Human Behavioural Ecology
My research program spans diverse questions about human body shape, attractiveness judgements, mate preferences and their relationships to health. In order to fully understand the roots of human behaviour, an interdisciplinary approach is critical. Thus, although originally trained as an anthropologist, I became interested in applying the techniques and theories of psychologists and evolutionary biologists to examine questions in human behavioural ecology from a cross-cultural perspective, including in indigenous cultures. I currently have a large study on the role of facial shape in men’s and women’s attractiveness involving over a dozen researchers from countries in Asia, Europe, North and South America as well as my own data collection from New Zealand, Samoa, Australia and Vanuatu. I also use eye-tracking technology and viewing time paradigms both in the lab and the field to further understand the implicit nature of attractiveness judgments of the face and body. More recently I have become interested in how biological, economic, and social factors during pregnancy influence child health at birth and developmental trajectories from early infancy to adulthood.
The evolution of human mate preferences
My research focuses human mate preferences and physical attractiveness. I use a variety of approaches including field research, eye-tracking techniques and demographic databases to answer these questions.
Body shape, attractiveness, health and economics
Body shape and composition is a clear indication of a person's underlying health, fertility, diet and resistance to diseases. It also represents one of the largest differences between men and women. Many factors interact to define the evolutionary origins of body shape and how our bodies are evolving as a result of changing ecology and economics. I have been interested in these questions and have studied the role of body composition and shape in determining men and women's physical attractiveness among people from Cameroon, Indonesia, Samoa, PNG, New Zealand and the U.S.A. More recently I have become interested in how economics and nutritional ecology interact to predict the growing global obesity epidemic.
Collaborators: Prof. Rob Brooks (University of New South Wales).
Funding: ARC Discovery Grant (Brooks R.C. & Dixson B.J., 2012-2015)
Attractiveness decisions are thought to occur very quickly and involve aspects of physique that reflect mate value. I have tested some of these ideas using eye-tracking technology. Bodily regions in women that reflect youth, health and fertility are looked at very rapidly during attractiveness judgments of physical attractiveness.
Collaborators: Dr. Gina Grimshaw (Victoria University of Wellington)
Funding: Ph.D. research (Dixson B.J., 2007-10)
Faculty of Science and Engineering Research Grant, Victoria University of Wellington (Dixson A.F. & Dixson B.J., 2011)
Body shape and composition is a clear indication of a person's underlying health, fertility, diet and resistance to diseases. It also represents one of the largest differences between men and women. Many factors interact to define the evolutionary origins of body shape and how our bodies are evolving as a result of changing ecology and economics. I have been interested in these questions and have studied the role of body composition and shape in determining men and women's physical attractiveness among people from Cameroon, Indonesia, Samoa, PNG, New Zealand and the U.S.A. More recently I have become interested in how economics and nutritional ecology interact to predict the growing global obesity epidemic.
Collaborators: Prof. Rob Brooks (University of New South Wales).
Funding: ARC Discovery Grant (Brooks R.C. & Dixson B.J., 2012-2015)
Attractiveness decisions are thought to occur very quickly and involve aspects of physique that reflect mate value. I have tested some of these ideas using eye-tracking technology. Bodily regions in women that reflect youth, health and fertility are looked at very rapidly during attractiveness judgments of physical attractiveness.
Collaborators: Dr. Gina Grimshaw (Victoria University of Wellington)
Funding: Ph.D. research (Dixson B.J., 2007-10)
Faculty of Science and Engineering Research Grant, Victoria University of Wellington (Dixson A.F. & Dixson B.J., 2011)
The evolution of human body hair
Beards and body hair - what's the deal?
Human beings are the least hairy of all the primates. Yet we retain patches of hair in highly conspicuous regions of the body and face. Beards and chest hair are arguably the most sexually dimorphic of all human traits. I am interested in why men have retained these traits and am exploring whether sexual selection via female choice or intra-sexual competition between males are the underlying evolutionary explanations for beards and body hair. To do this I take a comparative approach, quantifying secondary sexual ornaments across the order primates, including humans, to test how mating and social systems shape male ornaments. I also take an experimental approach by asking men and women to rate images of men with and without there natural distribution of beards and chest hair in order to understand their role in determining male attractiveness and social dominance.
Collaborators: Prof. Paul Vasey (University of Lethbridge) & Prof. Rob Brooks (University of New South Wales)
Beards and body hair - what's the deal?
Human beings are the least hairy of all the primates. Yet we retain patches of hair in highly conspicuous regions of the body and face. Beards and chest hair are arguably the most sexually dimorphic of all human traits. I am interested in why men have retained these traits and am exploring whether sexual selection via female choice or intra-sexual competition between males are the underlying evolutionary explanations for beards and body hair. To do this I take a comparative approach, quantifying secondary sexual ornaments across the order primates, including humans, to test how mating and social systems shape male ornaments. I also take an experimental approach by asking men and women to rate images of men with and without there natural distribution of beards and chest hair in order to understand their role in determining male attractiveness and social dominance.
Collaborators: Prof. Paul Vasey (University of Lethbridge) & Prof. Rob Brooks (University of New South Wales)
Biological fetal programming and infant health at birth
The ‘fetal programming’ or ‘fetal origins’ hypothesis posits that environmental conditions experienced by mothers during pregnancy imprint on the health of their developing babies, affecting their subsequent health trajectories leading into adulthood. Yet how social, environmental and biological factors interact to influence maternal health during pregnancy and infant development remains poorly understood. Moreover, how these effects vary across different ethnic groups within the same population is rarely considered. The current research will test how the biological, psychological and social aspects of maternal health impact on birthweight and subsequent somatic growth trajectories from birth to 2 years of age among individuals of European, Maori, Pacific Island and Asian descent (N = 7000). This research will help identify health disparities within and between ethnicities with the potential to develop culturally specific intervention techniques.
Collaborators: Prof. Gita Mishra
Funding: University of Queensland HABS/MABS Research Grant, 2015
Collaborators: Prof. Gita Mishra
Funding: University of Queensland HABS/MABS Research Grant, 2015
