Do women’s mate preferences change across the ovulatory cycle? (2014) [pdf]

sameersri2004

Yes, it does from follicular to ovulation...

mike_hock

Do women keep changing their settings in that Gnome 2 fork over the course of their ovulatory cycle? Oh, that kind of mate.

Hnrobert42

It's 2026, and I still can't read a PDF on mobile. I must be doing something wrong. I'm using FF Focus. Is that it? I tried Safari. Either they moved the reader button, or it's not present for PDFs. Help me Obi-Wan.

leoncos

Many behaviors are determined by hormones. Men are no exception. When calm, men tend to prefer intellectual women, but when they're impulsive after drinking in a bar, they prefer sexy women.

block_dagger

Findings of TFA: Yes. Women show a robust increase in attraction to cues of ancestral genetic quality (body masculinity, behavioral dominance) on high-fertility days, but only when evaluating men as short-term/unspecified sexual partners, not long-term partners.

Nzen

I don't know what an ovulatory cycle feels like; but, I trust Lindsay Doe's account [0] of how she feels across a given period. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLXxxHVOeec 11 minutes

zug_zug

This research is one of the important studies in my own understanding of the world. I think it's the type of thing people are cautious to talk about too much because it might drive a certain type of person crazy and lead them to overcompensate in weird/destructive ways. I also remember there's a study on how hormonal birth control (which causes the body to perceive itself as pregnant) affects these preferences too. In some ways we really are "experimenting on production." I also think there's some hesitation to talk about that a lot and come-across as anti-choice. But beliefs must come from the research, not vice-versa.

hambes

I am not scientist enough to judge this, so please someone enlighten me: most categories i've read through that find a shift do so with an increase of about 0.1-0.2 standard deviations. that does not sound significant to me. is that enough to make the claims this study makes?

brodo

The whole field of evolutionary psychology is in a replication crisis, and there are several newer studies that did not find any evidence for any changes in 'mate preference' across the ovulatory cycle. General sexual desire, but not desire for uncommitted sexual relationships, tracks changes in women's hormonal status https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29287282/ Meta-Analysis of Menstrual Cycle Effects on Women’s Mate Preferences https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/175407391452307...