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Men’s Expectations for Postconflict Reconciliation with Physically Strong Opponents

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Abstract

Physical conflict has been historically prevalent throughout human evolution, with physically strong men possessing an advantage. To reduce the likelihood of incurring continued costs of conflict, opponents may engage in postconflict reconciliation to secure valuable social relationships. Two studies considered how formidability of male combatants informs expectations of reconciliatory behavior. In Study 1, participants reported expectations of respect exchanges between combatants, both following wins and losses, who were physically strong and weak. Study 2 tasked men with reporting their expectations for respect exchanges with strong and weak opponents following wins and losses. Strong targets were consistently expected to receive more respect following conflict. Nonetheless, male perceivers intended to display more respect against strong opponents regardless of fight outcome. Men’s upper body strength provides an important cue in shaping alliances for men, particularly when the potential costs of continued conflict are salient.

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Data Availability

Data are available at https://osf.io/x3qwr/?view_only=b92900cff39141808431732a1a26ad67.

Notes

  1. We report an exploratory analysis considering Participant Sex as a between-subjects factor in a supplemental analysis in our OSF link.

  2. When conducting a two-way ANOVA with fixed effects, our results did not meaningfully differ from models that use random effects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    Mitch Brown

  2. The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, USA

    Ryan E. Tracy

  3. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    Patrick R. Neiswender

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  1. Mitch Brown
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Contributions

MB conceived this research and wrote the initial draft. RET performed primary analyses. PRN programmed and implemented the studies and provided critical writing edits. All authors consented to publication.

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Correspondence to Mitch Brown.

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Brown, M., Tracy, R.E. & Neiswender, P.R. Men’s Expectations for Postconflict Reconciliation with Physically Strong Opponents. Evolutionary Psychological Science 9, 177–185 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-022-00350-z

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