Sexual dimorphism has a massive impact on the overall architecture of the human body and mind, affecting many dimensions of human life. Differences between the sexes are apparent in faces, but variation in facial sexual dimorphism across human populations is substantial, and its evolutionary role is not yet sufficiently well understood. The project aims to discover the global variation of facial sexual dimorphism across various countries to study the mutual interactions of physical and psychological sexually dimorphic traits. Specifically, the project will (1) explore how the personality traits (temperament traits, Big Five, aggressiveness, and gender non-conformity) of individuals with variously expressed sexually dimorphic traits are influenced by variation in sexual dimorphism in facial shape, skin colour, and body size; (2) research the interaction between sexual dimorphism in shape (SShD), skin colour (SCoD), and body size (SSD) in target populations, and its relationship with facial cues to biological quality. In sum, this project reflects the recent call to explore the sexual dimorphism and its role in more diverse samples with emphasis on rarely studied populations. Programming skills in R, basics of geometric morphometrics, and advanced knowledge of statistical analysis are required. Knowledge of image and colour analysis is an advantage.
Five relevant publications of the research group:
Kleisner, K., Tureček, P., Roberts, S. C., Havlíček, J., Valentova, J. V., Akoko, R. M., Leongómez, J. D., Apostol, S., Varella, M. A. C., & Saribay, S. A. (2021). How and why patterns of sexual dimorphism in human faces vary across the world. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85402-3
Kleisner, K., Tureček, P., Saribay, S. A., Pavlovič, O., Leongómez, J. D., Roberts, S. C., ... & Varella, M. A. (2023). Distinctiveness and femininity, rather than symmetry and masculinity, affect facial attractiveness across the world. Evolution and Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2023.10.001
Kleisner, K., Pokorný, Š., & Černý, V. (2023). Sexually dimorphic traits are associated with subsistence strategy in African faces from the Sahel/Savannah belt.
Fiala, V., Třebický, V., Pazhoohi, F., Leongómez, J. D., Tureček, P., Saribay, S. A., ... & Kleisner, K. (2021). Facial attractiveness and preference of sexual dimorphism: A comparison across five populations. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 3, e38.
Pokorný, Š., & Kleisner, K. (2021). Sexual dimorphism in facial contrast: a case from Central Africa. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50(8), 3687-3694.
Deadline is closed
