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京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第24459号 / 理博第4958号 / 新制||理||1708(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科生物科学専攻 / (主査)教授 本川 雅治, 准教授 中野 隆文, 教授 中務 真人 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

Sexual selection shaped psychological mechanisms in both sexes to assess potential mates for evidence of mate quality (Buss, 2005). Attraction preferences are one such mechanism (Sugiyama, 2005) and physical attraction preferences are sensitive to fitness-promoting traits present in a potential mate. Physically attractive traits are thought to act as signals of good genetic quality (Neff & Pitcher, 2005) and are preferred because of the advantage such quality bestows towards reproductive success. Specifically, genetic quality is proposed to be a biological requirement necessary for physically attractive traits to develop and be maintained (Johnstone & Grafen, 1993). Furthermore, genetic quality is heritable to offspring, thereby increasing offspring reproductive success (Orr, 2009). All mating decisions inherently involve trade-offs due to costs inflicted on time and resources when choosing a long-term mate. Assessing a mate for genetic quality is imperative to ensuring one selects a quality mate with heritable fitness benefits towards offspring reproductive success (Buss, 2005). In order to minimize costs and maximize benefits when making mate selection decisions, humans use multiple and redundant signals of mate quality (Fink & Penton-Voak, 2002; Møller & Pomiankowski, 1993). Accordingly, this study supposed that siblings act as redundant signals of genetic quality that would factor into mating decisions. Because genetic quality is heritable (Houle, 1991) and visible through physical attractiveness (Thornhill & Gangestad, 1999), this study explored the possibility that knowledge of relatedness influenced attractiveness judgments of human faces. Supporting the main hypothesis of the current study, siblings affected judgments of physical attractiveness for target faces. Analyses showed this effect to be driven entirely by female raters for both male [t(62)=3.87, p<.001] and female [t(61)=2.24, p=.029] target faces. Secondary analyses examining the effects of sibling pair attractiveness differences (low vs. high) showed that relatedness significantly increased female ratings of facial attractiveness for both low and high facially attractive male and low facially attractive female target faces. Results offer two possible conclusions as to the role relatedness may serve in mate quality assessments that align with parental investment as well as kin selection assumptions.

Women are more susceptible to a range of detrimental diseases surrounding autoimmunity and inflammation, but the causes of this are largely unknown. Much of the current research investigating these patterns focus on a microscopic view of cellular and/or hormonal processes, but holistic perspectives incorporating sociology, psychology, physiology, and evolution are rarely considered. Through investigating interactions between a history of neglecting women’s research, evolutionary origins of sex differences in the immune system, and the impacts of society’s influences on stress, some sex-biased patterns of disease may emerge. The existing SS-SH-SS theory by Brown et al. (2022) describes the complex environmental, psychological, and biological mechanisms that interact to create a female sensitivity to stress-based inflammatory diseases. Using the foundations of this theory, in this study we used global disease and stress exposure data from the World Bank and Global Health Data Exchange project to investigate how the relationships between exposure to stress and prevalence of diseases differ by sex. Using principal component analysis and generalized linear mixed models, we demonstrated a complex relationship between certain stress factors and inflammatory diseases. Particularly, we found that levels of poverty, alcohol use and drug use had distinct, sex-specific impacts on rates of diseases that we studied. Female rates of disease were particularly sensitive to the changes in substance use and poverty, with an inverse relationship with poverty and a direct relationship with substance use. This study can serve as an example for investigating the correlates of sex-biased diseases and mental disorders, particularly about the role of sex-biased experiences of social stress in the origin of sex-biased mental illnesses. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Throughout history, women's health has been overlooked in research, leading to a lack of understanding regarding sex-related health disparities. Our project addresses this gap by exploring how stress impacts inflammation and its connection to the prevalence of diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and depression. We analyze data from international repositories, revealing that males and females respond differently to specific stressors, which may help explain why certain diseases are more prevalent among women. This insight strengthens our understanding of sex-based health outcomes and may lead to improved healthcare for women everywhere.

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