This study is the first to investigate the “other-race effect” in the context of perceiving physical strength from morphological markers of the male face, using cross-populational data from individuals of Mongoloid and Caucasoid ancestry. The study sample comprised 1206 participants of Russian and Tuvan ethnicity who rated standardized facial morphs constructed using geometric morphometrics to represent low and high physical strength. Statistical analysis was performed using cumulative link mixed models (CLMM) for ordinal data. All participant groups significantly distinguished between strong and weak faces among men of both their own and the other ethnic group. Taken together, the results of this and earlier studies indicate the existence of widespread, shared across the human species morphological cues in the male face that are associated with physical strength, which people can recognize regardless of their own ethnicity. At the same time, differences in recognition accuracy were found: Russian respondents demonstrated higher accuracy when assessing representatives of their own ethnic group, which is consistent with the classic “own-race effect”. Tuvan respondents showed an inverted pattern — higher accuracy in assessing Russian faces, which was driven by a more precise recognition of low physical strength cues in Russian men.

The aim of this study was to assess the level of sexual dimorphism of somatic parameters and body proportions in urban samples of Kabardians and Balkars. Materials and methods. All materials for this study were obtained during a survey of university students in Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkaria) in 2023. Anthropometric data on 317 individuals (135 males and 182 females), aged from 17 to 23 years (the average age was 18,81±1.49) are presented in this paper. The analysis included 19 somatic parameters and several indices characterizing body proportions. To evaluate the level of sex differences in somatic parameters, Student’s t-test was used. For each of the analyzed somatic characteristics, the coefficient of sexual dimorphism was calculated. Results. The results of the study showed a comparable level of somatic sexual dimorphism in the samples of Kabardians and Balkars. In both studied groups, males are larger than females, as evidenced by the positive values of coefficients of sexual dimorphism of total body sizes (except body mass index). Maximum degree of sexual dimorphism was observed in the longitudinal and transverse parameters of the skeleton. Body height and limbs lengths, as well as skeletal robustness, are greater in males compared to females in both ethnic groups. The values of almost all circumferences were higher in men. For most of the studied somatic parameters, the coefficients of sexual dimorphism are lower in Balkarians, except body height and limbs length. Conclusion. There were no statistically significant differences in the mean values of somatic parameters in the groups modern urban Balkars and Kabardians. Sexual dimorphism of the majority of the analyzed characteristics was similar in both studied samples. © 2025. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license

There is a vast and ever-accumulating amount of behavioural data on individually recognised animals, an incredible resource to shed light on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of variation in animal behaviour. Yet, the full potential of such data lies in comparative research across taxa with distinct life histories and ecologies. Substantial challenges impede systematic comparisons, one of which is the lack of persistent, accessible and standardised databases. Big-team approaches to building standardised databases offer a solution to facilitating reliable cross-species comparisons. By sharing both data and expertise among researchers, these approaches ensure that valuable data, which might otherwise go unused, become easier to discover, repurpose and synthesise. Additionally, such large-scale collaborations promote a culture of sharing within the research community, incentivising researchers to contribute their data by ensuring their interests are considered through clear sharing guidelines. Active communication with the data contributors during the standardisation process also helps avoid misinterpretation of the data, ultimately improving the reliability of comparative databases. Here, we introduce MacaqueNet, a global collaboration of over 100 researchers (https://macaquenet.github.io/) aimed at unlocking the wealth of cross-species data for research on macaque social behaviour. The MacaqueNet database encompasses data from 1981 to the present on 61 populations across 14 species and is the first publicly searchable and standardised database on affiliative and agonistic animal social behaviour. We describe the establishment of MacaqueNet, from the steps we took to start a large-scale collective, to the creation of a cross-species collaborative database and the implementation of data entry and retrieval protocols. We share MacaqueNet's component resources: an R package for data standardisation, website code, the relational database structure, a glossary and data sharing terms of use. With all these components openly accessible, MacaqueNet can act as a fully replicable template for future endeavours establishing large-scale collaborative comparative databases.

Love is commonly hypothesized to function as an evolved commitment device, disincentivizing the pursuit of romantic alternatives and signaling this motivational shift to a partner. Here, we test this possibility against a novel signaling-to-alternatives account, in which love instead operates by dissuading alternatives from pursuing oneself. Overall, we find stronger support for the latter account. In Studies 1 and 2, we find that partner quality relative to alternatives positively predicts feelings of love, and love fails to mitigate the negative effects of desirable alternatives on relationship satisfaction—contradicting the classic commitment device account. In Study 3, using a longitudinal design, we replicate these effects and find that changes in partner quality relative to alternatives predict changes in love over time. In Study 4, we replicate the relationship between love and relative partner quality across 44 countries. In Study 5, we find a nearly one-to-one correspondence between the extent to which partner-directed actions are diagnostic of love and reductions in romantic alternatives' attraction to the actor. These results suggest that love may not act as a commitment device in the classic sense by disincentivizing the pursuit of alternatives but by disincentivizing alternatives from pursuing oneself.

The inequality of women in various areas of life still holds on, despite all efforts, in many countries, including work, politics and everyday life. However, there is still a great deal of controversy and debate about gender equality in different countries. A comparative analysis of ideas about male and female roles among young representatives of three Slavic peoples, Russians (1043 pers.), Belarusians (373), and Bulgarians (346), is conducted in this study. The replies of the respondents from all studied samples overwhelmingly accept the norms of gender equality, since the majority of respondents absolutely agreed with the statements of the questionnaire regarding the gender equality and disagreed with those items in which those norms were denied. At the same time results showed significant cultural differences: respondents from Bulgaria often expressed traditional views on norms of behavior for women. Belonging to particular religion also affected attitudes towards gender equality. Due to the country’s socialist history, Belarus’ showed itself to be the most gender-equal country among all the societies studied. The traditional view of female behavior and women’s place in the family has been preserved in Bulgaria, probably because of the greater religiosity of modern Bulgarian society.

Love has long been hypothesized to be a universal human experience. However, most studies testing this claim have relied on historical data or heavily focused on WEIRD populations. In this study, we go beyond WEIRD by analysing data from nine societies with distinct ecological and cultural backgrounds, whose lifestyles are believed to more closely approximate those of human ancestors, rather than those of highly industrialized societies of today. These societies include: Aborigines from Australia, Bhotiya from India, Fulani from Nigeria, Hadza from Tanzania, Igbo from Nigeria, Kimeru from Kenya, Meru from Tanzania, Nepalis from Kathmandu, and Tsimane from Bolivia (N = 937, 43 % men, Mage = 33.51, SDage = 10.59). Across all cultures, participants reported high levels of intimacy, passion, and commitment, the three core components of romantic love. Individual differences in love's intensity were greater than cultural differences, though cultural variation suggests some influence of cultural factors on love experiences. Additionally, the pattern of higher intimacy and commitment compared to passion closely aligns with findings from WEIRD samples. Overall, the present study provides further evidence for the universality of romantic love.

BackgroundHead orientation during photography can distort facial shape, but this is rarely considered in cross-population studies focusing on facial morphology and its perception.AimTo assess how head positioning (Frankfurt Horizontal [FH] vs. natural position [NP]) affects facial shape and trait perception across two ethnic populations.Subjects and methodsFacial photographs were collected from Buryats of Mongolian descent (N = 148) and Russians of European descent (N = 155). Geometric morphometrics were used to compare the facial shapes in the FH and NP positions. Independent rater groups with similar population origins, Kalmyks (N = 162) and Russians (N = 242), evaluated perceived aggressiveness and attractiveness based on these portraits.ResultsHead orientation significantly altered facial shape, particularly among the Buryat group. Despite the larger facial sexual dimorphism in the Buryat group, sex differences were more pronounced in FH across both samples. Correlations between facial shape and body metrics (height, Body Mass Index, and body fat mass) were stronger in FH. Ratings of male aggressiveness and female attractiveness were consistently influenced by head position across both rater populations and sexes.ConclusionHead positioning introduces systematic bias into facial shape analysis and perception. Failure to control for this factor may compromise study comparability and distort meta-analytic findings.

We examined how language affects moral judgments in a non-WEIRD population. Tanzanian participants (N = 103) evaluated utilitarian agents in moral dilemmas, either in native Chagga or foreign Swahili. Agents were rated significantly more moral and braver when evaluated in a foreign language. Bravery predicted morality more strongly in the foreign language than in the native language. Indirect sacrifices were judged more moral than direct ones, but equally brave. These findings extend the moral foreign language effect to informally acquired languages and highlight methodological implications for cross-cultural research.

Paternal care contributes to offspring’s development and future success in their adult life. Cultural stereotypes and individual views about family roles continue to have a significant impact on paternal care. We conducted a cross-cultural study of paternal care in Russia and Belarus, with special reference to cumulative impact of the level of family income and individual views concerning gender inequality. Total sample was 570 respondents. Results revealed the similarity of the behavioral models of fathers in Russia and Belarus. The general model of paternal care shows that a high level of wealth contributes to the increase of paternal care in both countries, whereas high level of gender inequality reduces the level of paternal care. Both countries continue to practice the traditional approach to sharing of concerns regarding children – women are more involved in childcare and education, while men invest more in the financial income of the family.

The article is devoted to the study of human behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in two African countries – Tanzania and Nigeria. Using our own field data, the authors analyzed the dynamics of the level of anxiety on the background of stress from the spread of COVID-19 during two large waves of the pandemic: 1) from May to August 2020 with an average peak on May 11; 2) from June to September 2021. The total sample was 1034 people. One of the authors’ hypotheses was that different control strategies in these countries led to different levels of stress in the population. The most important factor was not only the level of morbidity and mortality in the country, but also the lack of information and misinformation. Using the example of the two African countries, it is shown that misinformation, concealment of official statistics and fear of uncertainty led to an increase in anxiety among the population of Tanzania and slowed down the psychological adaptation of people in the context of a global crisis, observed in many countries around the world a year after the spread of coronavirus infections.

Previous research has demonstrated that Maasai and Europeans tend to align in their ratings of the physical strength and aggressiveness of Maasai male faces, calibrated to hand grip strength (HGS). However, perceptions of attractiveness of these faces differed among populations. In this study, three morphs of young Maasai men created by means of geometric morphometrics, and depicting the average sample and two extrema (± 4 SD of HGS), were assessed by men and women from Tanzania, Czech Republic, Russia, Pakistan, China, and Mexico (total sample = 1540). The aim of this study was to test cross-cultural differences in the perception of young Maasai men’s composites calibrated to HGS, focusing on four traits: physical strength, attractiveness, aggressiveness, and helpfulness. Individuals from all six cultures were able to distinguish between low, medium, and high HGS portraits. Across all study populations, portrait of Maasai men with lower HGS was perceived as less attractive, more aggressive, and less helpful. This suggests that people from diverse populations share similar perceptions of physical strength based on facial shape, as well as attribute similar social qualities like aggressiveness and helpfulness to these facial images. Participants from all samples rated the composite image of weak Maasai men as the least attractive.

This study utilized Multilevel Modeling Analyses to explore predictors of marital satisfaction and to explore how those predictors might moderate any negative impact of children. The Marriage and Relationship Questionnaire (MARQ), which demonstrates cultural and gender invariance, has been used to explore predictors of marital satisfaction in different cultures. In earlier research using MARQ datasets from the U.S.A., U.K., Turkey, Russia and China (3,000 couples), regression analyses identified 13 predictors explaining from 62% to 74% of the variance in marital satisfaction. The current research took the six most powerful predictors (sexual fulfillment, kind spouse, humorous spouse, dependable spouse, having the same outlook, and having a physically attractive spouse) and number of children, and subjected those variables to a Multilevel Modeling Analysis. Results are discussed on the level of the individual and the dyad by culture. Cultural similarities and differences emerged; unique cultural patterns are discussed. Across cultures, all predictors were associated with marital satisfaction. The negative impact of children did not appear in every culture with alpha set at .01. Moderation analysis results suggest that, depending on culture, the negative impact of children is moderated by maintaining sufficient levels of sexual satisfaction, kindness, humor and dependability after children arrive.

What makes an odour pleasant or unpleasant? The inherent properties of the constituent chemical compounds, or the nose of the beholder, driven by idiosyncratic differences and culture-specific learning? Here, 582 individuals, including Tanzanian Hadza hunter-gatherers, Amazonian Tsimane' horticulturalists, Yali from the Papuan highlands and two industrialized populations (Poles, Malaysians), rated the pleasantness of 15 odour samples. We find considerable similarities in odour assessments across cultures, but our data do not fully support a claim regarding the universality of smell preferences. Despite cross-cultural similarities in olfactory assessments, probably driven by odour properties, we suggest that odour availability in ecological and cultural niches bears an undeniable effect on human odour preferences.

Previous studies have found a negative relationship between creativity and conservatism. However, as these studies were mostly conducted on samples of homogeneous nationality, the generalizability of the effect across different cultures is unknown. We addressed this gap by conducting a study in 28 countries. Based on the notion that attitudes can be shaped by both environmental and ecological factors, we hypothesized that parasite stress can also affect creativity and thus, its potential effects should be controlled for. The results of multilevel analyses showed that, as expected, conservatism was a significant predictor of lower creativity, adjusting for economic status, age, sex, education level, subjective susceptibility to disease, and country-level parasite stress. In addition, most of the variability in creativity was due to individual rather than country-level variance. Our study provides evidence for a weak but significant negative link between conservatism and creativity at the individual level (β = −0.08, p < .001) and no such effect when country-level conservatism was considered. We present our hypotheses considering previous findings on the behavioral immune system in humans.

Introduction. The problem of human adaptation to modern realities, including living in cities, changing the traditional diet, and significantly reducing physical stress on the body in everyday life is becoming increasingly relevant all over the world. In this vein, experts from various fields of science pay attention to the study of general secular trends and a more detailed analysis of individual components of this phenomenon, including body composition and other somatic characteristics of specific social and/or gender and age groups of the population. Of particular interest are data on urban populations that have recently migrated from rural areas, against the background of significant socio-economic transformations in the countries of the Global South, as well as a comparison of data from different regions of the world to identify common and population-specific indicators of adaptation. Materials and methods. The paper presents data on students from three populations (684 individuals, 343 of them men and 341 women): Tanzanian (natives of the Bantu peoples from Dodoma), Russian (residents of Tula) and Buryat (residents of Ulan-Ude). The age ranges from 17 to 30 years, the average age was 21.28±2.75 y. A number of anthropometric characteristics and body composition were measured. Results. Our data indicate the presence of sexual dimorphism in each of the studied populations according to the complex of morphological characteristics and body composition. It is noteworthy that Russian students (Caucasians) had more pronounced sexual dimorphism compared to Tanzanians (Negroids) and Buryats (Mongoloids). Conclusion. Summing up, data on three populations representing samples of young people who are similar in social status and level of education, but differ in their racial and ethnic origin, as well as the environmental characteristics of the regions of residence, indicate the presence of distinct differences between the sexes in body size and its component composition. These differences were unidirectional in the three samples studied, and may reflect the generalized outcome of natural and sexual selection for Homo sapiens.

The aim of our experimental study was to investigate population differences in sex-specific cooperative tendencies between modern Russians (N = 192) and Buryats (N = 208). Cooperative predispositions were tested independently within each population, under conditions of same-sex dyadic (Prisoner's Dilemma) and group (iterated Public Goods Game) interactions between subjects who were strangers to each other. The experiments involved face-to-face interactions, but any intentional communication was prohibited. The results revealed considerable differences in cooperativeness between Russian and Buryat men: Russian men were more predisposed to cooperate in dyads, while Buryat men were better at maintaining high levels of cooperation in group interactions. Russian and Buryat women did not differ in their predispositions to cooperate either in dyads or groups, being more prone to defect than to cooperate. The differences in group cooperativeness between Russian and Buryat men were further replicated in a control study using data fr om a previous independent experiment. It was also revealed that Buryat men demonstrated an enhanced level of cooperation only in ethnically homogeneous groups. Our results indicate that a higher degree of cooperation in groups is not a universally male feature, but rather may reflect general cultural variation in orientation towards individualism and collectivism. We view this study as a stepping stone towards a more comprehensive cross-cultural research of the revealed phenomenon.