Evolutionary psychology

Children exhibit neotenous, or physically immature, features, such as a large
rounded head relative to body size, adult-sized eyes, round cheeks, a small chin, and a
short narrow nose. Bowlby (1969) and others (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1989; Hrdy, 2005)
propose that, in species whose young depend on care from an adult, these features could enhance offspring survival. Lorenz (1943) argued that adult humans are particularly attracted to these features, and that these characteristics, which he termed
Kindchenschema or “baby schema,” trigger a cognitive system that processes and reacts specifically to infantile features for the purpose of enhancing motivation to engage in caretaking behaviors. The goal of the studies proposed here is to examine the behavioral, attentional, and emotional effects of baby schema.

Evolutionary psychology offers a framework for investigating the design of evolved information-processing mechanisms that motivate costly behaviors such as men's partner-directed violence. The current research investigated predictors of and individual differences in men's intimate- partner-directed violence from an evolutionary psychological perspective. The problem of paternity uncertainty is hypothesized to have selected for the emotion of male sexual jealousy, which in turn motivates men's nonviolent and violent mate-retention behaviors. Study 1 documented a hierarchy of behaviors initiated with men's suspicions of partner infidelity leading to men's engagement in frequent non-violent mate-retention behaviors, ending in men's partner-directed violence. Study 2 documented an interaction between men's personality traits and the context of perceived partner infidelity risk to predict men's perpetration of violence. Finally, Study 3 extended Studies 1 and 2 by building a causal cascade model that captures the hierarchy of adaptive behaviors in order of: (1) men's childhood experiences with their parents' parental effort, (2) men's adaptive life history strategies and behavioral self-regulation, (3) men's perceptions of partner infidelity risk, and (4) men's non-violent mate retention behaviors, conclusively predicting men's perpetration of violence in intimate relationships.

Women have recurrently faced the adaptive problem of rape over evolutionary history. Little research has investigated the potential evolved psychological mechanisms for rape avoidance that women may possess. Here I review evolutionary perspectives on rape avoidance. I follow this review with the results of two studies conducted to design a measure of women's rape avoidance, known as the Rape Avoidance Inventory (RAI). Study 1A included 99 women who self-reported acts they do or might do specifically to avoid being raped. Study 1B included 144 women who filled out a preliminary inventory of rape avoidance behaviors. I used their responses to construct the RAI. In Study 3, I develop and test a number of hypotheses derived from evolutionary psychological theory, using data derived from the sample of women in Study 1B. I conclude by discussing limitations and possible future directions for rape avoidance research.