Changes in women's mate preferences across the ovulatory cycle

Previous research has shown that women's mate preferences change across the ovulatory cycle in a number of ways. The leading explanation for these changes--the good genes hypothesis--predicts that women should prefer presumed markers of genetic benefits ("good genes") most strongly when they are fertile and evaluating men as possible short-term mates. Research testing this hypothesis has almost exclusively examined preferences for purported markers of good genes. Little is known about how preferences for men who display traits valued in long-term, investing mates (e.g., warmth and faithfulness) change across the cycle. The authors had women at different points in their ovulatory cycle rate videotapes of men in terms of how attractive they found each man as a short-term and long-term mate. The authors then examined how women's preferences for traits typically valued in long-term and/or short-term mates varied according to women's fertility status. The results supported the good genes hypothesis. Implications of these findings for models of human mating are discussed.     

Women's preferences for male behavioral displays change across the menstrual cycle

Abstract— Women prefer both the scent of symmetrical men and masculine male faces more during the fertile (late follicular and ovulatory) phases of their menstrual cycles than during their infertile (e.g., luteal) phases. Men's behavioral displays in social settings may convey signals that affect women's attraction to men even more strongly. This study examined shifts in women's preferences for these behavioral displays. A sample of 237 normally ovulating women viewed 36 or 40 videotaped men who were competing for a potential lunch date and then rated each man's attractiveness as a short-term and a long-term mate. As predicted, women's preference for men who displayed social presence and direct intrasexual competitiveness increased on high-fertility days relative to low-fertility days, but only in a short-term, not a long-term, mating context. These findings add to the growing literature indicating that women's mate preferences systematically vary across the reproductive cycle.     

Men's and women's attitudes and beliefs about the menstrual cycle

Recent analyses of menstrual distress have emphasized sociocultural influences. Yet beliefs and attitudes of men—an important socialization force in the lives of women—have received little attention. In the present study, 239 students (156 females and 83 males) from three colleges filled out a survey on expectations for menstrual and premenstrual symptoms, attitudes about mensturation, sources of menstrual-related information, and effects of menstruation upon daily activities. The major findings are as follows: First, although both males and females believed women experience certain cycle-related symptoms, females reported that women experience more severe menstrual and premenstrual symptoms (when compared to intermenstrual ones) than males reported, while males believed women experience more severe menstrual than premenstrual symptoms than females believed. Second, males learned less about menstruation from the majority of possible informational sources and rated most sources as more negative than did the females. Third, males believed that menstruation had more of an effect on women's moods and had a more debilitating effect on women's lives than did females. Fourth, females rated menstruation as more bothersome than did males. Fifth, more males believed their mothers experienced menstrual irritability and moodiness, while more females believed their mothers experienced swelling. The findings are discussed in terms of the role of socialization and the type of information imparted to males and females in America today.     

Effects of the menstrual cycle on looking preferences for faces in female rhesus monkeys

Fluctuations of ovarian hormones across the menstrual cycle influence a variety of social and cognitive behaviors in primates. For example, female rhesus monkeys exhibit heightened interest for males and increased agonistic interactions with other females during periods of high estrogen levels. In the present study, we hypothesized that females’ preference for males during periods of high estrogen levels is also expressed at the level of face perception. We tested four intact females on two face-tasks involving neutral portraits of male and female rhesus monkeys, chimpanzees and humans. In the visual preference task (VP), monkeys had to touch a button to view a face image. The image remained on the screen as long as the button was touched, and the duration of pressing was taken as an index of the monkey's looking time for the face stimulus. In the Face-Delayed Recognition Span Test (Face-DRST), monkeys were rewarded for touching the new face in an increasing number of serially presented faces. Monkeys were tested 5 days a week across one menstrual cycle. Blood was collected every other day for analysis of estradiol and progesterone. Two of the four females were cycling at the time of testing. We did not find an influence of the cycle on Face-DRST, likely due to a floor effect. In the VP however, the two cycling individuals looked longer at conspecific male faces than female faces during the peri-ovulatory period of the cycle. Such effects were absent for human and chimpanzee faces and for the two noncycling subjects. These data suggest that ovarian hormones may influence females’ preferences for specific faces, with heightened preference for male faces during the peri-ovulatory period of the cycle. Heightened interest for stimuli of significant reproductive relevance during periods of high conception risk may help guide social and sexual behavior in the rhesus monkey.     

The validity of composite photographs for assessing masculinity preferences

Among non-human animals, exaggerated male traits may signal immunocompetence and are often attractive to females. This finding has not been reliably replicated in human populations, however, where preferences for feminised male faces are often observed in experiments. Some authors have suggested that certain experimental approaches, and in particular the use of 'composite', or averaged, photographs, may lack ecological validity and elicit misleading responses. This may account for reports of preferences for femininity. To date, however, experiments have varied on numerous, often confounded, methodological dimensions, making the contribution of different factors difficult to assess. To address this, we conducted an experiment to examine the influence of stimulus type on participant responses. Masculinity preferences were measured using both composite photographs and the photographs from which they were composed, while all other methodological variables were held constant. In contrast to predictions by previous authors, composites elicited significantly stronger overall preferences for masculinity, especially when textural information was reduced during the averaging process. The existence of preferences for feminised male faces is unlikely to be explained by the use of composite photographs alone.     

Multidimensional self-concepts,masculinity, and femininity as a function of women's involvement in athletics

Measures of multidimensional self-concepts, masculinity (M), and femininity (F) were completed by high-school women athletes and nonathletes, and by young-adult women athletes and nonathletes. Women athletes in both age groups had substantially higher scores in M and in self-concept of physical ability, but did not differ substantially from nonathletes in F and in other areas of self-concept. Women athletes in both groups also judged their self-concept of physical ability to be more important to them than did nonathletes, but the two groups did not differ in the perceived importance of other areas of self-concept. These findings support the androgyny contention that MF should not be considered a bipolar construct and suggest that women can be more M without being less F. The specificity of the relation between athletic involvement and the multiple dimensions of self-concept also provide further support for the construct validity of the self-concept dimensions.The authors would like to acknowledge Lindsay McCaughan for his assistance in the design of the study, the staff and students at Pymble Ladies College, and the group of female powerlifters.     

The McCollough effect across the menstrual cycle

The McCollough effect (ME) has been shown to be sensitive to cholinergic agents, being strengthened by hyoscine (antagonist) and weakened by physostigmine (agonist), and possibly to more generalized changes in CNS arousal. We therefore expected the ME to be sensitive to hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle, being strongest in the postovulatory phases when arousal is low. In two experiments we found a highly significant effect of menstrual phase for the normally cycling women, but not for oral contraceptive users: ME strength gradually increased across the cycle, reaching a premenstrual peak. These findings may be explained in terms of hormonally mediated changes in arousal across the menstrual cycle.     

Variations in sex-related cognitive abilities across the menstrual cycle

Sex differences in human cognitive and motor skills may in part be due to organizational or activational effects of sex hormones on the brain. In this study, an extensive battery of cognitive and motor tests was administered to normally cycling women at two phases of the menstrual cycle, in order to detect any hormone-mediated changes in performance. Results confirmed changes across the menstrual cycle on a variety of speeded manual and articulatory measures, and on some nonverbal/spatial tests. The results provide qualified support for the hypothesis that the high levels of gonadal steroids provide qualified support for the hypothesis that the high levels of gonadal steroids present at the luteal phase of the cycle may facilitate skills favoring females, but be detrimental to skills favoring males. The implications of these results for research in the area of human sex differences are discussed.     

Reproductive ambition predicts partnered, but not unpartnered, women's preferences for masculine men

Changing circumstances alter the costs and benefits of choosing different mates and are thought to be reflected in women's mate preferences. Indeed, several lines of reasoning, and some prior studies, suggest that individual differences in women's preferences for cues of men's underlying health will be more apparent among partnered women than among unpartnered women. The current study shows that preferences for male faces with masculine shape cues, characteristics that are thought to signal men's underlying health, are positively correlated with partnered, but not unpartnered, women's reported reproductive ambition (i.e., their desire to become pregnant). These findings (1) present new evidence for systematic variation in women's mating strategies, (2) suggest that partnership status may be important for potentially adaptive variation in women's mate preferences, and (3) suggest that reproductive ambition may influence women's mate preferences. Alternative explanations for these findings, focusing on the possible effects of a range of variables that may be correlated with reproductive ambition in partnered women and influence their masculinity preferences, are also discussed.     

Effects of the menstrual cycle on vibrotactile sensitivity

Psychophysical thresholds for the detection of vibration delivered to the thenar eminence of the right hands of young males and females were measured every other day for 30–34 days. The frequency of the vibratory stimulus was either 15 or 250 Hz. The sinusoidal stimuli applied through a 3.0-cm² contactor were 700 msec in duration and had rise-fall times of 25 msec. Stimulus amplitude was measured with a calibrated accelerometer mounted on the moving element of the vibrator. Data were plotted as a function of successive days in the menstrual cycle. Thresholds for detecting the 15-Hz stimulus did not change significantly, whereas thresholds for detecting the 250-Hz stimulus varied significantly over the menstrual cycle. The 250-Hz threshold became progressively lower as subjects approached the onset of menstruation. After the onset of menstruation, the 250-Hz threshold gradually increased, reaching a maximum value approximately 12 or 13 days later. Soon after the 12th or 13th day of the cycle, the threshold again began to decline and continued to decline until the onset of the next menstrual cycle. The thresholds of women taking birth control pills did not change systematically over the testing period.     

Variations in perception of short time intervals during menstrual cycle

The hypothesis that women experience heightened sensitivity and responsivity premenstrually was tested by asking 10 women to produce short time intervals at four phases of the menstrual cycle. 10 men were assigned to "pseudo-cycles" and tested as a control. The test was based on the assumption that a greater sensitivity to stimuli is reflected in a "slowing down" of subjective time. The women produced the shortest time intervals three to four days before menses, confirming the hypothesis.     

Evidence for criterion shifts in visual perceptual learning: data and implications

Work on visual perceptual learning for contrast detection has shown that reliable decreases in detection thresholds are accompanied by reliable increases in false alarm rates (Wenger & Rasche, 2006). The present study assesses the robustness and replicability of these changes, demonstrating that they are independent of a variety of task demands (i.e., the specific method used for perceptual practice and threshold estimation) and the presence or absence of trial-by-trial feedback and that the source of the increases can be found in shifts in changes in sensitivity and in bias for detection, identification, or both. Although the increase in false alarm rates suggests a strategic shift in response criteria for detection, we demonstrate that there are multiple potential explanations, including explanations that do not require strategic shifts on the part of the observer. The empirical evidence and analysis of alternative explanations reinforce the inference that visual perceptual learning may involve more than changes in perceptual sensitivity and that cortical circuits beyond the primary visual areas may be involved.     

Loss context enhances preferences for generosity but reduces preferences for honesty: Evidence from a combined behavioural-computational approach

The current literature has revealed mixed evidence on whether loss (vs. gain) context promotes or curtails human prosociality. The current study (N=96) aimed to address this issue by examining whether gain/loss context has distinct effects on different prosocial preferences combining computational modelling with Dictator Game and Message Game. These interactive games allow for dissociating preferences for generosity and honesty, which have been respectively associated with intuitive and deliberative systems. Our behavioural and computational modelling results indicate that loss context enhances concerns for generosity but reduces concerns for honesty. These findings support an account under the framework of dual process model asserting that loss facilitates intuitive responses during social decision-making, regardless of whether they are prosocial or proself. The current findings reconcile previous debates on the relationship between loss-gain context and human prosociality and shed light on the design of institutions to promote human prosocial behaviours.     

生理周期对情景记忆的影响

来自进化心理学的理论及研究结果提示, 女性性激素可能是情景记忆的重要影响因素, 但是, 具体机制尚不清晰。本研究以女性生理周期性激素水平的自然变化构成的两个时期(卵泡后期、黄体中期)为自变量, 利用“What-Where-When Task”情景记忆任务(实验1), 结合事件相关电位(event-related potential, ERP)技术(实验2), 探讨生理周期不同阶段完成情景记忆任务的成绩及其可能的内在机制。实验1招募生理周期稳定的33名女性为被试, 在卵泡后期和黄体中期各参加一次实验, 随机顺序依次完成O任务(仅记忆物品, object)、P任务(仅记忆物品位置, position)、OO任务(记忆物品及其呈现顺序, object + order)、OP任务(记忆物品及其呈现位置, object + position)以及PO任务(记忆物品呈现位置及顺序, position + order)。结果发现, 在完成PO任务时, 黄体中期的回忆正确率显著高于卵泡后期。实验2借用事件相关电位技术, 进一步探究生理周期影响情景记忆PO任务的原因, 结果发现, 黄体中期额叶脑区的P300以及LPC波的振幅显著大于卵泡后期, 且完成PO任务时的感受性与右侧额叶P300振幅显著正相关。基于上述ERP的结果, 可以认为, 黄体中期在PO任务上的好成绩可能得益于显著增强的认知控制能力, 这一解释符合前人研究结论。总之, 本研究发现：生理周期对情景记忆中客体的空间位置与时间顺序整合的记忆产生显著影响, 黄体中期的记忆效果显著好于卵泡后期, 可能是因为该时期显著增强的认知控制能力。本研究有望为理解影响情景记忆的因素提供新的视角。     

Alteration of shock aversion thresholds during the menstrual cycle

Aversion thresholds for electrical shock were obtained from 5 males, 6 females who were taking oral contraceptives, and 12 females who were not. All subjects were volunteers from introductorylevel psychology courses. Measures were repeated 3 times per week for 5 weeks. Males and females taking oral contraceptives showed no cyclic fluctuations in threshold. The other female group had significant (p < .025) fluctuations in threshold, from a maximum at ovulation to a minimum 1 week after the onset of the menses.     

Sexual orientation and shifts in preferences for a partner's body attributes in short-term versus long-term mating contexts

This study assessed the effects of short- and long-term mating contexts on preferences for body characteristics of potential relationship partners in lesbians and heterosexual women. Lesbians (n = 41) rated figure drawings and computer-generated images of women that varied in body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and breast size; heterosexual women (n = 95) rated computer-generated images of men that varied in muscularity and body fat. Both lesbians and heterosexual women showed a shift in preferences toward more physically attractive partners for shortterm relationships. All body aspects were affected, except that heterosexual women did not show a preference shift for male body fat. The results were interpreted in terms of a mating trade-off strategy in which mate preferences are the consequence of cost/benefit analyses and suggest that preferences for physical attributes of sexual partners may be shared by members of the same sex regardless of sexual orientation.