Ana Maria Fernandez
Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Escuela de Psicología, Faculty Member
- Evolutionary Psychology, Evolution of Human Mating Behavior, Romantic Jealousy, Gender Differences in Cognitive, Emotional and Bahavioral Jealousy., Evolution Intrasexual Competition, Intimate Partner Violence, and 4 moreReciprocity and Exchange, Human Mating, Sex Differences, and Sexual Selectionedit
- I am interested in research on Evolutionary Psychology, Human Ethology and Psychometrics. My investigation has focuse... moreI am interested in research on Evolutionary Psychology, Human Ethology and Psychometrics. My investigation has focused on interpersonal variables such as romantic, mother-infant, and friendship jealousy, as well as empathy, aggression, the mechanisms that support relationships and other related emerging topics in Human Mating and close relationships.edit
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Mate value is an important concept in mate choice research although its operationalization and understanding are limited. Here, we reviewed and evaluated previously established conceptual and methodological approaches measuring mate value... more
Mate value is an important concept in mate choice research although its operationalization and understanding are limited. Here, we reviewed and evaluated previously established conceptual and methodological approaches measuring mate value and presented original research using individual differences in how people view themselves as a face-valid proxy for mate value in long- and short-term contexts. In data from 41 nations (N = 3895, Mage = 24.71, 63% women, 47% single), we tested sex, age, and relationship status effects on self-perceived mate desirability, along with individual differences in the Dark Triad traits, life history strategies, peer-based comparison of desirability, and self-reported mating success. Both sexes indicated more short-term than long-term mate desirability; however, men reported more long-term mate desirability than women, whereas women reported more short-term mate desirability than men. Further, individuals who were in a committed relationship felt more des...
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Differences in attitudes on social issues such as abortion, immigration and sex are hugely divisive, and understanding their origins is among the most important tasks facing human behavioural sciences. Despite the clear psychological... more
Differences in attitudes on social issues such as abortion, immigration and sex are hugely divisive, and understanding their origins is among the most important tasks facing human behavioural sciences. Despite the clear psychological importance of parenthood and the motivation to provide care for children, researchers have only recently begun investigating their influence on social and political attitudes. Because socially conservative values ostensibly prioritize safety, stability and family values, we hypothesized that being more invested in parental care might make socially conservative policies more appealing. Studies 1 (preregistered; n = 376) and 2 ( n = 1924) find novel evidence of conditional experimental effects of a parenthood prime, such that people who engaged strongly with a childcare manipulation showed an increase in social conservatism. Studies 3 ( n = 2610, novel data from 10 countries) and 4 ( n = 426 444, World Values Survey data) find evidence that both parenthoo...
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Jealousy is an affective state activated by a perceived threat to a valued relationship by a third party. On average, males report higher distress about their partner’s sexual extra-pair involvement, while females show higher emotional... more
Jealousy is an affective state activated by a perceived threat to a valued relationship by a third party. On average, males report higher distress about their partner’s sexual extra-pair involvement, while females show higher emotional jealousy. These sex differences are specific to heterosexuals and to contexts with potential reproductive costs. We tested the effect of sex and sexual orientation of the individual, and sex of the partner and potential rival on sexual versus emotional jealousy. Sexual orientation was operationalized as a willingness to form long-term relationships with men, women, or both. Heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual males (N = 416) and females (N = 1328) from Brazil, Chile, and Portugal responded to the Sexualvs. Emotional Jealousy Scale and then ranked their distress to four hypothetical scenarios: sexual or emotional involvement of their partner with a male or a female rival. This is the first study to simultaneously test for an effect of self, partner,...
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Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or... more
Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or specific to North America. Analyses of survey data from adult heterosexuals ( N = 11,200) from 31 countries showed a small relation between pathogen disgust sensitivity (an individual-difference measure of pathogen-avoidance motivations) and measures of antigay attitudes. Analyses also showed that pathogen disgust sensitivity relates not only to antipathy toward gay men and lesbians, but also to negativity toward other groups, in particular those associated with violations of traditional sexual norms (e.g., prostitutes). These results suggest that the association between pathogen-avoidance motivations and antigay attitudes is relatively stable across cultures and is a manifestation of a more general relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations an...
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Feeling and expressing love is at the core of romantic relationships, but individuals differ in their proclivity to worry about their relationships and/or avoid intimacy. Saying “I love you” signals a commitment to a future with our... more
Feeling and expressing love is at the core of romantic relationships, but individuals differ in their proclivity to worry about their relationships and/or avoid intimacy. Saying “I love you” signals a commitment to a future with our romantic partner. Contrary to gender stereotypes, research in the United States demonstrates that men are more likely to confess love first. We aimed to replicate this sex difference in an online cross-national sample (seven countries, three continents), while testing for variation according to attachment style and environment (the national sex ratio). Men were more likely to confess love first in a relationship, with preliminary evidence that this was more likely when men had more choice (more female-biased sex ratio). Independent of biological sex, highly avoidant respondents were less happy to hear “I love you” than less avoidant respondents, and highly anxious respondents were happier to hear “I love you” than less anxious respondents. Our findings s...
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This chapter highlights and discusses the role of women’s competitive ornamentation as one of the relevant, and so far overlooked, ancestral selective pressures in the evolution of artistic propensities. The authors critically discuss how... more
This chapter highlights and discusses the role of women’s competitive ornamentation as one of the relevant, and so far overlooked, ancestral selective pressures in the evolution of artistic propensities. The authors critically discuss how and why sex differences and sexual selection processes acting on women have been disregarded for more than a decade. The authors review available convergent evidence about sex differences in aesthetics and artistic propensities showing that, overall, women outnumber men. Then the authors propose and show evidence that higher women’s inclination toward artistic domains, including ornamentation of body, behavior, and objects/places, can serve as a social arena for attracting/maintaining mates and dealing with rivals, primarily through self-promotion via competitive ornamentation. The chapter concludes by developing connections with related theories that broaden the scope of the field and highlight predictions for future research.
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Research Interests: Humanities and Art
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The objective of this study is to compare the declared licit and illicit drug consumption, between paired methodology (MP) and self assessed questionnaire (CAR). We suggest that understatement of illicit drug use will be minimized with... more
The objective of this study is to compare the declared licit and illicit drug consumption, between paired methodology (MP) and self assessed questionnaire (CAR). We suggest that understatement of illicit drug use will be minimized with the use of peer methodology, and that licit drug understatement will not be affected using peer methodology. The population of this study is composed by male school students ranging between middle and high School. The sample reached to 301 students. The results obtained regarding illicit drug consumption in the year, tend to be higher using MP compared with the CAR. Similarly, last month consumption reached a higher prevalence using MP than using CAR. There are no significant differences in both samples, during both periods. Nevertheless, in the last 12 months, illicit drug consumption doubled the CAR report in comparison to MP. Regarding drug consumption in the last 30 days, the results also showed that CAR underestimated half of the rate stated using
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People vary in the extent to which they embrace their society’s traditions, impacting a range of social and political phenomena. People also vary in the degree to which they perceive disparate dangers as salient and necessitating a... more
People vary in the extent to which they embrace their society’s traditions, impacting a range of social and political phenomena. People also vary in the degree to which they perceive disparate dangers as salient and necessitating a response. Over evolutionary time, traditions likely regularly offered direct and indirect avenues for addressing hazards; consequently, via multiple possible pathways, orientations toward tradition and toward danger may have become associated. Emerging research documents connections between individual differences in traditionalism and variation in threat responsivity in general, and pathogen-avoidance motivations in particular. Importantly, because threat-mitigating behaviors can conflict with competing priorities, the precise associations between traditionalism and pathogen avoidance likely depend on contextually contingent costs and benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic requires individuals to make decisions about consequential and costly pathogen-avoidance b...
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Previous studies have documented links between sub-clinical narcissism and the active pursuit of short-term mating strategies (e.g., unrestricted sociosexuality, marital infidelity, mate poaching). Nearly all of these investigations have... more
Previous studies have documented links between sub-clinical narcissism and the active pursuit of short-term mating strategies (e.g., unrestricted sociosexuality, marital infidelity, mate poaching). Nearly all of these investigations have relied solely on samples from Western cultures. In the current study, responses from a cross-cultural survey of 30,470 people across 53 nations spanning 11 world regions (North America, Central/South America, Northern Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Oceania, Southeast Asia, and East Asia) were used to evaluate whether narcissism (as measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory; NPI) was universally associated with short-term mating. Results revealed narcissism scores (including two broad factors and seven traditional facets as measured by the NPI) were functionally equivalent across cultures, reliably associating with key sexual outcomes (e.g., more active pursuit of short-term mating, intimate par...
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Significance Pathogens, and antipathogen behavioral strategies, affect myriad aspects of human behavior. Recent findings suggest that antipathogen strategies relate to political attitudes, with more ideologically conservative individuals... more
Significance Pathogens, and antipathogen behavioral strategies, affect myriad aspects of human behavior. Recent findings suggest that antipathogen strategies relate to political attitudes, with more ideologically conservative individuals reporting more disgust toward pathogen cues, and with higher parasite stress nations being, on average, more conservative. However, no research has yet adjudicated between two theoretical accounts proposed to explain these relationships between pathogens and politics. We find that national parasite stress and individual disgust sensitivity relate more strongly to adherence to traditional norms than they relate to support for barriers between social groups. These results suggest that the relationship between pathogens and politics reflects intragroup motivations more than intergroup motivations.
Research Interests: Evolutionary Psychology, Clinical Trial, Conservatism, Culture, Communicable Diseases, and 15 moreCultural Anthropology, Human, Disgust, Ideologies, Humans, Animal, Cross Cultural Psychology, Female, Animals, Attitude, Adult, Conference paper, Communicable Disease, Behavioral Research, and Disgust Sensitivity
How does psychology vary across human societies? The fundamental social motives framework adopts an evolutionary approach to capture the broad range of human social goals within a taxonomy of ancestrally recurring threats and... more
How does psychology vary across human societies? The fundamental social motives framework adopts an evolutionary approach to capture the broad range of human social goals within a taxonomy of ancestrally recurring threats and opportunities. These motives—self-protection, disease avoidance, affiliation, status, mate acquisition, mate retention, and kin care—are high in fitness relevance and everyday salience, yet understudied cross-culturally. Here, we gathered data on these motives in 42 countries (N = 15,915) in two cross-sectional waves, including 19 countries (N = 10,907) for which data were gathered in both waves. Wave 1 was collected from mid-2016 through late 2019 (32 countries, N = 8,998; 3,302 male, 5,585 female; Mage = 24.43, SD = 7.91). Wave 2 was collected from April through November 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic (29 countries, N = 6,917; 2,249 male, 4,218 female; Mage = 28.59, SD = 11.31). These data can be used to assess differences and similarities in people’s fu...
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Previous studies have documented links between sub-clinical narcissism and the active pursuit of short-term mating strategies (e.g., unrestricted sociosexuality, marital infidelity, mate poaching). Nearly all of these investigations have... more
Previous studies have documented links between sub-clinical narcissism and the active pursuit of short-term mating strategies (e.g., unrestricted sociosexuality, marital infidelity, mate poaching). Nearly all of these investigations have relied solely on samples from Western cultures. In the current study, responses from a cross-cultural survey of 30,470 people across 53 nations spanning 11 world regions (North America, Central/South America, Northern Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Oceania, Southeast Asia, and East Asia) were used to evaluate whether narcissism (as measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory; NPI) was universally associated with short-term mating. Results revealed narcissism scores (including two broad factors and seven traditional facets as measured by the NPI) were functionally equivalent across cultures, reliably associating with key sexual outcomes (e.g., more active pursuit of short-term mating, intimate par...
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The psychometric properties of Davis’ (1980) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) in Chile were assessed. The IRI was applied to a sample of 435 college students. Appropriate internal consistencies and test-retest stability resulted. The... more
The psychometric properties of Davis’ (1980) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) in Chile were assessed. The IRI was applied to a sample of 435 college students. Appropriate internal consistencies and test-retest stability resulted. The instrument’s validity was evidenced by the interrelations among the scales, in addition to its correlations in the predicted direction to other related psychological constructs, and sex differences emerged in three of its dimensions. A confirmatory factor analysis corroborated the theoretical structure of the IRI in Chile, and the suitability of both the four-factor model and a second order factor that integrates three of the dimensions . The implications and comparison of the results with other adaptations of the IRI are discussed.
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Este artículo informa del estudio de las Escalas de Estrategias Mo-tivacionales del Aprendizaje-Versión Secundaria (EEMA-VS) como instrumento para evaluar la utilización de diferentes tipos de estrategias de autorregula-ción... more
Este artículo informa del estudio de las Escalas de Estrategias Mo-tivacionales del Aprendizaje-Versión Secundaria (EEMA-VS) como instrumento para evaluar la utilización de diferentes tipos de estrategias de autorregula-ción afectivo-motivacional, desde una ...
Research Interests: Psychology and Strategies
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In a sample of 68 adult men and 70 adult women from Santiago, Chile, with a mean age of 29.40 years and a median age of 29, the effects of one's own infidelity and that of one's partner on different types of jealousy were... more
In a sample of 68 adult men and 70 adult women from Santiago, Chile, with a mean age of 29.40 years and a median age of 29, the effects of one's own infidelity and that of one's partner on different types of jealousy were examined. Of the respondents 47.1% had ever been unfaithful, and over half (56.5%) reported that their partner had been unfaithful. There were no effects of one's own infidelity and that of one's partner on reactive and anxious jealousy, but those who had been unfaithful, as well as those whose partner had been unfaithful, expressed the highest levels of possessive jealousy. These effects were not moderated by gender nor did age affect jealousy. Women were higher in all types of jealousy than men were.
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The present study aimed to obtain a valid set of images of the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2005) –a widely used instrumentation in emotion research- in a Chilean sample, as well as to compare these... more
The present study aimed to obtain a valid set of images of the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2005) –a widely used instrumentation in emotion research- in a Chilean sample, as well as to compare these results with those obtained from the US study in order to contribute to its cross-cultural validation. A sample of 135 college students assessed 188 pictures according to standard instructions in valence and arousal dimensions. The results showed the expected organization of affectivity, with main variations between sex in valence judgments, and differences between countries in the arousal dimension. It is concluded that the Chilean adaptation of the IAPS is consistent with previous evidence, adding support to it cross-cultural validity.
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The goal of the present study is to estimate the psychometric properties of the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ; Torrubia, Ávila, Moltó, & Caseras, 2001) in a sample of Chilean college students.... more
The goal of the present study is to estimate the psychometric properties of the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ; Torrubia, Ávila, Moltó, & Caseras, 2001) in a sample of Chilean college students. The main hypothesis is that the instrument would show appropriate levels of reliability and validity, in light of previous validation studies. A pilot study was conducted in order to generate the adapted version of the questionnaire, which was then applied to a student sample from different undergraduate careers (n= 434). The results show the expected levels of reliability (test-retest and internal consistency). The factorial validity does not comply with the expected model, suggesting a further consideration of the structure of the questionnaire. External validity is appropriate, as the questionnaire shows the expected correlations with other personality measures. It is concluded that the SPSRQ is adequate for the context of validation, and this stud...
Research Interests: Psychology, Psychometrics, Personality, Adaptation, Chile, and 15 moreAdolescent, Medicine, Motivation, Humans, Personality Assessment Inventory, Questionnaire, Female, Male, Punishment, Psychometric Assessment and evaluation, Cambridge University, Pilot Projects, Reference Values, Behavioral Activation System, and Personality Inventory
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... Verónica Pérez Universidad del Desarrollo Jorge Rodríguez Universidad de Chile Flora De la Barra ... en la población de 15 a 44 años (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi & Lozano, 2002; Slaby, 1997 ... y validado a Chile (George,... more
... Verónica Pérez Universidad del Desarrollo Jorge Rodríguez Universidad de Chile Flora De la Barra ... en la población de 15 a 44 años (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi & Lozano, 2002; Slaby, 1997 ... y validado a Chile (George, Siraqyan, Mores, De la Barra, Rodríguez, López & Toledo ...
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The present study is the first to investigate the relationship between vagal tone level and event-related potentials (ERPs) in adults. Numerous studies have shown a relationship between vagal tone and the individual differences between a... more
The present study is the first to investigate the relationship between vagal tone level and event-related potentials (ERPs) in adults. Numerous studies have shown a relationship between vagal tone and the individual differences between a variety of psychophysiological, affective, and social outcomes. This suggests that vagal tone can be related to how people process relevant affective social information at the brain level. This study aimed to assess whether the ERP response varies between high and low vagal tone groups, in the face of salient affective information. In the experimental cohort, two groups were separated according to their vagal tone level. ERPs were recorded while individuals performed an affective picture task that included positive, neutral, and negative emotional stimuli. Differences between the high and low vagal tone groups were observed at the early posterior negativity for both positive and negative valences, and at the late positive potential for all the categories. It can be concluded that differences between high and low vagal tone levels are related to differences in the ERPs at early, middle, and late latencies. The results are discussed with respect to the effect of differences between the vagal tone conditions on various stages of information-processing.
Research Interests: Cognitive Science, Emotion, Electrophysiology, Cognition, Affective Neuroscience, and 15 moreElectroencephalography, Cognitive Neuroscience, Adolescent, Information Processing, Emotions, Brain Mapping, Brain, Humans, Female, Heart rate, Event Related Potentials, Late Positive Potential, Adult, Individual Difference, and LPP
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Facial Fluctuating Asymmetry (FFA) is proposed as an indicator of genetic quality in human beings. There is evidence that support the notion that attractiveness is negatively associated to FFA. However, an important number of these... more
Facial Fluctuating Asymmetry (FFA) is proposed as an indicator of genetic quality in human beings. There is evidence that support the notion that attractiveness is negatively associated to FFA. However, an important number of these studies have been carried out from the perspective of men´s ratings on female faces, and without considering if hormonal variables could affect ratings on attractiveness. This is especially relevant when women rate the attractiveness of men´s faces. We study the possible relationship between FFA, assessed using pictures of men (N = 35), and ratings on attractiveness performed by men (N = 105) and women (N = 337). We found in both sexes negative relationships between FFA and ratings on attractiveness. In women, the negative relationship was maintained throughout different stages of menstrual cycle, and when using birth control pills. These results indicate the relevance and robustness of the relationship between FFA and ratings of attractiveness.