Influence of sex on snake detection in visual search in adult humans: reaction times to target matrices

Abstract

This report focuses on sex-differences in the attentional component of the antipredator defensive-behavior system. A visual search task was run where participants were exposed to 2 x 2 and 3 x 3 matrices, containing color photographs of snakes and flowers. Matrices were either homogeneous (e.g., all flowers) or heterogeneous (e.g., a snake among flowers). Participants were instructed to judge if each matrix was homogenous or not. Both men and women were faster to detect snakes among flowers than viceversa, regardless of matrix size. When exposed to 2 x 2 matrices, snake-targets were detected faster by women than men, but no sex-difference was found for flower-targets. For the 3 x 3 matrices, snake-targets were detected, again, faster by women than men. However, in this case, women also detected flower-targets more quickly. Overall, the results support the idea of women showing a more efficient attentional process than men when dealing with predators.