Macken Murphy
University of Melbourne
Macken Murphy is an evolutionary biologist, writer, and podcaster associated with the University of Melbourne. His published research focuses on partner preferences regarding resources and economic inequality, lay evolutionary hypotheses within the manosphere, and incels' attitudes and experiences surrounding psychotherapy and mental health interventions.
21 claims checked on air: 1 context 2 contradicted 10 supported 8 unverified
What they said on air - unverified
A study by Zeigler-Hill and colleagues in China showed that while makeup and plastic surgery increased women's facial attractiveness, informing male evaluators that a woman had plastic surgery attenuated the positive effect on datability.
"Zeigler-Hill and colleagues in China, they actually tested... So it was makeup and plastic surgery that they tested on real women's faces, and they had men assess their attractiveness, their datability, etc. And what they found was that these methods worked to make them more attractive. But when men were informed—meaning once men knew like, 'Oh, this woman looks better, but she's had plastic surgery'—they had a reduced datability effect." (said at 0:08:30)
No published record matching the specific study by Zeigler-Hill and colleagues examining the effects of makeup versus plastic surgery disclosure on women's facial attractiveness and datability evaluations by men in China was located; this does not prove the claim false.
In a 45-condition virtual environment experiment manipulating income and local gender economic inequality, individuals who were poor or whose sex was disenfranchised upregulated mate preferences for resources across ranked, rated, and hypergamous measures.
"we did a 45-condition experiment that varied people's individual income and local gender economic inequality. And then we tried to see how those variables would predict changes in mate preferences... when people are poor, as in as individuals they're poor, or as in the opposite sex is rich and their sex is disenfranchised, they upregulate their mate preferences for resources. So they wanted—this is true in ranked preferences, in rated preferences, and also in hypergamous preferences" (said at 0:37:20)
No published record matching the specific 45-condition virtual environment experiment manipulating individual income and local gender economic inequality across ranked, rated, and hypergamous mate preferences was located; this does not prove the claim false.
Institute for Family Studies data shows that women in the top 20% income quintile on average date down slightly economically.
"and this is from the Institute of Family Studies where they it's kind of it's a kind of a way of visualizing the data more than anything but they bucketed uh different income brackets. Yeah. And in the top 20% of women, like the top quintile, uh they are already on average are dating down very slightly economically." (said at 1:03:24)
No published record matching the claim that Institute for Family Studies data shows women in the top 20% income quintile on average date down slightly economically was located; this does not prove the claim false.
A speed-dating study by Robert Kurzban found evidence supporting standard evolutionary psychology predictions for sex differences in mate preferences.
"Rob Kurzban I think did one study that did find it. So it's it's mixed rather than showing no effect at all of the standard uh evolutionary psychology predicted stuff." (said at 1:07:46)
No published record matching the claim regarding Robert Kurzban's speed-dating study on sex differences in mate preferences was located; this does not prove the claim false.
David Buss's survey data shows that male and female mate preferences converged significantly across the 20th century, particularly following women's financial emancipation.
"throughout the 1900s, there's pretty good data from David Buss—it's hard to do it's hard to gather this survey data, but it does seem that over time throughout the 1900s um especially in the period after women's kind of financial emancipation, let's call it, uh mate preferences converged quite a bit between men and women." (said at 1:22:03)
No published record matching David Buss's survey data on 20th-century mate preference convergence following women's financial emancipation was located in the searched biomedical databases; this does not prove the claim false.
A 2015 study by Norman Li found that when women possess their own financial resources, their mate preferences shift toward desiring partners who contribute more to domestic and child-rearing support.
"we see this even in um in Li's 2015 study, um where it does seem that when women have their own money, they recognize where it's like, 'Well, I have the financial thing kind of sorted. I really need like a helper at the nest a little bit more.'" (said at 1:25:00)
No published record matching the cited 2015 study by Norman Li regarding shifts in women's mate preferences toward domestic and child-rearing support when possessing personal financial resources was located in the fetched records; this does not prove the claim false.
A global study by Marta Kowal found that women engaged in more beautification behaviors than men in all but seven countries, with weightlifting being the primary behavior where men spent more time.
"that's what the best uh that's what the best study on beautification did. It's it's Marta Kowal's study. Um and she found that in all except for seven countries women beautified more. Uh there were there were seven that men beautified more um slightly. Um, and this was the weightlifting side of it essentially was what was was the behavior where men were" (said at 1:28:59)
No published PubMed record matching the specific claim regarding the global beautification study by Marta Kowal was located; this does not prove the claim false.
Standard evolutionary sex differences in mate preferences are found less consistently in small-scale hunter-gatherer societies than in industrialized populations.
"these sex differences and mate preferences are less consistently found in these small-scale hunter-gatherer societies and they're more consistently found in these industrialized populations." (said at 1:56:15)
No published record matching the claim that standard evolutionary sex differences in mate preferences are found less consistently in small-scale hunter-gatherer societies than in industrialized populations was located; this does not prove the claim false.
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