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The Evolution of Autistic-Like and Schizotypal Traits: A Sexual Selection Hypothesis

Overview of attention for article published in Frontiers in Psychology, January 2010
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (96th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (82nd percentile)

Mentioned by

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1 blog
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19 X users
wikipedia
3 Wikipedia pages

Citations

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67 Dimensions

Readers on

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130 Mendeley
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1 CiteULike
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Title
The Evolution of Autistic-Like and Schizotypal Traits: A Sexual Selection Hypothesis
Published in
Frontiers in Psychology, January 2010
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00041
Pubmed ID
Authors

Marco Del Giudice, Romina Angeleri, Adelina Brizio, Marco R. Elena

Abstract

In this paper we present a new hypothesis on the evolution of autistic-like and schizotypal personality traits. We argue that autistic-like and schizotypal traits contribute in opposite ways to individual differences in reproductive and mating strategies, and have been maintained - at least in part - by sexual selection through mate choice. Whereas positive schizotypy can be seen as a psychological phenotype oriented to high-mating effort and good genes displays in both sexes, autistic-like traits in their non-pathological form contribute to a male-typical strategy geared toward high parental investment, low-mating effort, and long-term resource allocation. At the evolutionary-genetic level, this sexual selection hypothesis is consistent with Crespi and Badcock's "imprinted brain" theory of autism and psychosis; the effect of offspring mating behavior on resource flow within the family connects sexual selection with genomic imprinting in the context of human biparental care. We conclude by presenting the results of an empirical study testing one of the predictions derived from our hypothesis. In a sample of 199 college students, autistic-like traits predicted lower interest in short-term mating, higher partner-specific investment, and stronger commitment to long-term romantic relations, whereas positive schizotypy showed the opposite pattern of effects.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 19 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 130 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Italy 2 2%
Germany 1 <1%
India 1 <1%
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
United States 1 <1%
Unknown 123 95%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 32 25%
Researcher 19 15%
Student > Bachelor 17 13%
Student > Master 17 13%
Student > Postgraduate 9 7%
Other 18 14%
Unknown 18 14%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 57 44%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 15 12%
Neuroscience 11 8%
Medicine and Dentistry 8 6%
Social Sciences 6 5%
Other 10 8%
Unknown 23 18%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 25. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 July 2023.
All research outputs
#1,533,080
of 25,340,976 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Psychology
#3,174
of 34,223 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#6,586
of 176,004 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Psychology
#13
of 70 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,340,976 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 93rd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 34,223 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 90% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 176,004 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 70 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its contemporaries.