Thomas V Pollet
Biographic Data
| ID | 73193 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas V Pollet |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas V |
| FAMILY NAME | Pollet |
| SIGNATURE | POLLET T V |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northumbria University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4210-935X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 50 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 125 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 50 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Acting gender: Actors’ experiences of gender role conformity and hopes for their characters
Studies have found that audiences are often presented with characters that conform with traditional gender roles but there to date has been no empirical investigation into these characters from the actors’ perspective. We investigated the extent to which actors (n = 318) are required to conform to traditional gender roles in the course of their work and the disparity between their acted and ideal characters. We found that both male and female act…
In Search of a Professional Image: How Women Comedians Engage Gender in Their Work
Individuals who differ from what is typical in their occupation face a dilemma about how to incorporate their “ill‐fitting” social characteristics into their professional image. This study investigates how women working in the male‐dominated world of stand‐up comedy present their gender and whether this evolves over times of social change. Our mixed‐methods, longitudinal design utilized 540 performer profiles from 195 women comedians at the Edinb…
An exploratory psychometric network analysis of loneliness scales in a sample of older adults
To examine the relationships within and between commonly used measures of loneliness to determine the suitability of the measures in older adults. Further, to determine whether certain items in these measures are more psychometrically robust in terms of capturing different types of loneliness across this population. Data were obtained from 350 older adults via completion of an online survey. Four measures of loneliness were completed. These were …
No relationships between self-reported Instagram use or type of use and mental well-being: A study using a nationally representative online sample of UK adults
Use of Instagram has grown rapidly in the last decade, but the effects of Instagram use on well-being are still unclear, with many studies based on younger samples with a female bias. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between Instagram use and levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness in a nationally representative sample of UK adults by age and gender. An online sample of 498 UK adults were recruited using Prolific (Age: …
Consequences of arbitrary binning the midpoint category in survey data: An illustration with student satisfaction in the National Student Survey
Arbitrary placing cut-offs in data, i.e. binning, is recognised as poor statistical practice.We explore the consequences of using arbitrary cutoffs in two large datasets, the National Student Survey (2019 and 2022).These are nationwide surveys aimed at capturing student satisfaction amongst UK undergraduates.For these survey data, it is common to group the responses to the question on student satisfaction on a five point Likert scale into '% sati…
Making It Easier to Live, You Know?” A Qualitative Study of the Impact of Hoarding Behaviours and Social Networks on Older People’s Supported Housing Decisions
The decision to move from independent to supported housing is a key life decision. Research focusing on the potential barriers to transition to supported housing for people with hoarding behaviours and the impact of social networks on the decision‐making process is scarce. 16 participants, including 4 participants with hoarding behaviours, took part in in‐depth semistructured interviews providing information about their social networks, support r…
Friendships, loneliness and psychological wellbeing in older adults: A limit to the benefit of the number of friends
Loneliness is linked to many negative health outcomes and places strain on the economy and the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. To combat these issues, the determinants of loneliness need to be fully understood. Although friendships have been shown to be particularly important in relation to loneliness in older adults, this association has thus far not been explored more closely. Our exploratory study examines the relationship betwe…
When (deliberate) practice is not enough – the role of intelligence, practice, and knowledge in academic performance
It is well established that academic performance (AP) depends on a number of factors, such as intellectual capacities, practice, and previous knowledge. We know little about how these factors interact as they are rarely measured simultaneously. Here we present mediated-Factors of Academic Performance (m-FAP) model, which simultaneously assesses direct and indirect, mediated, effects on AP. In a semester-long study with 118 first-year college stud…
Consistency of Eye Coloration Across Different Relationship Partners
Studies have indicated that people are attracted to partners who resemble themselves or their parents, in terms of physical traits including eye color. We might anticipate this inclination to be relatively stable, giving rise to a sequential selection of similar partners who then represent an individual’s “type”. We tested this idea by examining whether people’s sequential partners resembled each other at the level of eye color. We gathered detai…
Hexaco Personality Factors and their Associations with Facebook use and Facebook Network Characteristics
Personality factors affect the properties of 'offline' social networks, but how they are associated with the structural properties of online networks is still unclear. We investigated how the six HEXACO personality factors (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience) relate to Facebook use and three objectively measured Facebook network characteristics - network size, density, and num…
Comparing Foodie Calls in Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States: A Registered Replication Report
Collisson et al. (2020) found Dark Triad traits and gender role beliefs predicted "foodie calls," a phenomenon where people go on a date with others, to whom they are not attracted, for a free meal. Because gender roles and dating norms differ across cultures, we conducted a registered replication across different cultures by surveying 1838 heterosexual women from Poland, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US). Relying on the structu…
An exploration of the impact of contextual information on the emotion recognition ability of autistic adults
Studies of non‐autistic individuals and people with an intellectual disability show that contextual information impacts positively on emotion recognition ability, however, this area is not well researched with autistic adults. We investigated this using a static emotion recognition task. Participants completed an emotion recognition task in person or online. In total, 46 autistic participants and 379 non‐autistic participants completed the task. …
Methodological issues when using face prototypes: A case study on the Faceaurus dataset
Prototype faces, created by averaging faces from several individuals sharing a common characteristic (for example a certain personality trait), can be used for highly informative experimental designs in face research. Although the facial prototype method is both ingenious and useful, we argue that its implementation is associated with three major issues: lack of external validity and non-independence of the units of information, both aggravated b…
Loneliness is negatively related to Facebook network size, but not related to Facebook network structure
High levels of loneliness are associated with poorer outcomes for physical and mental health and a large body of research has examined how using social media sites such as Facebook is associated with loneliness. Time spent on Facebook tends to be associated with higher levels of loneliness, whereas a larger number of Facebook Friends and more active use of Facebook tends to be associated with lower levels of loneliness. However, whilst the networ…
A meta-analysis of the reliability of the Sexual Self-Esteem Inventory in Women (SSEI-W) measure
In 1996, Zeanah & Schwarz proposed a new measurement instrument for capturing sexual self-esteem in women (SSEI-W). This 81 item measure is a multidimensional measure, allowing for both the calculation of an overall scale and scores for five subscale components. Since its conception, this measure has been broadly used not just with student samples but also with general population and clinical population samples. Although the measure’s reliability…
An exploratory factor analysis of the Nerdy Personality Attributes Scale in a sample of self-identified nerds/geeks
In the past, the terms ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ had negative social connotations, but so-called ‘Geek’ subculture is becoming increasingly mainstream, and its social and economic influence is expanding. There has been very little psychological research into this subculture and its associated personality types, but some authors have reported links with narcissism, extraversion, openness to experience, depression and subjective wellbeing. In a sample of 4…
Jealousy as a Function of Rival Characteristics: Two Large Replication Studies and Meta-Analyses Support Gender Differences in Reactions to Rival Attractiveness But Not Dominance
Jealousy is a key emotion studied in the context of romantic relationships. One seminal study (Dijkstra, P., & Buunk, B. (1998). Jealousy as a function of rival characteristics: An evolutionary perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24 (11), 1158–1166. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672982411003) investigated the interactions between a participant’s gender and their reactions to the attractiveness or dominance of a romantic rival.…
Referee height influences decision making in British football leagues
Background Male height is positively associated with social dominance, and more agonistic/competitive behaviours. However, the ‘Napoleon complex’ or ‘small man syndrome’ suggests that smaller males are more assertive and punitive to compensate for lack of height and social dominance. Here, we assess possible relationships between height and punitive behaviours in a real-world setting. Methods Using a non-experimental correlational design, we anal…
Hungry people prefer larger bodies and objects: The importance of testing boundary effects
Several lab‐based studies have indicated that when people are hungry, they judge larger women's bodies as more attractive, compared to when they are satiated. These satiety‐dependent judgements are assumed to provide explanatory power when it comes to the noted cross‐cultural differences in attitudes towards women's adiposity, whereby people who live in regions that are under greater nutritional stress tend to have more favourable attitudes towar…
Measurement Equivalence Between Men and Women in the Abbreviated Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults (Selsa)
Health practitioners, policy-makers, and psychologists point to legitimate concerns about the negative impact of loneliness. To help resolve such negative impact, we need to better understand the psychometric structure of loneliness. Menâ€TMs and womenâ€TMs differing social roles may mean that they experience different sources of loneliness. After matching via exact matching, we compared men and womenâ€TMs scores (N = 273) on the abbreviated form…
Perceived group cohesion versus actual social structure: A study using social network analysis of egocentric Facebook networks
Assortative mating for human height: A meta‐analysis
Evolution, situational affordances, and the Hexaco model of personality
Height and Dominance
Political Extremism Predicts Belief in Conspiracy Theories
Historical records suggest that the political extremes—at both the “left” and the “right”—substantially endorsed conspiracy beliefs about other-minded groups. The present contribution empirically tests whether extreme political ideologies, at either side of the political spectrum, are positively associated with an increased tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. Four studies conducted in the United States and the Netherlands revealed a quadr…
Exploring variation in active network size: Constraints and ego characteristics
Studies of active personal networks have primarily focused on providing reliable estimates of the size of the network. In this study, we examine how compositional properties of the network and ego characteristics are related to variation in network size. There was a negative relationship between mean emotional closeness and network size, for both related and unrelated networks. Further, there was a distinct upper bound on total network size. Thes…
What Can Cross-Cultural Correlations Teach Us about Human Nature
Birth order and adult family relationships: Firstborns have better sibling relationships than laterborns
Although middleborn college students commonly report worse family relationships than other birth orders, it is unknown whether this effect persists into adulthood. Therefore, we investigated the effect of birth order on self-reported family and friend relationships among a large sample of Dutch adults (n = 794). Middleborns did not differ from other birth orders in relationships with their father, mother, sibling or close friend. Middleborns do n…
Parental Control over Mate Choice to Prevent Marriages with Out-group Members: A Study among Mestizos, Mixtecs, and Blacks in Mexico
Perceived group cohesion versus actual social structure: A study using social network analysis of egocentric Facebook networks
Gender equality probably does not affect performance at the Olympic games: A comment on Berdahl, Uhlmann, and Bai (2015)
Friendships, loneliness and psychological wellbeing in older adults: A limit to the benefit of the number of friends
Loneliness is linked to many negative health outcomes and places strain on the economy and the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. To combat these issues, the determinants of loneliness need to be fully understood. Although friendships have been shown to be particularly important in relation to loneliness in older adults, this association has thus far not been explored more closely. Our exploratory study examines the relationship betwe…
An exploratory factor analysis of the Nerdy Personality Attributes Scale in a sample of self-identified nerds/geeks
In the past, the terms ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ had negative social connotations, but so-called ‘Geek’ subculture is becoming increasingly mainstream, and its social and economic influence is expanding. There has been very little psychological research into this subculture and its associated personality types, but some authors have reported links with narcissism, extraversion, openness to experience, depression and subjective wellbeing. In a sample of 4…
Perceptions of Female Body Size and Shape in China, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom
Photographs of 50 women were rated for attractiveness, health, and fertility recorded by four sets of participants—Rural-Chinese ( n = 50), Chinese participants in Hong Kong ( n = 50), Chinese participants living in the United Kingdom ( n = 50), and participants self-identifying as “Caucasian” living in the United Kingdom. The results suggest that a polynomial function of Body Mass Index (kg/m 2 ) is the best predictor of all three judgments in a…
A meta-analysis of the reliability of the Sexual Self-Esteem Inventory in Women (SSEI-W) measure
In 1996, Zeanah & Schwarz proposed a new measurement instrument for capturing sexual self-esteem in women (SSEI-W). This 81 item measure is a multidimensional measure, allowing for both the calculation of an overall scale and scores for five subscale components. Since its conception, this measure has been broadly used not just with student samples but also with general population and clinical population samples. Although the measure’s reliability…
Emotions in context: Anger causes ethnic bias but not gender bias in men but not women
Emotions influence information processing because they are assumed to carry valuable information. We predict that induced anger will increase ethnic but not gender intergroup bias because anger is related to conflicts for resources, and ethnic groups typically compete for resources, whereas gender groups typically engage in relations of positive interdependence. Furthermore, we also predict that this increased ethnic intergroup bias should only b…
No evidence for the generalized Trivers-Willard hypothesis from British and rural Guatemalan data
In a series of recent papers, Kanazawa has extended the Trivers-Willard hypothesis by suggesting that possession of any heritable trait that improves male reproductive success to a greater extent than it does female reproductive success will lead to a male-biased offspring sex ratio (at the individual level). He produces supporting evidence that big and tall parents have more sons than daughters. Here we test this hypothesis using two large datas…
Birth order and the dominance aspect of extraversion: Are firstborns more extraverted, in the sense of being dominant, than laterborns
Genetic relatedness and sibling relationship characteristics in a modern society
Childlessness Predicts Helping of Nieces and Nephews in United States, 1910
The ‘helpers at the nest’ hypothesis suggests that individuals who are not currently reproducing often help kin by caretaking and thereby increase their inclusive fitness. Using a large scale historical dataset (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series sample of 1910; n =13,935), the hypothesis is tested that childless couples are more likely to fulfil such a role by taking care of a niece or nephew, but not a parent, than couples with children. Ch…
Natural Selection on Male Wealth in Humans
Although genomic studies suggest that natural selection in humans is ongoing, the strength of selection acting on particular characteristics in human populations has rarely been measured. Positive selection on male wealth appears to be a recurrent feature of human agrarian and pastoralist societies, and there is some evidence of it in industrial populations, too. Here we investigate the strength of selection on male wealth, first in contemporary …
Taller women do better in a stressed environment: Height and reproductive success in rural Guatemalan women
Previous research on the relationship between height and reproductive success in women has produced mixed results. One possible explanation for these is mediation by ecological factors, such as environmental stress. Here we investigate female height and reproductive success under conditions of environmental stress (poverty) using a large scale dataset from Guatemala ( n = 2,571). Controlling for educational attainment, age and ethnicity, we exami…
Partner wealth predicts self-reported orgasm frequency in a sample of Chinese women
Lineage Based Differences in Grandparental Investment: Evidence From a Large British Cohort Study
Evolutionary theory suggests that maternal grandparents will invest more in their grandchildren than paternal grandparents, due to the difference between the certainty of maternity and the uncertainty of paternity. Most tests of this prediction have tended to use retrospective ratings by grandchildren rather than examining grandparental behaviour. Using a large-scale data set from the UK ( n >7000), significant differences are shown between mater…
Exploring variation in active network size: Constraints and ego characteristics
Studies of active personal networks have primarily focused on providing reliable estimates of the size of the network. In this study, we examine how compositional properties of the network and ego characteristics are related to variation in network size. There was a negative relationship between mean emotional closeness and network size, for both related and unrelated networks. Further, there was a distinct upper bound on total network size. Thes…
Birth order and adult family relationships: Firstborns have better sibling relationships than laterborns
Although middleborn college students commonly report worse family relationships than other birth orders, it is unknown whether this effect persists into adulthood. Therefore, we investigated the effect of birth order on self-reported family and friend relationships among a large sample of Dutch adults (n = 794). Middleborns did not differ from other birth orders in relationships with their father, mother, sibling or close friend. Middleborns do n…
A re-evaluation of the statistical model in Pollet and Nettle 2009
No evidence for the generalized Trivers-Willard hypothesis from British and rural Guatemalan data
In a series of recent papers, Kanazawa has extended the Trivers-Willard hypothesis by suggesting that possession of any heritable trait that improves male reproductive success to a greater extent than it does female reproductive success will lead to a male-biased offspring sex ratio (at the individual level). He produces supporting evidence that big and tall parents have more sons than daughters. Here we test this hypothesis using two large datas…
Birth order and the dominance aspect of extraversion: Are firstborns more extraverted, in the sense of being dominant, than laterborns
Use of Social Network Sites and Instant Messaging Does Not Lead to Increased Offline Social Network Size, or to Emotionally Closer Relationships with Offline Network Members
The effect of Internet use on social relationships is still a matter of intense debate. This study examined the relationships between use of social media (instant messaging and social network sites), network size, and emotional closeness in a sample of 117 individuals aged 18 to 63 years old. Time spent using social media was associated with a larger number of online social network "friends." However, time spent using social media was not associa…
Reported jealousy differs as a function of menstrual cycle stage and contraceptive pill use: A within-subjects investigation
Male facial width is associated with death by contact violence: Narrow-faced males are more likely to die from contact violence
A ‘Gendered Need’ Explanation Does Not Fully Explain Lineage Based Differences in Grandparental Investment Found in a Large British Cohort Study
Ghysels (2012) argues for a ‘gendered need’ explanation of lineage based differences in grandparental investment. Maternal grandmothers are subsidiary care-givers: only if mothers fail to fulfil this gender role, (maternal) grandmothers will step in. The SHARE data do indeed seem to support this explanation (though see Appendix). However, it is not at odds with an evolutionary explanation, such as paternity uncertainty theory. Paternity uncertain…
The effect of female height on reproductive success is negative in western populations, but more variable in non‐western populations
We conclude that shorter women have a higher number of live births but that final reproductive success depends on the positive effect of height on child survival
Emotions in context: Anger causes ethnic bias but not gender bias in men but not women
Emotions influence information processing because they are assumed to carry valuable information. We predict that induced anger will increase ethnic but not gender intergroup bias because anger is related to conflicts for resources, and ethnic groups typically compete for resources, whereas gender groups typically engage in relations of positive interdependence. Furthermore, we also predict that this increased ethnic intergroup bias should only b…
Parental Control over Mate Choice to Prevent Marriages with Out-group Members: A Study among Mestizos, Mixtecs, and Blacks in Mexico
Perceptions of Female Body Size and Shape in China, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom
Photographs of 50 women were rated for attractiveness, health, and fertility recorded by four sets of participants—Rural-Chinese ( n = 50), Chinese participants in Hong Kong ( n = 50), Chinese participants living in the United Kingdom ( n = 50), and participants self-identifying as “Caucasian” living in the United Kingdom. The results suggest that a polynomial function of Body Mass Index (kg/m 2 ) is the best predictor of all three judgments in a…
Non‐linear associations between stature and mate choice characteristics for American men and their spouses
OBJECTIVES: Although male height is positively associated with many aspects of mate quality, average height men attain higher reproductive success in US populations. We hypothesize that this is because the advantages associated with taller stature accrue mainly from not being short, rather than from being taller than average. Lower fertility by short men may be a consequence of their and their partner's lower scores on aspects of mate quality. Ta…
When men appear smaller or larger than they really are: Preliminary evidence that women are fooled by size illusions in attractiveness judgment tasks
In humans, studies have shown that contrast illusions can affect perceptions of facial attractiveness and dominance. In non-human animals, recent research found that contrast illusions of size positively affected male mate value. In humans, male height is a potentially important indicator of mate value, with women preferring men taller than themselves. We tested in two studies whether height contrast illusions could affect women’s perceptions of …
What Can Cross-Cultural Correlations Teach Us about Human Nature
Political Extremism Predicts Belief in Conspiracy Theories
Historical records suggest that the political extremes—at both the “left” and the “right”—substantially endorsed conspiracy beliefs about other-minded groups. The present contribution empirically tests whether extreme political ideologies, at either side of the political spectrum, are positively associated with an increased tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. Four studies conducted in the United States and the Netherlands revealed a quadr…
Taking the aggravation out of data aggregation: A conceptual guide to dealing with statistical issues related to the pooling of individual‐level observational data
Field data often include multiple observations taken from the same individual. In order to avoid pseudoreplication, it is commonplace to aggregate data, generating a mean score per individual, and then using these aggregated data in subsequent analyses. Aggregation, however, can generate problems of its own. Not only does it lead to a loss of information, it can also leave analyses vulnerable to the "ecological fallacy": the drawing of false infe…
Finding your Soulmate: Homosexual and heterosexual age preferences in online dating
Heterosexual age preferences have been extensively studied by evolutionary psychologists, social psychologists, and demographers. Much less is known about such preferences in homosexual men and women. Around two decades ago, D. T. Kenrick, R. C. Keefe, A. Bryan, A. Barr, and S. Brown (1995) examined heterosexual and homosexual mating preferences for age in men and women. Our study aimed to replicate these findings by examining age preferences in …
Psychology (42 works) · Social Psychology (32 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (24 works) · Demography (21 works) · Developmental psychology (18 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Biology (14 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Population (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works)