Behavioral display of lumbar curvature in response to the opposite sex

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Author
Şenveli, Zeynep
Advisor
Al-Shawaf, Laith
Date
2017-06Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
Thesis
Metadata
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http://hdl.handle.net/11693/33362Abstract
The aim of this thesis was to investigate the hypothesis that women adjust their lumbar
curvature to approach the suggested biomechanical optimum of 45.5 degrees in response to
the presence of an attractive member of the opposite sex. The experiment was designed to
examine the relationship between a) participants’ ratings of an attractive male confederate
and the displayed change in deviation from the optimum displayed by women, and b)
participants’ ratings of the attractive male confederate and the displayed change in the
absolute degree of lumbar curvature, both while controlling for potential confounds such as
participants’ self-perceived physical attractiveness, self-esteem, personality traits, and sociosexual
orientation. Initial statistical analyses revealed a significant change in participants’
lumbar curvature pre- to post-exposure to the attractive male confederate. Subsequent
analyses to examine the nature of the change indicated that socio-sexual orientation reliably
predicted the change in lumbar curvature, but not the change in deviation from the optimum.
The remaining variables predicted neither the change in lumbar curvature nor the change in
deviation from the optimum significantly. This study is aimed at increasing our
understanding of the behavioral display of lumbar curvature for self-promotion purposes in
response to the presence of opposite sex.