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In evolutionary
psychology, Professor Trevor Hussey,
our former Research Student, Becky Nash and I, conducted a study using photographs of women's faces. We found that men preferred older, and hence less fecund, women for long-term relationships, provided they were beautiful. This work drew a lot of media attention:
BBC News
We also conducted a study on the impact of cosmetics on women’s attractiveness:
International Journal of Cosmetic Science
In an extension of this work we demonstrated that the social status ascribed to women can be influenced by the wearing of makeup:
Journal of Applied Social Psychology
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In 1986 I began a project on the evolutionary psychology of kin altruism with David McFarland in the Department of Zoology at Oxford. This applied the ideas of the eminent biologist, Bill Hamilton, to humans.
With fellow collaborators, Robin Dunbar, Henry Plotkin, Elainie Madsen et al, we demonstrated that humans from two different cultures behave in accordance with Hamilton’s rule. That is, they act with greater altruism towards progressively more closely related family members. This was the first empirical study to show that humans do, in fact, follow Hamilton’s rule when a real cost is imposed upon the altruist.
Hamilton’s rule states that genes predisposing individuals towards altruistic behaviour should increase when the benefit (B) to the recipient, multiplied by the degree of relatedness (R) to the altruist, is greater than the cost (C) to the altruist.
That is: B x R > C.
The project was featured in a TV documentary:
BBC Human Instinct
This research project was formally published in 2007:
British Journal of Psychology
BBC News
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