Sexual Conflict: Nice Guys Finish Last

Game Theory and Cooperation: How Putting Others First Can Help Everyone

Leo Durocher, a famous baseball player from the 1930s, once said that “Nice guys finish last.” That may be true in baseball, but it is not true in life more generally. In this article, we use ideas from the branch of mathematics known as “game theory” to study a situation known as the “Prisoners’ Dilemma (PD),” which sheds light on why people often fail to work well together. Game theory shows ...

Emotion Happy Guys Finish Last: The Impact of Emotion Expressions on Sexual Attraction

Nice Guys Finish Fast and Bad Guys Finish Last: Facilitatory vs. Inhibitory Interaction in Parallel Systems.

Systems Factorial Technology is a powerful framework for investigating the fundamental properties of human information processing such as architecture (i.e., serial or parallel processing) and capacity (how processing efficiency is affected by increased workload). The Survivor Interaction Contrast (SIC) and the Capacity Coefficient are effective measures in determining these underlying properti...

Happy guys finish last: the impact of emotion expressions on sexual attraction.

This research examined the relative sexual attractiveness of individuals showing emotion expressions of happiness, pride, and shame compared with a neutral control. Across two studies using different images and samples ranging broadly in age (total N = 1041), a large gender difference emerged in the sexual attractiveness of happy displays: happiness was the most attractive female emotion expres...

Do nice guys--and gals--really finish last? The joint effects of sex and agreeableness on income.

Sex and agreeableness were hypothesized to affect income, such that women and agreeable individuals were hypothesized to earn less than men and less agreeable individuals. Because agreeable men disconfirm (and disagreeable men confirm) conventional gender roles, agreeableness was expected to be more negatively related to income for men (i.e., the pay gap between agreeable men and agreeable wome...