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Relationships between pathogen disgust sensitivity and preference for male facial masculinity in gay men in China
Personality and Individual Differences 92 (2016) 33–36
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
Short Communication
Relationships between pathogen disgust sensitivity and preference for male facial masculinity in gay men in China Lijun Zheng ⁎, Jing Zhang, Yong Zheng a b
Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, China Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 19 October 2015 Received in revised form 10 December 2015 Accepted 12 December 2015 Available online 17 December 2015 Keywords: Facial masculinity preference Pathogen disgust Attractiveness Femininity Gay men
a b s t r a c t Recent studies suggested that pathogen-related factors were positively correlated with preferences for sex-typical characteristics in heterosexuals. The present study examined the relationship between pathogen disgust and individual male facial masculinity among 295 gay men in China. Disgust sensitivities were assessed by the Three Domain of Disgust Scale. Each participant was then asked to choose a preferred face in each of 10 pairs of male faces presented sequentially, with each pair consisting of a masculinized and feminized version of the same base face. Results showed that preference for male facial masculinity was negatively correlated with pathogen disgust, but not with moral or sexual disgust domain. Chinese gay men with high pathogen disgust showed stronger preference for facial femininity in male faces. Facial masculinity preference was related to pathogen disgust, but not to moral or sexual disgust domain, regardless of sexual orientation. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
1.2. Disgust sensitivity and facial masculinity in heterosexuality
1.1. Facial masculinity in men
Previous studies indicated that disease-related factors are related to preferences for exaggerated sex-typical characteristics (e.g., Tybur & Gangestad, 2011). For example, childhood illness (frequency of diarrhea) was positively correlated with preferences for exaggerated sex-typical characteristics in opposite-sex faces (de Barra, DeBruine, Jones, Mahmud, & Curtis, 2013). Pathogen disgust sensitivity is an important factor related to preference for sex-typical characters in heterosexual men and women (Jones et al., 2013a; Jones et al., 2013b). Several lines of evidence indicated that women's preference for masculine male faces is positively correlated with pathogen disgust. Studies have found that women with high level pathogen will show strong preferences for masculinity characteristics in male faces (DeBruine, Jones, Tybur, Lieberman, & Griskevicius, 2010b). Other researchers have found that women with poor health or are in poor geographic regions showed particularly significant preferences for masculinity characteristics in men's voice, face, and body (DeBruine, Little, & Jones, 2012; Feinberg et al., 2012; Jones et al., 2013a). However, a recent study indicated that women's pathogen disgust predicting preference for facial masculinity may be specific to age and study design, with the link between women's pathogen disgust and facial masculinity preference was specific to younger adults and the forcedchoice preference measure (Lee & Zietsch, 2015). In addition, men's pathogen disgust is positively correlated with the preference for feminine characteristics in women faces. Previous studies in heterosexual men indicated the pathogen disgust was correlated with preferences for femininity in women's faces (Jones et al., 2013b;
Men's facial masculinity characteristics may be signs of good genes and health and are regarded as more attractive (Folstad & Karter, 1992), which are positively correlated with measures of actual health (see Thornhill & Gangestad, 2006) and are also perceived to be particularly healthy (Johnston, Hagel, Franklin, Fink, & Grammer, 2001; Scott, Swami, Josephson, & Penton-Voak, 2008). One can benefit from a healthy mate in direct ways (e.g., reduced risk of contracting illnesses) and indirect ways (e.g., increased offspring health). Women who are particularly concerned about infectious diseases may show stronger preferences for masculine male facial characteristics due to healthy benefits (DeBruine, Jones, Crawford, Welling, & Little, 2010a; Little, DeBruine, & Jones, 2011; Tybur & Gangestad, 2011). Recent studies revealed that pathogen disgust, a measure hypothesized to reflect individual differences in vulnerability to disease (Tybur, Lieberman, & Griskevicius, 2009), is related to preferences for masculine characteristics in men's faces in heterosexual women (DeBruine et al., 2010a).
⁎ Corresponding author at: Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China. E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Zheng).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.12.021 0191-8869/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
34
L. Zheng et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 92 (2016) 33–36
Lee et al., 2013). Men preferred more feminine female faces after exposure to pathogen cues than when not exposed to such cues (Little et al., 2011). Moreover, pathogen disgust significantly negatively influenced men's waist-to-hip-ratio (WHR) preference in female bodies (Lee, Brooks, Potter, & Zietsch, 2015). However, the associations between pathogen disgust sensitivity and preference for sex-typical characters are based on heterosexual men and women.
1.3. The current study As described above, individuals with high pathogen disgust tend to prefer sex-typical face characteristics of the opposite-sex, which is a sign of good health and is perceived as healthy. However, previous studies were based on heterosexual men and women. Therefore, documenting the association between pathogen disgust and facial masculinity preference in homosexual sample is also important. In gay men, both facial masculinity and health are important features in partner preference (Rhodes, Chan, Zebrowitz, & Simmons, 2003; Sánchez & Vilain, 2012). Moreover, preference for health is positively correlated with preference for facial masculinity in gay men (Zheng & Zheng, 2015). Gay individuals with high pathogen disgust may also tend to prefer masculine male faces. Therefore, the present study examined the underlying relationship between pathogen disgust and facial masculinity preference in gay men.
2.2. Measures 2.2.1. Preferences for facial masculinity We used the masculinized and feminized faces from a previous study (Zheng, Hart, & Zheng, 2013). There are 10 pairs of images in total, with each pair consisting of a masculinized and feminized version of the same base face. For each pair of images, participants were asked to choose the image they found most attractive. Fig. 1 shows an example of a masculinized and feminized face used in this study. We calculated the proportion of masculine faces chosen as more attractive than feminine faces among the 10 pairs of images. The internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alphas) of facial masculinity preference was shown in Table 1. 2.2.2. Disgust sensitivity In this study, we measured disgust sensitivity using the Three Domain of Disgust Scale (TDDS), which included 21 items, where each item describes a situation, act, or concept related to the three domains of disgust. These three dimensions are pathogen disgust (e.g., stepping on dog poop), sexual disgust (e.g., performing oral sex), and moral disgust (e.g., stealing from a neighbor) (Tybur et al., 2009). The participants were asked to rate each of the 21 actions using a 7-point scale (1 = not at all disgusting, 7 = extremely disgusting). The disgust sensitivity scores were defined as the mean score of the seven items of each disgust domain. The Chinese version of TDDS used in the current study was translated into Chinese. The internal consistency reliabilities (Cronbach's alphas) of the subscales were shown in Table 1.
2. Methods
2.3. Procedure
2.1. Participant
This study was conducted online through a Chinese survey website (www.sojump.com). Participants were recruited through a number of Chinese websites that serve gay individuals, mainly including gay forums, QQ groups. Participants should complete the personal basic information, mainly including age and sex orientation, followed by the Three Domain of Disgust Scale. After the disgust scale, 10 pairs of male faces were sequentially shown to the participants. The participants were then asked to judge which face in each pair was more attractive.
Participants in this study consisted of 295 self-reported gay men aged from 16 years to 56 years (mean = 21.31, SD = 5.48). In the participants, 17 (5.7%) have junior high school education or less, 110 (37.7%) have senior high school education, 150 (50.8%) have college education, and 18 (6.1%) have postgraduate education. Sixty-five percent were students and the remaining 35% were employed.
Fig. 1. Examples of feminized (left) and masculinized (right) versions of a male face image used in this study.
L. Zheng et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 92 (2016) 33–36 Table 1 Correlations among variables.
1. Pathogen disgusta 2. Sexual disgusta 3. Moral disgusta 4. Facial masculinity preference
Internal Mean SD consistency
1
.71 .66 .65 .68
– .36⁎ – .30⁎ .34⁎ – ⁎ −.21 −.05 −.06 –
4.20 3.84 5.55 .50
1.11 1.08 .87 .25
2
3
4
a Absolute range, 1–7. ⁎ p b .001.
3. Results Table 1 presented the correlations among variables and means and SDs of each variable. The mean score of facial masculinity preference was 50.14% (SD = .25). One-sample t-tests (compared with 50%) demonstrated that participants preferred neither masculinized faces nor feminized faces, SEM = .015, t(294) = 0.094, p = .93. The oneway repeated ANOVA showed that participants scored higher on moral disgust than pathogen disgust and sexual disgust, and scored higher on pathogen disgust than sexual disgust, F(1, 294) = 342.54, p b .001, partial η2 = .54. Significantly negative correlation was observed between pathogen disgust and facial masculinity preference of gay men (r = −.21, p b .001). Correlations between moral disgust or sexual disgust and facial masculinity preference were not significant. We analyzed the relationship between facial masculinity preference and three domains of disgust through linear regression. Facial masculinity preference was a dependent variable, whereas pathogen, moral, and sexual disgust sensitivities were the predictors. The regression model was significant, F(3, 291) = 4.35, R2 = .043, p b .01. Pathogen disgust sensitivity negatively predicted the facial masculinity preference (β = − 0.21, t = −3.41, p = .001). Sexual disgust did not predicate the facial masculinity preference (β = 0.024, t = 0.37, p = .71). Moral disgust did not predicate the facial masculinity preference (β = −0.002, t = −0.036, p = .97).
35
Although in both heterosexual and gay men, pathogen disgust is related to preference for feminine faces in their preferred-sex, there also may be other factors relate to this. In heterosexual men, health perceived from feminine female faces may be an important factor related to the association between pathogen disgust sensitivity and facial femininity preference due to the offspring benefits. In gay men, the offspring benefits may be the less motivated concern in partner preference. Other potential benefits (such as warmth, honesty, cooperativeness, lower status or dominance, and youthfulness, Law Smith et al., 2006; Perrett et al., 1998) conveyed by feminine characters of faces may be considered in gay men's partner preference. Culture difference may also be related to the association. Chinese women showed lower preferences for more masculine traits, such as a mesomorph somatotype and pronounced body hair than the UK and Sri Lanka women (Dixson, Dixson, Li, & Anderson, 2006). Chinese gay men with higher pathogen disgust sensitivity tend to prefer feminine male faces than individuals in Western countries. However, more research is needed to explore the relationships between pathogen disgust sensitivity and facial masculinity preference in gay men. The present study has several limitations. First, the participants in this study were recruited through the internet; in terms of the typical Chinese gay men, they were probably more educated and prosperous. Strictly, they did not come from a random sample. Second, the participants were generally from the gay internet websites and identified as gay, potentially limiting generalizability. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between pathogen disgust and facial masculinity preference in gay men, which is important to replicate the correlation among gay men in other countries. Finally, exploring the relationship between pathogen related factors and masculinity preference in other domains, such as gay men's saliva and body, as well as some other important qualities of smell, voice, and intelligence in homosexual men, is also important. Acknowledgments This research is supported by the Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of the Ministry of Education (13XJC190003).
4. Discussion
References
This study aims to investigate the relationship between gay men's disgust sensitivity and facial masculinity preference. We found that the preference of gay men for masculinity in male faces was negatively correlated with pathogen disgust, but not with moral or sexual disgust. Facial masculinity preference was correlated with pathogen disgust sensitivity, but not with moral or sexual disgust, which was consistent with previous studies (DeBruine et al., 2010a; Jones et al., 2013b). This finding indicates that gay men with higher pathogen disgust sensitivity prefer feminine male faces rather than masculine male faces. The result that pathogen disgust was positively correlated with preference for feminine male faces is consistent with findings in heterosexual men (Jones et al., 2013b; Lee et al., 2013). Thus, in both heterosexual and gay men, pathogen disgust appears to be positively correlated with femininity preference in preferred-sex faces. It indicated that gay men show a similar pattern of preferences for features in preferred-sex faces with heterosexual men. The evolution mechanism may contribute to this consistence. According to behavioral immune system theory (Schaller & Park, 2011), heterosexual men with elevated pathogen disgust tend to prefer feminine features in female faces (Jones et al., 2013b; Lee et al., 2013). It is possible that gay men have the same mechanism in partner preference, so gay men with higher pathogen disgust also tend to prefer feminine features in male faces. It would be necessary to test whether lesbian women would show a similar pattern with heterosexual women in the association between pathogen disgust and preference for masculine characteristics in preferred-sex faces.
de Barra, M., DeBruine, L. M., Jones, B. C., Mahmud, Z. H., & Curtis, V. A. (2013). Illness in childhood predicts face preferences in adulthood. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34, 384–389. DeBruine, L. M., Jones, B. C., Crawford, J. R., Welling, L. L., & Little, A. C. (2010a). The health of a nation predicts their mate preferences: Cross-cultural variation in women's preferences for masculinized male faces. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1692), 2405–2410. DeBruine, L. M., Jones, B. C., Tybur, J. M., Lieberman, D., & Griskevicius, V. (2010b). Women's preferences for masculinity in male faces are predicted by pathogen disgust, but not by moral or sexual disgust. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31, 69–74. DeBruine, L. M., Little, A. C., & Jones, B. C. (2012). Extending parasite-stress theory to variation in human mate preferences. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35, 86–87. Dixson, B. J., Dixson, A. F., Li, B., & Anderson, M. J. (2006). Studies of human physique and sexual attractiveness: Sexual preferences of men and women in China. American Journal of Human Biology, 19, 88–95. Feinberg, D. R., DeBruine, L. M., Jones, B. C., Little, A. C., O'Connor, J. J., & Tigue, C. C. (2012). Women's self-perceived health and attractiveness predict their male vocal masculinity preferences in different directions across short-and long-term relationship contexts. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 66(3), 413–418. Folstad, I., & Karter, A. J. (1992). Parasites, bright males, and the immunocompetence handicap. American Naturalist, 139, 603–622. Johnston, V. S., Hagel, R., Franklin, M., Fink, B., & Grammer, K. (2001). Male facial attractiveness: Evidence for a hormone-mediated adaptive design. Evolution and Human Behavior, 22, 251–267. Jones, B. C., Feinberg, D. R., Watkins, C. D., Fincher, C. L., Little, A. C., & DeBruine, L. M. (2013a). Pathogen disgust predicts women's preferences for masculinity in men's voices, faces, and bodies. Behavioral Ecology, 24, 373–379. Jones, B. C., Fincher, C. L., Welling, L. L., Little, A. C., Feinberg, D. R., Watkins, C. D., ... DeBruine, L. M. (2013b). Salivary cortisol and pathogen disgust predict men's preferences for feminine shape cues in women's faces. Biological Psychology, 92, 233–240. Law Smith, M. J., Perrett, D. I., Jones, B. C., Cornwell, R. E., Moore, F. R., ... Feinberg, D. R. (2006). Facial appearance is a cue to oestrogen levels in women. Proceedings of the Royal Society B — Biological Sciences, 273, 135–140.
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Lee, A. J., & Zietsch, B. P. (2015). Women's pathogen disgust predicting preference for facial masculinity may be specific to age and study design. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 249–255. Lee, A. J., Brooks, R. C., Potter, K. J., & Zietsch, B. P. (2015). Pathogen disgust sensitivity and resource scarcity is associated with mate preference for different waist-to-hip ratios, shoulder-to-hip ratios, and body mass index. Evolution and Human Behavior. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.07.002. Lee, A. J., Dubbs, S. L., Kelly, A. J., von Hippel, W., Brooks, R.C., & Zietsch, B.P. (2013). Human facial attributes, but not perceived intelligence, are used as cues of health and resource provision potential. Behavioral Ecology, 24, 779–787. Little, A. C., DeBruine, L. M., & Jones, B. C. (2011). Exposure to visual cues of pathogen contagion changes preferences for masculinity and symmetry in opposite-sex faces. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 278, 2032–2039. Perrett, D. I., Lee, K. J., Penton-Voak, I. S., Rowland, D. R., Yoshikawa, S., Burt, D. M., ... Akamatsu, S. (1998). Effects of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness. Nature, 394, 884–887. Rhodes, G., Chan, J., Zebrowitz, L. A., & Simmons, L. W. (2003). Does sexual dimorphism in human faces signal health? Proceedings Royal Society of London B, 270, S93–S95. Sánchez, F. J., & Vilain, E. (2012). “Straight-acting gays”: The relationship between masculine consciousness, anti-effeminacy, and negative gay identity. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 41, 111–119.
Schaller, M., & Park, J. H. (2011). The behavioral immune system (and why it matters). Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 99–103. Scott, I., Swami, V., Josephson, S. C., & Penton-Voak, I. S. (2008). Context-dependent preferences for facial dimorphism in a rural Malaysian population. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29, 289–296. Thornhill, R., & Gangestad, S. W. (2006). Facial sexual dimorphism, developmental stability, and susceptibility to disease in men and women. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 131–144. Tybur, J. M., & Gangestad, S. W. (2011). Mate preferences and infectious disease: Theoretical considerations and evidence in humans. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 366, 3375–3388. Tybur, J. M., Lieberman, D., & Griskevicius, V. (2009). Microbes, mating, and morality: Individual differences in three functional domains of disgust. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 103–122. Zheng, L., & Zheng, Y. (2015). Correlated preferences for male facial masculinity and partner traits in gay and bisexual men in China. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44, 1423–1430. Zheng, L., Hart, T. A., & Zheng, Y. (2013). Attraction to male facial masculinity in gay men in China: Relationship to intercourse preference positions and sociosexual behavior. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42, 1223–1232.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
Short Communication
Relationships between pathogen disgust sensitivity and preference for male facial masculinity in gay men in China Lijun Zheng ⁎, Jing Zhang, Yong Zheng a b
Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, China Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 19 October 2015 Received in revised form 10 December 2015 Accepted 12 December 2015 Available online 17 December 2015 Keywords: Facial masculinity preference Pathogen disgust Attractiveness Femininity Gay men
a b s t r a c t Recent studies suggested that pathogen-related factors were positively correlated with preferences for sex-typical characteristics in heterosexuals. The present study examined the relationship between pathogen disgust and individual male facial masculinity among 295 gay men in China. Disgust sensitivities were assessed by the Three Domain of Disgust Scale. Each participant was then asked to choose a preferred face in each of 10 pairs of male faces presented sequentially, with each pair consisting of a masculinized and feminized version of the same base face. Results showed that preference for male facial masculinity was negatively correlated with pathogen disgust, but not with moral or sexual disgust domain. Chinese gay men with high pathogen disgust showed stronger preference for facial femininity in male faces. Facial masculinity preference was related to pathogen disgust, but not to moral or sexual disgust domain, regardless of sexual orientation. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
1.2. Disgust sensitivity and facial masculinity in heterosexuality
1.1. Facial masculinity in men
Previous studies indicated that disease-related factors are related to preferences for exaggerated sex-typical characteristics (e.g., Tybur & Gangestad, 2011). For example, childhood illness (frequency of diarrhea) was positively correlated with preferences for exaggerated sex-typical characteristics in opposite-sex faces (de Barra, DeBruine, Jones, Mahmud, & Curtis, 2013). Pathogen disgust sensitivity is an important factor related to preference for sex-typical characters in heterosexual men and women (Jones et al., 2013a; Jones et al., 2013b). Several lines of evidence indicated that women's preference for masculine male faces is positively correlated with pathogen disgust. Studies have found that women with high level pathogen will show strong preferences for masculinity characteristics in male faces (DeBruine, Jones, Tybur, Lieberman, & Griskevicius, 2010b). Other researchers have found that women with poor health or are in poor geographic regions showed particularly significant preferences for masculinity characteristics in men's voice, face, and body (DeBruine, Little, & Jones, 2012; Feinberg et al., 2012; Jones et al., 2013a). However, a recent study indicated that women's pathogen disgust predicting preference for facial masculinity may be specific to age and study design, with the link between women's pathogen disgust and facial masculinity preference was specific to younger adults and the forcedchoice preference measure (Lee & Zietsch, 2015). In addition, men's pathogen disgust is positively correlated with the preference for feminine characteristics in women faces. Previous studies in heterosexual men indicated the pathogen disgust was correlated with preferences for femininity in women's faces (Jones et al., 2013b;
Men's facial masculinity characteristics may be signs of good genes and health and are regarded as more attractive (Folstad & Karter, 1992), which are positively correlated with measures of actual health (see Thornhill & Gangestad, 2006) and are also perceived to be particularly healthy (Johnston, Hagel, Franklin, Fink, & Grammer, 2001; Scott, Swami, Josephson, & Penton-Voak, 2008). One can benefit from a healthy mate in direct ways (e.g., reduced risk of contracting illnesses) and indirect ways (e.g., increased offspring health). Women who are particularly concerned about infectious diseases may show stronger preferences for masculine male facial characteristics due to healthy benefits (DeBruine, Jones, Crawford, Welling, & Little, 2010a; Little, DeBruine, & Jones, 2011; Tybur & Gangestad, 2011). Recent studies revealed that pathogen disgust, a measure hypothesized to reflect individual differences in vulnerability to disease (Tybur, Lieberman, & Griskevicius, 2009), is related to preferences for masculine characteristics in men's faces in heterosexual women (DeBruine et al., 2010a).
⁎ Corresponding author at: Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China. E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Zheng).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.12.021 0191-8869/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
34
L. Zheng et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 92 (2016) 33–36
Lee et al., 2013). Men preferred more feminine female faces after exposure to pathogen cues than when not exposed to such cues (Little et al., 2011). Moreover, pathogen disgust significantly negatively influenced men's waist-to-hip-ratio (WHR) preference in female bodies (Lee, Brooks, Potter, & Zietsch, 2015). However, the associations between pathogen disgust sensitivity and preference for sex-typical characters are based on heterosexual men and women.
1.3. The current study As described above, individuals with high pathogen disgust tend to prefer sex-typical face characteristics of the opposite-sex, which is a sign of good health and is perceived as healthy. However, previous studies were based on heterosexual men and women. Therefore, documenting the association between pathogen disgust and facial masculinity preference in homosexual sample is also important. In gay men, both facial masculinity and health are important features in partner preference (Rhodes, Chan, Zebrowitz, & Simmons, 2003; Sánchez & Vilain, 2012). Moreover, preference for health is positively correlated with preference for facial masculinity in gay men (Zheng & Zheng, 2015). Gay individuals with high pathogen disgust may also tend to prefer masculine male faces. Therefore, the present study examined the underlying relationship between pathogen disgust and facial masculinity preference in gay men.
2.2. Measures 2.2.1. Preferences for facial masculinity We used the masculinized and feminized faces from a previous study (Zheng, Hart, & Zheng, 2013). There are 10 pairs of images in total, with each pair consisting of a masculinized and feminized version of the same base face. For each pair of images, participants were asked to choose the image they found most attractive. Fig. 1 shows an example of a masculinized and feminized face used in this study. We calculated the proportion of masculine faces chosen as more attractive than feminine faces among the 10 pairs of images. The internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alphas) of facial masculinity preference was shown in Table 1. 2.2.2. Disgust sensitivity In this study, we measured disgust sensitivity using the Three Domain of Disgust Scale (TDDS), which included 21 items, where each item describes a situation, act, or concept related to the three domains of disgust. These three dimensions are pathogen disgust (e.g., stepping on dog poop), sexual disgust (e.g., performing oral sex), and moral disgust (e.g., stealing from a neighbor) (Tybur et al., 2009). The participants were asked to rate each of the 21 actions using a 7-point scale (1 = not at all disgusting, 7 = extremely disgusting). The disgust sensitivity scores were defined as the mean score of the seven items of each disgust domain. The Chinese version of TDDS used in the current study was translated into Chinese. The internal consistency reliabilities (Cronbach's alphas) of the subscales were shown in Table 1.
2. Methods
2.3. Procedure
2.1. Participant
This study was conducted online through a Chinese survey website (www.sojump.com). Participants were recruited through a number of Chinese websites that serve gay individuals, mainly including gay forums, QQ groups. Participants should complete the personal basic information, mainly including age and sex orientation, followed by the Three Domain of Disgust Scale. After the disgust scale, 10 pairs of male faces were sequentially shown to the participants. The participants were then asked to judge which face in each pair was more attractive.
Participants in this study consisted of 295 self-reported gay men aged from 16 years to 56 years (mean = 21.31, SD = 5.48). In the participants, 17 (5.7%) have junior high school education or less, 110 (37.7%) have senior high school education, 150 (50.8%) have college education, and 18 (6.1%) have postgraduate education. Sixty-five percent were students and the remaining 35% were employed.
Fig. 1. Examples of feminized (left) and masculinized (right) versions of a male face image used in this study.
L. Zheng et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 92 (2016) 33–36 Table 1 Correlations among variables.
1. Pathogen disgusta 2. Sexual disgusta 3. Moral disgusta 4. Facial masculinity preference
Internal Mean SD consistency
1
.71 .66 .65 .68
– .36⁎ – .30⁎ .34⁎ – ⁎ −.21 −.05 −.06 –
4.20 3.84 5.55 .50
1.11 1.08 .87 .25
2
3
4
a Absolute range, 1–7. ⁎ p b .001.
3. Results Table 1 presented the correlations among variables and means and SDs of each variable. The mean score of facial masculinity preference was 50.14% (SD = .25). One-sample t-tests (compared with 50%) demonstrated that participants preferred neither masculinized faces nor feminized faces, SEM = .015, t(294) = 0.094, p = .93. The oneway repeated ANOVA showed that participants scored higher on moral disgust than pathogen disgust and sexual disgust, and scored higher on pathogen disgust than sexual disgust, F(1, 294) = 342.54, p b .001, partial η2 = .54. Significantly negative correlation was observed between pathogen disgust and facial masculinity preference of gay men (r = −.21, p b .001). Correlations between moral disgust or sexual disgust and facial masculinity preference were not significant. We analyzed the relationship between facial masculinity preference and three domains of disgust through linear regression. Facial masculinity preference was a dependent variable, whereas pathogen, moral, and sexual disgust sensitivities were the predictors. The regression model was significant, F(3, 291) = 4.35, R2 = .043, p b .01. Pathogen disgust sensitivity negatively predicted the facial masculinity preference (β = − 0.21, t = −3.41, p = .001). Sexual disgust did not predicate the facial masculinity preference (β = 0.024, t = 0.37, p = .71). Moral disgust did not predicate the facial masculinity preference (β = −0.002, t = −0.036, p = .97).
35
Although in both heterosexual and gay men, pathogen disgust is related to preference for feminine faces in their preferred-sex, there also may be other factors relate to this. In heterosexual men, health perceived from feminine female faces may be an important factor related to the association between pathogen disgust sensitivity and facial femininity preference due to the offspring benefits. In gay men, the offspring benefits may be the less motivated concern in partner preference. Other potential benefits (such as warmth, honesty, cooperativeness, lower status or dominance, and youthfulness, Law Smith et al., 2006; Perrett et al., 1998) conveyed by feminine characters of faces may be considered in gay men's partner preference. Culture difference may also be related to the association. Chinese women showed lower preferences for more masculine traits, such as a mesomorph somatotype and pronounced body hair than the UK and Sri Lanka women (Dixson, Dixson, Li, & Anderson, 2006). Chinese gay men with higher pathogen disgust sensitivity tend to prefer feminine male faces than individuals in Western countries. However, more research is needed to explore the relationships between pathogen disgust sensitivity and facial masculinity preference in gay men. The present study has several limitations. First, the participants in this study were recruited through the internet; in terms of the typical Chinese gay men, they were probably more educated and prosperous. Strictly, they did not come from a random sample. Second, the participants were generally from the gay internet websites and identified as gay, potentially limiting generalizability. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between pathogen disgust and facial masculinity preference in gay men, which is important to replicate the correlation among gay men in other countries. Finally, exploring the relationship between pathogen related factors and masculinity preference in other domains, such as gay men's saliva and body, as well as some other important qualities of smell, voice, and intelligence in homosexual men, is also important. Acknowledgments This research is supported by the Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of the Ministry of Education (13XJC190003).
4. Discussion
References
This study aims to investigate the relationship between gay men's disgust sensitivity and facial masculinity preference. We found that the preference of gay men for masculinity in male faces was negatively correlated with pathogen disgust, but not with moral or sexual disgust. Facial masculinity preference was correlated with pathogen disgust sensitivity, but not with moral or sexual disgust, which was consistent with previous studies (DeBruine et al., 2010a; Jones et al., 2013b). This finding indicates that gay men with higher pathogen disgust sensitivity prefer feminine male faces rather than masculine male faces. The result that pathogen disgust was positively correlated with preference for feminine male faces is consistent with findings in heterosexual men (Jones et al., 2013b; Lee et al., 2013). Thus, in both heterosexual and gay men, pathogen disgust appears to be positively correlated with femininity preference in preferred-sex faces. It indicated that gay men show a similar pattern of preferences for features in preferred-sex faces with heterosexual men. The evolution mechanism may contribute to this consistence. According to behavioral immune system theory (Schaller & Park, 2011), heterosexual men with elevated pathogen disgust tend to prefer feminine features in female faces (Jones et al., 2013b; Lee et al., 2013). It is possible that gay men have the same mechanism in partner preference, so gay men with higher pathogen disgust also tend to prefer feminine features in male faces. It would be necessary to test whether lesbian women would show a similar pattern with heterosexual women in the association between pathogen disgust and preference for masculine characteristics in preferred-sex faces.
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