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Using Sexual Selection Theories to Examine Contextual Variation in Heterosexual Women’s Orientation Toward High Heels
High heels are symbols of female sexuality and are “costly signals” if the risks of wearing them are offset by improving women’s attractiveness to men. From a functionalist perspective, the costs versus benefits of wearing heels may vary according to personal and contextual factors, such as her effe...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer US
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7058566/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31529224 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01539-3 |
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author | Watkins, Christopher Leitch, Amanda |
author_facet | Watkins, Christopher Leitch, Amanda |
author_sort | Watkins, Christopher |
collection | PubMed |
description | High heels are symbols of female sexuality and are “costly signals” if the risks of wearing them are offset by improving women’s attractiveness to men. From a functionalist perspective, the costs versus benefits of wearing heels may vary according to personal and contextual factors, such as her effectiveness at competing for mates, or at times when such motives are stronger. Here, we examined potential differences between women (self-rated attractiveness, dyadic versus solitary sexual desire, women’s age, competitive attitudes toward other women) and contextual variation (priming mating and competitive motives) in their responses to high heels. Study 1 (N = 79) and Study 2 (N = 273) revealed that self-rated attractiveness was positively related to orientation toward heeled shoes. When examining responses to two very attractive shoes (one higher heel, one lower heel) in Study 2, dyadic sexual desire, but not solitary sexual desire or intrasexual competitiveness, predicted their inclination to buy the higher-heeled shoe. In Study 3 (N = 142), young women chose high heels when primed with free choice of a designer shoe (95% CI [53.02 mm, 67.37 mm]) and preferred a heel 22 mm (0.87”) higher than older women (Study 4, N = 247). Contrary to predictions, priming mating or competitive motives did not alter women’s preference toward a higher heel (Studies 3 and 4). Our studies suggest that attractive women augment their physical appeal via heels. High heels may be a subtle indicator of dyadic sexual desire, and preferences for heels are stronger at times in the lifespan when mating competition is relatively intense. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s10508-019-01539-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7058566 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Springer US |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-70585662020-03-16 Using Sexual Selection Theories to Examine Contextual Variation in Heterosexual Women’s Orientation Toward High Heels Watkins, Christopher Leitch, Amanda Arch Sex Behav Original Paper High heels are symbols of female sexuality and are “costly signals” if the risks of wearing them are offset by improving women’s attractiveness to men. From a functionalist perspective, the costs versus benefits of wearing heels may vary according to personal and contextual factors, such as her effectiveness at competing for mates, or at times when such motives are stronger. Here, we examined potential differences between women (self-rated attractiveness, dyadic versus solitary sexual desire, women’s age, competitive attitudes toward other women) and contextual variation (priming mating and competitive motives) in their responses to high heels. Study 1 (N = 79) and Study 2 (N = 273) revealed that self-rated attractiveness was positively related to orientation toward heeled shoes. When examining responses to two very attractive shoes (one higher heel, one lower heel) in Study 2, dyadic sexual desire, but not solitary sexual desire or intrasexual competitiveness, predicted their inclination to buy the higher-heeled shoe. In Study 3 (N = 142), young women chose high heels when primed with free choice of a designer shoe (95% CI [53.02 mm, 67.37 mm]) and preferred a heel 22 mm (0.87”) higher than older women (Study 4, N = 247). Contrary to predictions, priming mating or competitive motives did not alter women’s preference toward a higher heel (Studies 3 and 4). Our studies suggest that attractive women augment their physical appeal via heels. High heels may be a subtle indicator of dyadic sexual desire, and preferences for heels are stronger at times in the lifespan when mating competition is relatively intense. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s10508-019-01539-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Springer US 2019-09-16 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC7058566/ /pubmed/31529224 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01539-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
spellingShingle | Original Paper Watkins, Christopher Leitch, Amanda Using Sexual Selection Theories to Examine Contextual Variation in Heterosexual Women’s Orientation Toward High Heels |
title | Using Sexual Selection Theories to Examine Contextual Variation in Heterosexual Women’s Orientation Toward High Heels |
title_full | Using Sexual Selection Theories to Examine Contextual Variation in Heterosexual Women’s Orientation Toward High Heels |
title_fullStr | Using Sexual Selection Theories to Examine Contextual Variation in Heterosexual Women’s Orientation Toward High Heels |
title_full_unstemmed | Using Sexual Selection Theories to Examine Contextual Variation in Heterosexual Women’s Orientation Toward High Heels |
title_short | Using Sexual Selection Theories to Examine Contextual Variation in Heterosexual Women’s Orientation Toward High Heels |
title_sort | using sexual selection theories to examine contextual variation in heterosexual women’s orientation toward high heels |
topic | Original Paper |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7058566/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31529224 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01539-3 |
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