Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Owner Sex And Human–Canine Interactions At The Park, Shelly Volsche, Elizabeth Johnson, Bianca Reyes, Cecelia Rumsey, Kayla Murai, Deisy Landeros

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate if and what types of differences exist between men and women when interacting with their dogs in a “natural” setting. In the case of this study, we defined “natural” as visiting a public park with their dog. To do this, we completed a series of 10-minute focal follows (n = 177) on human–canine dyads at local leashed and off-leash dog parks from December 2018 to March 2019. Data collection included counting incidences of 14 specific interactions (i.e., “baby talks to dog” or “scolds/speaks harshly to dog”), observable demographics (sex of …

Innovative Teaching Knowledge Stays With Users, Brittnee Earl, Karl Mertens, Susan E. Shadle, John P. Ziker

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Programs seeking to transform undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses often strive for participating faculty to share their knowledge of innovative teaching practices with other faculty in their home departments. Here, we provide interview, survey, and social network analyses revealing that faculty who use innovative teaching practices preferentially talk to each other, suggesting that greater steps are needed for information about innovative practices to reach faculty more broadly.

We Studied What Happens When Guys Add Their Cats To Their Dating App Profiles, Lori Kogan, Shelly Volsche

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

If you’ve used a dating app, you’ll know the importance of choosing good profile pics.

These photos don’t just relay attractiveness; a recent study suggested that 43% of people think they can get a sense of someone’s personality by their picture. You might guess that someone who has included a photo of themselves hiking is an outdoorsy type of person.

But as scientists who study human-animal interactions, we wanted to know what this meant for pet owners – in particular, male cat owners.

If you’re a guy who owns a cat, what kind of effect does it have on suitors …

Modeling Incipient Use Of Neolithic Cultigens By Taiwanese Foragers: Perspectives From Niche Variation Theory, The Prey Choice Model, And The Ideal Free Distribution, Pei-Lin Yu

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The earliest evidence for agriculture in Taiwan dates to about 6000 years BP and indicates that farmer-gardeners from Southeast China migrated across the Taiwan Strait. However, little is known about the adaptive interactions between Taiwanese foragers and Neolithic Chinese farmers during the transition. This paper considers theoretical expectations from human behavioral ecology based models and macroecological patterning from Binford’s hunter-gatherer database to scope the range of responses of native populations to invasive dispersal. Niche variation theory and invasion theory predict that the foraging niche breadths will narrow for native populations and morphologically similar dispersing populations. The encounter contingent prey choice …

Life-History Factors Influence Teenagers’ Suicidal Ideation: A Model Selection Analysis Of The Canadian National Longitudinal Survey Of Children And Youth, John P. Ziker, Kristin Snopkowski

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Suicidality is an important contributor to disease burden worldwide. We examine the developmental and environmental correlates of reported suicidal ideation at age 15 and develop a new evolutionary model of suicidality based on life history trade-offs and hypothesized accompanying modulations of cognition. Data were derived from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (Statistics Canada) which collected information on children’s social, emotional, and behavioral development in eight cycles between 1994 and 2009. We take a model selection approach to understand thoughts of suicide at age 15 (N ≈ 1,700). The most highly ranked models include social support, early …

The Life History Of Human Foraging: Cross-Cultural And Individual Variation, John Ziker

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Human adaptation depends on the integration of slow life history, complex production skills, and extensive sociality. Refining and testing models of the evolution of human life history and cultural learning benefit from increasingly accurate measurement of knowledge, skills, and rates of production with age. We pursue this goal by inferring hunters’ increases and declines of skill from approximately 23,000 hunting records generated by more than 1800 individuals at 40 locations. The data reveal an average age of peak productivity between 30 and 35 years of age, although high skill is maintained throughout much of adulthood. In addition, there is substantial …

How Taiwanese Death Rituals Have Adapted For Families Living In The Us, Pei-Lin Yu

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Taiwanese people living in the United States face a dilemma when loved ones die. Many families worry that they might not be able to carry out proper rituals in their new homeland.

As a biracial Taiwanese-American archaeologist living in Idaho and studying in Taiwan, I am discovering the many faces of Taiwan’s blended cultural heritage drawn from the mix of peoples that have inhabited the island over millennia.

Not The Cat’S Meow?: The Impact Of Posing With Cats On Female Perceptions Of Male Dateability, Lori Kogan, Shelly Volsche

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The aim of this study was to investigate whether men were considered more attractive when posing for a photo alone or holding a cat. Prior research suggests that women view pet owners as more attractive and dateable than non-pet owners; however, this effect was strongest with dog owners. We hypothesized that men posing with cats would be more attractive than those posing alone. Using an online survey, women viewed images of a man posing alone or with a cat and rated the men on the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Big Five Inventory. Women viewed men as less …

Idaho First: How Archaeological Discoveries On The Lower Salmon River Change Our Perspectives On The Peopling Of The Americas (Slides), Loren Davis

The Idea of Nature Public Lecture Series

Who were the First Idahoans? Archaeological research at the Cooper’s Ferry site on the Lower Salmon River indicates that Western Stemmed Tradition people were living in the Columbia River basin between 16,560 and 15,280 years ago until about 13,000 years ago. This exciting discovery is strong evidence for the deep antiquity of human entry into North America during the late Ice Age: a time that horses and other charismatic megafauna roamed Idaho. The First Idahoans arrived before the opening of an ice-free corridor, which favors the hypothesis of boat-supported migration from the Bering Strait down the Pacific coast.

Sexual Initiation Among Canadian Youth: A Model Comparison Approach Of Evolutionary Hypotheses Shows Greatest Support For Extrinsic Mortality Cues, Intergenerational Conflict, And Early Life Psychosocial Stressors, Kristin Snopkowski, John P. Ziker

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Early life factors are associated with the timing of reproductive events in adolescence, but a variety of hypotheses (such as psychosocial acceleration theory, paternal investment theory, extrinsic mortality, internal prediction, and intergenerational conflict) propose different explanations for why this may occur. To compare between these theories, we use the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, an extensive, longitudinal survey of Canadian male and female youth (aged 14-15 in last wave) to identify variables that uniquely support these different models (n≈1200). We identify the best predictors of sexual initiation for each hypothesis and then use a model selection procedure to …