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Caton NR, Brown LM, Zhao AAZ, Dixson BJW. Human Male Body Size Predicts Increased Knockout Power, Which Is Accurately Tracked by Conspecific Judgments of Male Dominance. HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2024; 35:114-133. [PMID: 38878141 PMCID: PMC11317448 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-024-09473-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/02/2024] [Indexed: 08/13/2024]
Abstract
Humans have undergone a long evolutionary history of violent agonistic exchanges, which would have placed selective pressures on greater body size and the psychophysical systems that detect them. The present work showed that greater body size in humans predicted increased knockout power during combative contests (Study 1a-1b: total N = 5,866; Study 2: N = 44 openweight fights). In agonistic exchanges reflective of ancestral size asymmetries, heavier combatants were 200% more likely to win against their lighter counterparts because they were 200% more likely to knock them out (Study 2). Human dominance judgments (total N = 500 MTurkers) accurately tracked the frequency with which men (N = 516) knocked out similar-sized adversaries (Study 3). Humans were able to directly perceive a man's knockout power because they were attending to cues of a man's body size. Human dominance judgments-which are important across numerous psychological domains, including attractiveness, leadership, and legal decision-making-accurately predict the likelihood with which a potential mate, ally, or rival can incapacitate their adversaries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neil R Caton
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
| | - Lachlan M Brown
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Amy A Z Zhao
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Barnaby J W Dixson
- School of Psychology, The University of the Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast, QLD, Australia
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McGowan A, Sittig S, Bourrie D, Benton R, Iyengar S. The Intersection of Persuasive System Design and Personalization in Mobile Health: Statistical Evaluation. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2022; 10:e40576. [PMID: 36103226 PMCID: PMC9520383 DOI: 10.2196/40576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2022] [Revised: 08/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
Persuasive technology is an umbrella term that encompasses software (eg, mobile apps) or hardware (eg, smartwatches) designed to influence users to perform preferable behavior once or on a long-term basis. Considering the ubiquitous nature of mobile devices across all socioeconomic groups, user behavior modification thrives under the personalized care that persuasive technology can offer. However, there is no guidance for developing personalized persuasive technologies based on the psychological characteristics of users.
Objective
This study examined the role that psychological characteristics play in interpreted mobile health (mHealth) screen perceived persuasiveness. In addition, this study aims to explore how users’ psychological characteristics drive the perceived persuasiveness of digital health technologies in an effort to assist developers and researchers of digital health technologies by creating more engaging solutions.
Methods
An experiment was designed to evaluate how psychological characteristics (self-efficacy, health consciousness, health motivation, and the Big Five personality traits) affect the perceived persuasiveness of digital health technologies, using the persuasive system design framework. Participants (n=262) were recruited by Qualtrics International, Inc, using the web-based survey system of the XM Research Service. This experiment involved a survey-based design with a series of 25 mHealth app screens that featured the use of persuasive principles, with a focus on physical activity. Exploratory factor analysis and linear regression were used to evaluate the multifaceted needs of digital health users based on their psychological characteristics.
Results
The results imply that an individual user’s psychological characteristics (self-efficacy, health consciousness, health motivation, and extraversion) affect interpreted mHealth screen perceived persuasiveness, and combinations of persuasive principles and psychological characteristics lead to greater perceived persuasiveness. The F test (ie, ANOVA) for model 1 was significant (F9,6540=191.806; P<.001), with an adjusted R2 of 0.208, indicating that the demographic variables explained 20.8% of the variance in perceived persuasiveness. Gender was a significant predictor, with women having higher perceived persuasiveness (P=.008) relative to men. Age was a significant predictor of perceived persuasiveness with individuals aged 40 to 59 years (P<.001) and ≥60 years (P<.001). Model 2 was significant (F13,6536=341.035; P<.001), with an adjusted R2 of 0.403, indicating that the demographic variables self-efficacy, health consciousness, health motivation, and extraversion together explained 40.3% of the variance in perceived persuasiveness.
Conclusions
This study evaluates the role that psychological characteristics play in interpreted mHealth screen perceived persuasiveness. Findings indicate that self-efficacy, health consciousness, health motivation, extraversion, gender, age, and education significantly influence the perceived persuasiveness of digital health technologies. Moreover, this study showed that varying combinations of psychological characteristics and demographic variables affected the perceived persuasiveness of the primary persuasive technology category.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleise McGowan
- School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, United States
| | - Scott Sittig
- University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, United States
| | - David Bourrie
- University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, United States
| | - Ryan Benton
- University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, United States
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Van Vugt M, von Rueden CR. From genes to minds to cultures: Evolutionary approaches to leadership. THE LEADERSHIP QUARTERLY 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2020.101404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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