Criminals have more kids. July 2014

This month, crime pays: we discover the link between criminal behaviour and reproduction, and find out why it makes sense to judge your criminal accomplices on their beauty. We also learn what a woman’s bank balance says about her attitude to promiscuity.

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New research shows that criminal offending might be part of an alternative reproductive strategy. That explains why the Godfather was the head of such a huge family, then.

The articles covered in the show:

Yao, S., Långström, N., Temrin, H., & Walum, H. (in press). Criminal offending as part of an alternative reproductive strategy: Investigating evolutionary hypotheses using Swedish total population data. Evolution and Human Behavior. Read summary

Shinada, M., & Yamagishi, T. (in press). Physical attractiveness and cooperation in a prisoner's dilemma game. Evolution and Human Behavior. Read summary

Price, M. E., Pound, N., & Scott, I. M. (in press). Female economic dependence and the morality of promiscuity. Archives of Sexual Behavior. Read summary

How to get your sperm swimming like Michael Phelps. June 2014

How to get a man’s sperm swimming like a shoal of miniature Michael Phelpses, and why expensive handbags are a weapon of war. We also find out what time of the month the idea of incest is most likely to make you throw up.

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New research shows that it's not just men who get excited by attractive women: their sperm do too.

The articles covered in the show:

Antfolk, J., Lieberman, D., Albrecht, A., & Santtila, P. (2014). The self-regulation effect of fertility status on inbreeding aversion: When fertile, disgust increases more in response to descriptions of one’s own than of other’s inbreeding. Evolutionary Psychology, 12(3), 621-631. Read paper

Hudders, L., De Backer, C., Fisher, M., & Vyncke, P. (2014). The rival wears Prada: Luxury consumption as a female competition strategy. Evolutionary Psychology. Read paper

Leivers, S., Rhodes, G., & Simmons, L. W. (in press). Context-dependent relationship between a composite measure of men’s mate value and ejaculate quality. Behavioral Ecology. Read summary

And here's that TED talk I mentioned in the podcast. Kristina Durante talks about how women's interest in mating, consumerism, and female-female competition vary over their ovulatory cycle.