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Chapter 118et al., 2016, 2018; Pritsch et al., 2017; van Berlo et al., 2023), theory of mind (e.g., Krupenye et al., 2016), and ingroup-outgroup bias (e.g., Kret et al., 2014; Lewis et al., 2021; van Berlo et al., 2023) in primates. Up until now, however, very few studies have applied these technologies to study cognition and mate choice in non-human animals, and especially great apes.Box 1: sexually selective cognitionSexually selective cognition (Maner & Ackerman, 2015) can be considered as an integration of evolutionary psychology, cognitive psychology, and motivation science. More specifically, the approach is concerned with how mating motivations influence cognitive processes in an evolutionarily adaptive manner. Sexually selective cognition aligns with evolutionary psychology because it assumes that the mind has been shaped by adaptive problems, which over time has resulted in mental adaptations to handle these problems (Tooby & Cosmides, 2015). It is a cognitive approach in the sense that it focuses on multiple aspects of how the brain processes information: perception, encoding, and decision-making. Furthermore, it encompasses both implicit, reflexive, cognitive processes and explicit, more flexible, cognitive processes (Maner et al., 2003). In addition, it takes a fundamental motives approach to cognition (Kenrick et al., 2010; Schaller et al., 2017) by investigating how a specific motivational state, in this case, related to mate choice, results in functional cognitive biases or attunements. From a Tinbergian perspective (Tinbergen, 1963), the approach is mainly concerned with identifying mechanistic explanations while assuming a functional basis. Maner & Ackerman (2015) discuss multiple examples related to different aspects of mate choice motivation and cognition. They discuss how people who look for a partner are more sensitive to cues of attractiveness (Maner et al., 2003), how differential reproductive costs for men and women result in sex differences in overestimating sexual interest (Haselton & Buss, 2000; Samara et al., 2021), and how being in a relationship results in lower sensitivity to attractive conspecifics (e.g., Karremans et al., 2011). In this dissertation, I will mainly focus on the first topic: how does mating motivation relate to cognitive attunement towards attractiveness or attractive traits?This thesis addresses this research gap by investigating the interplay between cognition and mate choice in humans and Bornean orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus). From a fundamental perspective, orang-utans are an interesting taxon to study this topic for two reasons. First, they are characterised by male bimaturism, meaning that adult males come in two distinct phenotypes (Utami et al., 2002). Second, orang-utan females seem to clearly prefer one type of male over the other when it comes to mating (Knott et al., 2009). From a practical perspective, the captive orang-utan population has relatively low breeding success (Kaumanns et al., 2004), and identifying cognitive tasks that can help to identify preferred mates could potentially help refining the orang-utan breeding programme.To comparatively investigate the interplay between cognition and mate choice, both humans and Bornean orang-utans took part in various computerized tasks, eye-tracking studies and auditory playback setups. Additionally, humans were asked to provide attractiveness ratings of conspecifics, and went on speeddates designed to resemble the natural mate choice context as much as possible (Finkel & Eastwick, 2008). Across different empirical studies, I investigated how Tom Roth.indd 18 08-01-2024 10:41