Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

Athletes’ Victory Stances Are All About Dominance, Not Pride

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Have you been watching the NBA Finals? The series is now 2-1 in favor of the Cleveland Cavaliers over the Golden State Warriors.

You may notice while watching basketball and many other sporting events that every time an athlete triumphs over another, his or her first instinct is to do a victory dance.

In a study conducted by researchers at San Francisco State University, it turns out that athletes’ first reaction after victory is to strut. Or at least the modern version of it, which includes throwing their hands up in the air, puffing out their chest and pulling their head back, all while wearing an enormous grin of satisfaction on their faces.

Those are contemporary signs of dominance, says the study’s author, David Matsumoto, a professor of psychology at the university who began studying the phenomenon after noticing it during his years as the U.S. Olympic coach for judo. While some have labeled the behavior as signs of pride, Matsumoto believes otherwise.

“What I saw everyday in training and in competition had nothing to do with pride,” he says. “It’s all about just having clobbered somebody. It’s a sign or signal given to other members of the community who are watching.”

 Read more on this fascinating topic in our past blog post!

Smile Game!

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Test your knowledge by taking our smile game by clicking HERE or on the image above!

Humans May Have Less Hair So Emotions Are Easier To Read

Researchers believe humans evolved to have less hair on their faces than their primate relatives so it’s easier to read their moods. Humans are often considered hairless apes, but scientists are still debating why we’re not covered in hair like our primate relatives. No one has pinpointed exactly why this is, but evolutionary reasons include moving from cooler to warmer climates, or to free ourselves from lice and other parasites.

A third reason, proposed by neurobiologist Mark Changizi, suggests we lost our hair so it’s easier for others to read our expressions. Particularly, how our skin color changes and what it means, such as blushing. Humans are trichromats, which means we have three cones allowing us to detect light in the medium wavelength including a red and green mix. Known as color signaling, even the slightest changes in skin color are picked up by another person. These changes happen with varying levels of oxygen in the blood. If our faces were covered in hair, we wouldn’t be able to see these changes.

The fact that humans walk upright means more of our bodies are exposed, which explains why we’re also almost entirely hairless. Most mammals on the other hand, such as dogs, horses and bears, are dichromats with only two cones, and are only able to see short and long light wavelengths from blue and yellow blends. According to Changizi’s research, which involved 97 different primate species, the dichromats were furrier, while the trichromats had much more skin visible.

It’s possible, color signaling wasn’t the original reason humans began shedding their hairy exterior, and instead became a byproduct of it.

Humans May Have Less Hair So Emotions Are… by GeoBeats