Just Seconds of Laughter Reveals Relationship Status: Laughter with Friends Sounds More Authentic and Less Vulnerable than Laughter with Romantic Partners.

The dual pathway model posits that spontaneous and volitional laughter are voiced using distinct production systems, and perceivers rely upon these system-related cues to make accurate judgments about relationship status. Yet, to our knowledge, no empirical work has examined whether raters can differentiate laughter directed at friends and romantic partners and the cues driving this accuracy. In Study 1, raters (N = 50), who listened to 52 segments of laughter, identified conversational partner (friend versus romantic partner) with greater than chance accuracy (M = 0.57) and rated laughs directed at friends to be more pleasant-sounding than laughs directed at romantic partners. Study 2, which involved 58 raters, revealed that prototypical friendship laughter sounded more spontaneous (e.g., natural) and less "vulnerable" (e.g., submissive) than prototypical romantic laughter. Study 3 replicated the findings of the first two studies using a large cross-cultural sample (N = 252). Implications for the importance of laughter as a subtle relational signal of affiliation are discussed.

Vocal modulation in human mating and competition.

The human voice is dynamic, and people modulate their voices across different social interactions. This article presents a review of the literature examining natural vocal modulation in social contexts relevant to human mating and intrasexual competition. Altering acoustic parameters during speech, particularly pitch, in response to mating and competitive contexts can influence social perception and indicate certain qualities of the speaker. For instance, a lowered voice pitch is often used to exert dominance, display status and compete with rivals. Changes in voice can also serve as a salient medium for signalling a person's attraction to another, and there is evidence to support the notion that attraction and/or romantic interest can be distinguished through vocal tones alone. Individuals can purposely change their vocal behaviour in attempt to sound more attractive and to facilitate courtship success. Several findings also point to the effectiveness of vocal change as a mechanism for communicating relationship status. As future studies continue to explore vocal modulation in the arena of human mating, we will gain a better understanding of how and why vocal modulation varies across social contexts and its impact on receiver psychology. This article is part of the theme issue 'Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part I)'.

Experimental Evidence for Sex Differences in Sexual Variety Preferences: Support for the Coolidge Effect in Humans.

We examined sex differences in preferences for sexual variety and novelty to determine whether the Coolidge effect plays a role in human sexuality. In two experimental studies that employed different manipulations, we found converging evidence that men showed a greater preference for variety in potential short-term mates than did women. In the first study, men (n = 281) were more likely than women (n = 353) to select a variety of mates when given the opportunity to distribute chances to have sex with different individuals in hypothetical situations. This sex difference was evident regardless of the targets' attractiveness and age. Further, men found it more appealing if their committed romantic/sexual partners frequently changed their physical appearance, while women reported that they modified their physical appearance more frequently than did men, potentially appealing to male desires for novelty. In the second study, when participants were given a hypothetical dating task using photographs of potential short-term mates, men (n = 40) were more likely than women (n = 56) to select a novel person to date. Collectively, these findings lend support to the idea that sex differences in preferences for sexual variety and novelty are a salient sex-specific evolved component of the repertoire of human mating strategies.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptomatology, binge eating disorder symptomatology, and body mass index among college students.

Objective: To explore the relationship between symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), symptoms of binge eating disorder, and body mass index (BMI) among students at a southern university. Participants: Two hundred seventy-seven college students. Methods: Between January 31, 2013 and March 27, 2013, participants completed the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) Screener and the Binge Eating Scale (BES) in addition to permitting researchers to measure their height and weight. Results: Higher ASRS scores, higher BMIs, and lower BES scores were observed among men. Among both men and women, BES scores were positively correlated with BMI and ASRS scores; however, the correlation between ASRS and BMI was not significant. Conclusion: Binge eating disorder symptomatology was associated with increased ADHD symptomatology and a higher BMI among both men and women. Among students presenting with obesity or ADHD, screening for binge eating may assist with the identification of problematic eating behaviors.

Operational Sex Ratio Predicts Binge Drinking Across U.S. Counties.

Previous research suggests that binge drinking among young men serves as a "costly signal" to potential mates, such that the binge drinker is capable of bearing the harmful consequences of alcohol consumption. Here, we propose that binge drinking among young adults is conditionally dependent upon the signaler's willingness to take risks, which is influenced by the local operational sex ratio (OSR). Using archived binge drinking estimates from 2009 to 2012 and Census Bureau records of OSRs, we tested the relationship between OSR and binge drinking rates at the county level across 3,143 U.S. counties against hypotheses drawn from evolutionary theory. Results from our mixed-effects models revealed that a higher overall OSR (i.e., more eligible men compared to women) was associated with higher male binge drinking rates but lower female binge drinking rates. A higher OSR particularly in the 20-29 and 50+ age groups predicted higher male binge drinking rates but lower female binge drinking rates. Our findings generally support predictions derived from evolutionary theory and suggest that binge drinking may function as a costly sexual signal, conditionally regulated by age and the local sex ratio.

Your Cheatin' Voice Will Tell on You: Detection of Past Infidelity from Voice.

Evidence suggests that many physical, behavioral, and trait qualities can be detected solely from the sound of a person's voice, irrespective of the semantic information conveyed through speech. This study examined whether raters could accurately assess the likelihood that a person has cheated on committed, romantic partners simply by hearing the speaker's voice. Independent raters heard voice samples of individuals who self-reported that they either cheated or had never cheated on their romantic partners. To control for aspects that may clue a listener to the speaker's mate value, we used voice samples that did not differ between these groups for voice attractiveness, age, voice pitch, and other acoustic measures. We found that participants indeed rated the voices of those who had a history of cheating as more likely to cheat. Male speakers were given higher ratings for cheating, while female raters were more likely to ascribe the likelihood to cheat to speakers. Additionally, we manipulated the pitch of the voice samples, and for both sexes, the lower pitched versions were consistently rated to be from those who were more likely to have cheated. Regardless of the pitch manipulation, speakers were able to assess actual history of infidelity; the one exception was that men's accuracy decreased when judging women whose voices were lowered. These findings expand upon the idea that the human voice may be of value as a cheater detection tool and very thin slices of vocal information are all that is needed to make certain assessments about others.

Use of Health Belief Model Variables To Examine Self-Reported Food Handling Behaviors in a Sample of U.S. Adults Attending a Tailgate Event.

Unsafe food handling behaviors are common among consumers, and, given the venue, individuals attending a tailgating event may be at risk for foodborne illness. The objective of this study was to measure the association between Health Belief Model variables and self-reported usual food handling behaviors in a convenience sample of men and women at a tailgate event. Participants (n = 128) completed validated subscales for self-reported food handling behaviors (i.e., cross-contamination, sanitation), perceived threat of foodborne illness (i.e., perceived severity, perceived susceptibility), and safe food handling cues to action (i.e., media cues, educational cues). Perceived severity of foodborne illness was associated with safer behaviors related to sanitation (r = 0.40; P < 0.001) and cross-contamination (r = 0.33; P = 0.001). Perceived severity of foodborne illness was also associated with exposure to safe food handling media cues (r = 0.20; P = 0.027) but not with safe food handling educational cues. A large proportion of participants reported that they never or seldom (i) read newspaper or magazine articles about foodborne illness (65.6%); (ii) read brochures about safe ways to handle food (61.7%); (iii) see store displays that explain ways to handle food (51.6%); or (iv) read the "safe handling instructions" on packages of raw meat and poultry (46.9%). Perceived severity of foodborne illness was positively related to both dimensions of safe food handling as well as with safe food handling media cues. Except for the weak correlation between media cues and perceived severity, the relationships between safe food handling cues and perceived threat, as well as between safe food handling cues and behaviors, were nonsignificant. This finding may be due, in part, to the participants' overall low exposure to safe food handling cues. The overall results of this study reinforce the postulate that perceived severity of foodborne illness may influence food handling behaviors.

I like my voice better: self-enhancement bias in perceptions of voice attractiveness.

Previous research shows that the human voice can communicate a wealth of nonsemantic information; preferences for voices can predict health, fertility, and genetic quality of the speaker, and people often use voice attractiveness, in particular, to make these assessments of others. But it is not known what we think of the attractiveness of our own voices as others hear them. In this study eighty men and women rated the attractiveness of an array of voice recordings of different individuals and were not told that their own recorded voices were included in the presentation. Results showed that participants rated their own voices as sounding more attractive than others had rated their voices, and participants also rated their own voices as sounding more attractive than they had rated the voices of others. These findings suggest that people may engage in vocal implicit egotism, a form of self-enhancement.

Sex differences in post-coital behaviors in long- and short-term mating: an evolutionary perspective.

Few empirical studies have been devoted to exploring behaviors occurring immediately following sexual intercourse. Therefore, this study conducts an exploratory investigation of various post-coital behaviors that the authors propose may reflect the divergent adaptive reproductive strategies of each sex as understood from an evolutionary perspective. An online questionnaire was administered to 170 individuals examining sex differences in post-coital compared to pre-coital activities related to pair-bonding with long-term mates, as well as a variety of common post-coital activities comparing short- and long-term mating contexts. It was found that females were more likely than males to initiate and place greater importance on several behaviors related to intimacy and bonding following sex with long-term partners. Males were more likely to initiate kissing before sex, and females after sex. Intimate talk and kissing were rated by both sexes as more important before intercourse with a long-term partner, whereas cuddling and professing one's love was rated more important after sex. In a second set of more specific post-coital behaviors, females were more likely to engage in post-coital behaviors related to bonding with both short- and long-term partners, whereas males were more likely to engage in ones that were extrinsically rewarding or increased the likelihood of further coital acts.

The processing of auditory and visual recognition of self-stimuli.

This study examined self-recognition processing in both the auditory and visual modalities by determining how comparable hearing a recording of one's own voice was to seeing photograph of one's own face. We also investigated whether the simultaneous presentation of auditory and visual self-stimuli would either facilitate or inhibit self-identification. Ninety-one participants completed reaction-time tasks of self-recognition when presented with their own faces, own voices, and combinations of the two. Reaction time and errors made when responding with both the right and left hand were recorded to determine if there were lateralization effects on these tasks. Our findings showed that visual self-recognition for facial photographs appears to be superior to auditory self-recognition for voice recordings. Furthermore, a combined presentation of one's own face and voice appeared to inhibit rather than facilitate self-recognition and there was a left-hand advantage for reaction time on the combined-presentation tasks.

Adverse reactions to permanent eyeliner tattoo.

PURPOSE: To report the potential for serious adverse reactions associated with permanent eyeliner tattoos. METHODS: An observational case series was conducted on 4 patients who presented with inflammatory eyelid reactions after receiving permanent eyeliner tattoo. RESULTS: Clinically, the tattoo-associated lesions were typically firm, raised masses underlying the areas of pigmentation. Histopathologic analysis of tissue from all 4 patients demonstrated a granulomatous inflammatory response with negative cultures for any organisms. Treatment approaches varied between a combination of topical steroid creams, local steroid injections, local resection, intramuscular steroid injection, and systemic oral steroids. These treatments were successful in all 4 cases. CONCLUSIONS: An allergic granulomatous reaction is one of the adverse reactions seen after permanent eyeliner tattoo. Treatment can be challenging and may ultimately require excision of tattoo pigment to remove the inciting factor. Systemic steroids may aid in controlling the inflammation associated with reaction to the tattoo pigment.