The dissertation explores the complex interplay between financial scarcity and its psychological effects, shedding light on its impact on decision-making, avoidance behavior, and perceived control.... Show moreThe dissertation explores the complex interplay between financial scarcity and its psychological effects, shedding light on its impact on decision-making, avoidance behavior, and perceived control. Through a series of experiments, we found that financial scarcity increases temporal discounting, indicating a tendency to prioritize immediate gains over future outcomes. A longitudinal study revealed a reciprocal relationship over time between financial scarcity and avoidance behavior, hinting at the existence of a psychological poverty trap. Furthermore, an experiment demonstrated that financial scarcity increases the tendency to delay bill payments. However, evidence regarding attentional disengagement from financial stressors, assessed with an eye-tracker, remained inconclusive. A global survey spanning 51 societies confirmed the negative link between financial scarcity and perceived control, but also uncovered significant cross-cultural variations. Surprisingly, in societies with lower welfare provisions and institutional quality, the negative relationship between financial scarcity and control was weaker. Likewise, collectivist and traditional values seemed to buffer against the negative effect of financial scarcity on control. The dissertation informs about the psychological reality of dealing with problematic household finances and its consequences on decisions. Show less
Cognitive processes play an important role in human mate choice. However, far less is known about this topic in non-human animals. In this thesis, I take a comparative approach to sexually... Show moreCognitive processes play an important role in human mate choice. However, far less is known about this topic in non-human animals. In this thesis, I take a comparative approach to sexually selective cognition by studying humans (Homo sapiens) and Bornean orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus). I start by reviewing the literature on sexually selective cognition. Hereafter, I show that visual, but not auditory or olfactory attractiveness, plays a major role in initial human mate choice. Furthermore, I show that attractiveness has a profound influence on visual attention in humans, and that attentional biases towards attractive conspecifics may be associated with mate choice. I explore the same topic in Bornean orang-utans by presenting them with stimuli of fully developed males or males experiencing arrested development. The results of these studies suggest that orang-utans preferentially attend to fully developed males, but only in the eye-tracking task and not in touchscreen tasks. The last chapter explores vocalisations, and suggests that orang-utan mate preferences might reflect in female vocal behaviour. Altogether, the results of this thesis suggest that humans and orang-utans show cognitive biases towards mate-relevant traits. However, better understanding of the link between such biases and actual mate choice remains of pivotal importance. Show less