Donohue and Green (2016) had 388 participants rate potential partners for short- and long-term attractiveness, using written descriptions. Women rated men described as good story-tellers as more attractive as longterm but not short-term partners. Story-telling ability had no impact on perceptions of female attractiveness. The authors suggest that story-telling is a sign of status and that this supports the evolutionary perspective on mate selection.
Caspar et al. (2016) investigated what happens in the brain when we obey orders. Participants were either ordered or offered the chance to give a victim a shock or steal money from them. In both conditions they were asked to estimate the time between pressing a button and hearing a sound. In the orders condition only, participants significantly over-estimated the time. This inability to judge time accurately suggests an altered state of consciousness. When participants’ brain waves were measured, a distinct pattern of electrical activity was found when acting under orders. This supports Milgram’s idea that we exist in an altered state when obeying.
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