided on Moodle. A paired-samples t-test was used for non-financial altruism.
Procedure
University’s health and life science (HLS) faculty’s human research ethics committee gave an
ethical approval for the conduction of experiment. Participants were invited to take voluntary

participation in this psychology course. Participants were allowed to enter the class, they were
given instructions about the study and were told that they are free if they want to withdraw their
names from the study. The software program "Open Sesame" was opened as instructed to the
participants (Sprouse, R. L., & Johnson, K., 2016). They were given their id numbers and then
asked to read information letter, requirements and details of the experiment. Then the
participants have presented the images of opposite sex; 10 images (5 attractive and 5
unattractive). They were asked few questions on which basis they were checked to respond them
for financial altruism and non-financial altruism one measuring cooperation and one measuring
generosity.
Discussion
The main aim of the study was to check the altruistic behavior of males and females on the basis
of attractive and non-attractive images. Males showed more altruistic behavior than females
(Tognetti, A., Dubois, D., Faurie, C., & Willinger, M., 2016). These behaviors were seen to be
influenced with the intention to date, sexual intention which has been neglected in the last
researches. This is helpful to support the sexual selection theory. Females were seeking more
moral traits on physical attractiveness basis (Arnocky, S., Piché, T., Albert, G., Ouellette, D., &
Barclay, P., 2016). But a limitation of the study is that the participants were shown only opposite
sex and there could be probability of participants being homosexuals.
Hence, the study concludes by supporting the Darwin’s selection theory and also
explained the halo effect which states that the one is co-operative towards the opposite sex or
shows altruism. Non-financial and financial altruism states that more attractive images were
more liked or accepted than the non- attractive one. This also suggested that the sexual or dating
intention may also be responsible for the drive to altruism.

Results
Mean age of the students were 19.7. Out of them 44 were males and 156 were females.
With the Standard deviation (SD) curve of approximately 3.6 value, the attractive images came
out were 2.32 and unattractive were 2.12 in mean.
When the value of t (199) = 5.17, p<0.001
Normal distribution
The results of non- financial altruism with attractive images gave the statics as follows with the
skewness and kurtosis:
Table 1
Serial no. Attractive images Non attractive
Males / females 2.32 2.12
Table 2
Attractive non financial
images
Skewness kurtosis
Statistic 3.69 0.369
Standard error 0.172 0.342
Result 2.145 -1.351
Skewness
Statistic (3.69)
With the standard error (0.172) = 2.145
And

Kurtosis
Statistics (0.369) with standard error (0.342) = -1.351
On the other basis the result of non-financial unattractive images gives :
Skewness
Statistics (0.594) with the standard error (0.172) = 3.453
Kurtosis
Statistic = -164 with the standard error (0.342) = 0
Unattractive non-financial
images
Skewness Kurtosis
Statistic 0.594 -164
Standard error 0.172 0.342
Result 3.453 0
All the values and scores shows that the females and males were more attractive towards the
opposite sex and impressed more by the more attractive images.

References
Arnocky, S., Piché, T., Albert, G., Ouellette, D., & Barclay, P. (2016). Altruism predicts mating
success in humans. British Journal of Psychology.
Bhogal, M. S., Galbraith, N., & Manktelow, K. (2016). Sexual selection and the evolution of
altruism: males are more altruistic and cooperative towards attractive females. Letters on
Evolutionary Behavioral Science.
Bhogal, M. S., Galbraith, N., & Manktelow, K. (2016). Physical attractiveness, altruism and
cooperation in an ultimatum game. Current Psychology, 1-7.
Bhogal, M. S., Galbraith, N., & Manktelow, K. (2016). Physical attractiveness and altruism in
two modified dictator games. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 38(4), 212-222.
Kotlikoff, L. J. (2016). Essays on saving, bequests, altruism, and life-cycle planning. MIT Press.
Liu, S. Q., Liu, S. Q., Mattila, A. S., & Mattila, A. S. (2016). The influence of a “green” loyalty
program on service encounter satisfaction. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(6), 576-585.
Shaver, P. R., Mikulincer, M., Gross, J. T., Stern, J. A., & Cassidy, J. A. (2016). A lifespan
perspective on attachment and care for others: Empathy, altruism, and prosocial behavior.
Sprouse, R. L., & Johnson, K. (2016). The Berkeley Phonetics Machine. Interspeech 2016, 1623-
1626.
Sutherland, C. A., Young, A. W., & Rhodes, G. (2016). Facial first impressions from another
angle: How social judgements are influenced by changeable and invariant facial
properties. British Journal of Psychology.