2%; 24.8%); and the highest percentage of Prosocial/Empathic men and women were from Japan (25.8%; 52.2%; Table ? Table1 1 ), even though Japan had the most men in the sample (72%). These data suggest that different cultures are composed of individuals who, collectively, express somewhat different temperament profiles, at least those who wish to find a dating partner.
Level of Education
We predicted that Level of Education would be correlated with the Curious/Energetic scale because attaining a higher academic degree requires elevated curiosity, motivation and energy (Subotnik et al., 2011), qualities linked in the biological literature with the dopamine system (Depue and Collins, 1999; Zuckerman and Kuhlman, 2000; Wacker et al., 2006). As hypothesized, the Curious/Energetic scale showed a small but significant positive correlation with Level of Education, while the other FTI scales showed a negative correlation or minimal to no effect.
Supplementary support for this association between the Curious/Energetic scale of the FTI and the dopamine system is suggested by correlations with the NEO-FFI: We found a high correlation between the FTI Curious/Energetic scale and the Openness to Experience domain of the Big Five; the relevance of this is that the Openness domain is also positively associated with level of education and ine system (DeYoung and Gray, 2009). Further, two fMRI investigations (Brown et al., 2013) have shown that higher scores on the Curious/Energetic scale co-varied with activity in brain regions linked with dopamine activity.
The above results support the hypothesis that the Curious/Energetic scale of the FTI measures, to some degree, the influence of the dopamine system.
Religious Affiliation
Individuals scoring highest on the Cautious/Social Norm Compliant scale were significantly more likely to be members of an organized religious community. The effect size was small, but the direction of the effect was different from that of the other three scales of the FTI. These results are consistent with our hypothesis that the Cautious/Social Norm Compliant scale may measure, to some degree, serotonergic factors, because genetic data associate aspects of the serotonin system with religiosity (Lorenzi et al., 2005; Ott et al., 2005) and traditionalism (Golimbet et al., 2004).
Political Orientation
It was predicted that participants who scored highest on the Cautious/Social Norm Compliant scale would be more politically conservative because self-reported conservatives in other western countries score higher than self-reported liberals on scales of respect for authority and tradition (Graham et al., 2009), characteristics of the Cautious/Social Norm Compliant dimension https://besthookupwebsites.org/local-hookup/virginia-beach/. Also, traditionalism is linked in the biological literature with aspects of the serotonin system (Golimbet et al., 2004). Consistent with the prediction, political conservatism was positively associated with high scores on the Cautious/Social Norm Compliant scale.
It was also predicted that participants who scored highest on the Prosocial/Empathetic scale would be significantly more liberal in their political views, because self-reported liberals in dozens of countries score higher than conservatives on scales of caring/nurturance (Graham et al., 2009), qualities associated in the biological literature with the estrogen and oxytocin systems (Knickmeyer et al., 2006). Consistent with the prediction, political conservatism was negatively associated with high scores on the Prosocial/Empathetic scale. These data further support other research that variability in political values is not simply attributable to differences in cognitive style, but is also, in part, associated with differences in biological factors (Alford et al., 2005; Amodio et al., 2007; Kanai et al., 2011).
Sex as Essential to a Relationship
It was predicted that scores on both the Analytical/Tough-minded scale and the Curious/Energetic scale would positively correlate with the statement, “Sex is an essential part of a successful relationship” because elevated activity in the testosterone and dopamine systems is widely associated with elevated sex drive (Bagatell et al., 1994; Meston and Frohlic, 2000) and we reasoned that those individuals with a higher sex drive would be more likely to regard sex as important to a successful partnership. These predictions were supported.
