Verbal Creativity, Mate Value, and Sexual Selection Ethan White
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Psychology ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2-16-2010 Verbal creativity, mate value, and sexual selection Ethan White Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/psy_etds Recommended Citation White, Ethan. "Verbal creativity, mate value, and sexual selection." (2010). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/psy_etds/144 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Psychology ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ethan White Candidate PSYCHOLOGY Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication. Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Michael Dougher, Ph.D., Chairperson Steven Gangestad, Ph.D. Geoffrey Miller, Ph.D. Paul Watson Ph.D. i VERBAL CREATIVITY, MATE VALUE, AND SEXUAL SELECTION BY ETHAN J. WHITE B.S., Psychology, University of New Mexico, 2001 B.S., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2001 M.S., Psychology, University of New Mexico, 2007 Ph.D., Psychology, University of New Mexico, 2009 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy PSYCHOLOGY The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2009 ii VERBAL CREATIVITY, MATE VALUE, AND SEXUAL SELECTION BY ETHAN J. WHITE ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy PSYCHOLOGY The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2009 iii Verbal Creativity, Mate Value, and Sexual Selection by Ethan J. White University of New Mexico B.S., Psychology, University of New Mexico, 2001 B.S., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2001 M.S., Psychology, University of New Mexico, 2007 Ph.D., Psychology, University of New Mexico, 2009 ABSTRACT The present series of studies examine links between creativity and intelligence with dating and sexual behavior from an evolutionary perspective to better understand the function of human creativity. In three studies, participants (N = 65, 225, 142) completed intelligence tests, male and female mate value surveys, and written creativity tasks. Analysis of the data suggests that creativity does not correlate with sexual partner number but it does correlate with self-assessed dating success and high partner quality, particularly in an older sample. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................VII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................1 1.1 Large Brains, Language and Complexity ................................................................2 1.1.4 Selection for Intelligence, Language, and Creativity............................................4 1.2 Foundational Research .............................................................................................7 1.3 Present Studies .......................................................................................................10 CHAPTER 2: INTELLIGENCE, CREATIVITY, AND SHORT-TERM MATING SUCCESS..........................................................................................................................12 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................12 2.2 Method ...................................................................................................................13 2.2.1 Participants ....................................................................................................13 2.2.2 Materials .......................................................................................................13 2.3 Results ....................................................................................................................22 2.4 Discussion Study 1 .................................................................................................31 CHAPTER 3: INTELLIGENCE CREATIVITY, SEX DIFFERENCES, AND SHORT-TERM MATING ..............................................................................................42 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................42 3.2 Method ...................................................................................................................42 3.2.1 Participants ....................................................................................................42 3.2.2 Materials .......................................................................................................43 3.3 Results ....................................................................................................................43 3.4 Discussion Study 2 .................................................................................................45 CHAPTER 4: CREATIVITY, DATING SUCCESS, AND PARTNER QUALITY .52 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................52 v 4.2 Method ...................................................................................................................52 4.2.1 Participants ....................................................................................................52 4.2.2 Materials .......................................................................................................53 4.3 Results ....................................................................................................................54 4.4 Discussion Study 3 .................................................................................................63 CHAPTER 5: GENERAL DISCUSSION .....................................................................77 5.1 Sexual Behavior, Intelligence and Creativity ........................................................77 5.1.1 Sex differences in Intelligence and Creativity ..............................................77 5.1.2 Short-Term Sexual Behavior ........................................................................78 5.1.3 Sexual Strategies and Trade-Offs .................................................................82 5.2 Selection on Linguistic Ability ..............................................................................84 5.3 Limitations of the Studies ......................................................................................85 5.4 Future Research .....................................................................................................86 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................88 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................127 vi TABLE OF FIGURES Male Creativity Outlier, 3.1……...………………………………………………………46 Male Outlier Sex Partners, 3.2……………………………..…………………………….47 Male and Female Creativity Variance, 4.1..………………………………...………...…64 Creativity, Intelligence, Dating Success, 4.2…………….……………………..………..66 Body-Shape Matrix, 4.3…………………….……………………………………………73 Male and Female Creativity Scores, 5.1…………………………………………………78 vii CHAPTER 1: Introduction One-hundred and fifty years after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, explaining the evolution of language remains an alluring and elusive goal. By examining the universal adaptive functions and individual differences in linguistic ability, evolutionary psychology has contributed more to a modern understanding of the evolution of language than almost any other field. Theories about language evolution have investigated its role in navigating complicated social networks (Cosmides & Tooby, 1992; Dunbar 1996), securing ecological dominance and acquiring resources (Flinn, Geary, & Ward, 2005), and general problem solving (Dunbar, & Shultz, 2007). Some researchers argue that language is an emergent phenomenon of sufficiently complex brains (Fitch, Hauser, & Chomsky, 2005) or an exaptation of cognitive abilities originally evolved for some other purpose (Anderson, 2007). While it is possible that language arose fortuitously, it is more likely that it has been directly shaped by both natural and sexual selection. Human language meets most1 of the common criteria for being considered an adaptation. It possesses the hallmarks of “special design –complexity, economy, efficiency, reliability, precision, and functionality” (Buss et al., 1998, p. 535). Language is a successful solution to a wide range of adaptive problems (both direct and indirect), it is the product of a large number of genes (Plomin & Philip, 2002), it is ubiquitous in the population (although there is still individual variation in linguistic ability), and it is heritable (Stromswold, 2001). 1 I write “most” because it depends on how you define economy, which will be addressed below. Additionally, sexually selected traits show slightly different paths of evolution. 1 1.1 Large Brains, Language and Complexity Complexity. Undoubtedly, language confers survival benefits on those who use it-- putting them far ahead of non-language users. Theories of the evolution of language which focus on its usefulness for evolutionary problem-solving do not sufficiently explain human verbal complexity