Pablo Polo

Although the Dark Triad (i.e., psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) has been consistently linked to aggressive behaviors such as bullying and violence, two important questions about these associations remain unresolved. First, little is known about how they differ between women and men. Second, it remains unclear how factor overlap affects their substantive interpretation. Drawing on evolutionary accounts of intrasexual competition, we predict stronger associations with physical and verbal aggression in men and hostility in women. We test these predictions on Short Dark Triad and Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire data from 600 Chilean adults, using bifactor (S−1) structural equation modeling. We find that Machiavellianism predicts all aggression outcomes, psychopathy-specific variance positively predicts physical aggression, and narcissism-specific variance negatively predicts hostility. Sex differences in aggression overlap with sex differences in aversive traits, but none of the Dark Triad-aggression associations consistently differ by sex. By introducing the variance-weighted latent effect (VWLE), we provide the first substantive translation of these bifactor associations. VWLE clarifies how reference facet and trait-specific associations reinforce one another for psychopathy but largely cancel out for narcissism, making the implications of residual coefficients explicit.

We used the SOI-M Multidimensional Sociosexual Orientation Inventory developed by Jackson and Kirkpatrick for validation in the Chilean population. This 3-dimensional instrument measures sociosexuality in terms of short-term mating orientation, long-term mating orientation, and sociosexual behavior. This inventory allows us to capture the deployment of reproductive strategies in men and women simultaneously (that is, in the short and long-term). We tested the psychometric properties of the instrument on a final sample of 865 subjects (247 women and 616 men) aged between 18 and 55 years old (M = 23.56; SD = 5.52). First, with a subsample (N = 172), we performed an EFA to establish dimensionality. Then, with the remaining sample (N = 693) an ESEM and CFA. We performed an ESEM for confirmatory analysis, analyzed invariance by sex and relations with other variables. We verified the existence of three factors, maintaining the 20 original items. Then, we eliminated the redundant or cross-factor loading items, thus obtaining a reduced version of 15 items and three factors. We tested and verified the convergent and divergent validity of the instrument. Also, we tested invariance by sex, establishing that the SOI-M behaves invariantly. The SOI-M is a valid and reliable instrument to measure multidimensional sociosexuality in the Chilean population.

Introduction: The Male Warrior Hypothesis (MWH) proposes that sex-specific selective pressures have promoted male cooperation with the ingroup members to outcompete rival groups. However, intergroup conflicts do not occur in isolation and the outcomes of previous competitions may influence group cooperativeness. Since this phenomenon is not well understood, we aimed to shed light on the effect of previous competition outcome on later cooperative behavior under intergroup conflicts. Based on the MWH, we hypothesized that repeated contests between groups could enhance ingroup cooperation, regardless of the outcome of the previous contest because status is at risk, but when competition is not present, participants would move to the symmetric equilibria.Methods: To test this hypothesis, we recruited 246 individuals organized in groups of 6 and measured cooperation using a threshold public good game over two rounds, manipulating the outcome in the first round to create groups of winners and losers.Results: Our results show that intergroup conflict scenarios promoted cooperation in both victory and defeat conditions, whereas, in the control scenario only losers increased their cooperation.Discussion: We argue that winners under the presence of an external threat may enhance in-group cooperation in order to assure their status; whereas, losers may be attempting to regain it.

From an evolutionary perspective, phenotypic, social, and environmental factors help to shape the different costs and benefits of pursuing different reproductive strategies (or a mixture of them) from one individual to another. Since men’s reproductive success is mainly constrained to women’s availability, their mating orientations should be partially calibrated by features that women prefer in a potential partner. For long-term relationships, women prefer traits that signal access to resources, protection skills, and the willingness to share them. Using generalized linear models with laboratory data taken from a Chilean population (N = 197), this study aimed to test whether real and potential resources (measured as self-reported socioeconomic status), protection skills (measured as handgrip strength), and the willingness to provide resources and protection (measured as their disposition toward parenthood) are related to mating orientation in men. Our predictions were: (1) socioeconomic status would be positively associated with long-term and short-term mating orientation but for long-term-oriented individuals, this would be enhanced by having a more favorable parenthood disposition and (2) strength would be positively related to long-term mating orientation in men with higher socioeconomic status and a favorable disposition toward parenthood and it would have a positive and direct association with short-term mating orientation. Our results partially supported the first hypothesis, since men with higher socioeconomic status were more long-term oriented, but parenting disposition did not moderate this effect. Contrary to our expectations, socioeconomic status was not related to short-term mating orientation. Strength appeared not to be significant for long-term mating orientation, even interacting with other traits. However, strength by itself was powerfully linked with a short-term mating orientation. Our results suggest that only some individuals that are attractive for long-term relationships are indeed long-term oriented and may reflect the overall conflict of interests between mating strategies among sexes.

In both sexes, aggression has been described as a critical trait to acquire social status. Still, almost uniquely in men, the link between aggressiveness and the genetic background of testosterone sensitivity measured from the polymorphism in the androgen receptor (AR) gene has been previously investigated. We assessed the relevance of the AR gene to understand aggression and how aggressiveness affects social status in a cross-sectional study of 195 participants, for the first time in both young men and women. We estimated polymorphism sequences from saliva and measured aggression and self-perceived social status. Unfortunately, the results did not support our prediction because we did not find any of the expected relationships. Therefore, the results suggest that the genetic association between aggressive mechanisms and polymorphism of the AR gene is less straightforward than expected, at least in men, and seems to indicate that aggression is not usually used to gain social status in our population.