Intrasexual Competition and Rival Derogation in Women Are Associated With Visual Processing of Emotional Facial...

Intrasexual competition is when members of the same sex compete for access to desirable mates. In women, the use of non-physical strategies, such as verbal and indirect aggression, are often preferred to mitigate potential risks of being targeted or to prevent partner desertion. To act accordingly, women have to attend to cues, such as facial expressions, to be able to discern if an individual is a potential threat. The current study (N = 136) aimed at investigating the role of women's intrasexual competition and rival derogation strategies in women's visual attention and vigilance to angry, happy, and neutral facial expressions. Using an eye-tracking paradigm, women viewed images of women's emotional facial expressions in pairs (e.g., angry-neutral, angry-happy, happy-neutral) followed by rating faces for their perceived levels of threat. Women who reported higher levels of intrasexual competition demonstrated attentional biases to angry and neutral facial expressions, while rival derogation strategies also moderated the relationship between facial expressions and visual attention. These findings demonstrate the proximate mechanisms involved in women's intrasexual competition when scanning images of potential intrasexual rivals.