How to go out on a limb, scientificalistically

A new study demonstrates how a daring scientist (or a team of daring scientists) can go about advancing a possibly controversial idea. The study, which contains the possibly daring idea, is:

"Weapons Make the Man (Larger): Formidability Is Represented as Size and Strength in Humans," Daniel M.T. Fessler [pictured here], Colin Holbrook, Jeffrey K. Snyder, PLoS ONE 7(4): e32751.

The authors are at the Department of Anthropology and Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, University of California Los Angeles.

They write, daringly (and stylishly):

"we hypothesize that size and strength constitute the conceptual dimensions of a representation used to summarize multiple diverse determinants of a prospective foe's formidability."

(HT Mo Costandi)