Abstract
This paper critically examines the hypothesis that different phases of the menstrual cycle induce changes in women’s mate preferences. Empirically, we show that literature on this topic may be particularly prone to experimenter degrees of freedom, in which experimenters increase their likelihood of finding significant effects through elasticity in methodological and analytical strategies (e.g., flexibility in calculation of fertile and nonfertile phases, exclusion criteria, moderators, and analysis of dependent variables). Theoretically, we address misconceptions presented by Gildersleeve and colleagues (2013a). We reveal inconsistencies in the theoretical foundation for this work and discuss tension between theory and data. In short, there is sound reason to question whether reported menstrual cycle effects in women’s mate preferences are indeed real.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bressan, P., & Stranieri, D. (2008). The best men are not always already taken: Female preference for single versus attached males depends on conception risk. Psychological Science, 19, 145–151.
Cartwright, J. (2008). Evolution and human behavior: Darwinian perspectives on human nature. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
DeBruine, L. M., Jones, B. C., & Perrett, D. I. (2005). Women’s attractiveness judgments of self-resembling faces change across the menstrual cycle. Hormones and Behavior, 47, 379–383. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2004.11.006.
DeBruine, L. M., Jones, B. C., Frederick, D. A., Haselton, H. G., Penton-Voak, I. S., & Perrett, D. I. (2010). Evidence for menstrual cycle shifts in women’s preferences for masculinity: A response to Harris (in press) “Menstrual cycle and facial preferences reconsidered”. Evolutionary Psychology, 8, 768–775.
Durante, K. M., Li, N. P., & Haselton, M. G. (2008). Changes in women’s choice of dress across the ovulatory cycle: Naturalistic and laboratory task-based evidence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1451–1460. doi:10.1177/0146167208323103.
Feinberg, D. R., Jones, B. C., Law Smith, M. J., Moore, F. R., DeBruine, L. M., Cornwell, R. E., Hillier, S. G., & Perrett, D. I. (2006). Menstrual cycle, trait estrogen level and masculinity preferences in the human voice. Hormones and Behavior, 49, 215–222. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2005.07.004.
Folstad, I., & Karter, A. J. (1992). Parasites, bright males, and the immunocompetence handicap. The American Naturalist, 139, 603–622.
Gildersleeve, K., DeBruine, L., Haselton, M. G., Frederick, D. A., Penton-Voak, I. S., Jones, B. C., & Perrett, D. I. (2013a). Shifts in women’s mate preferences across the ovulatory cycle: A critique of Harris (2011) and Harris (2012). Sex Roles, this issue doi:10.1007/s11199-013-0273-4.
Gildersleeve, K., Haselton, M. G., Fales, M. (2013b, January). Do women’s mate preferences change across the ovulatory cycle? A meta-analytic review. Poster presented at the conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, LA.
Harris, C. R. (2011). Menstrual cycle and facial preferences reconsidered. Sex Roles, 64, 669–681. doi:10.1007/s11199-010-9772-8.
Harris, C. R. (2012). Shifts in masculinity preferences across the menstrual cycle: Still not there. Sex Roles, this issue. doi:10.1007/s11199-012-0229-0.
Haselton, M. G., & Gangestad, S. W. (2006). Conditional expression of women’s desires and men’s mate guarding across the ovulatory cycle. Hormones and Behavior, 49, 509–518. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2005.10.006.
Haselton, M. G., & Miller, G. F. (2006). Women’s fertility across the cycle increases the short term attractiveness of creative intelligence. Human Nature, 17, 50–73. doi:10.1007/s12110-006-1020-0.
Jones, B. C., Little, A. C., Boothroyd, L., DeBruine, L. M., Feinberg, D. R., Smith, M. J., … Perrett, D. I. (2005a). Commitment to relationships and preferences for femininity and apparent health in faces are strongest on days of the menstrual cycle when progesterone level is high. Hormones and Behavior, 48, 283–290. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2005.03.010
Jones, B. C., Perrett, D. I., Little, A. C., Boothroyd, L. G., Cornwell, R. E., Feinberg, D. R., … Moore, F. R. (2005b). Menstrual cycle, pregnancy and oral contraceptive use alter attraction to apparent health in faces. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 272, 347–354. doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.2962
Larson, C. M., Pillsworth, E. G., & Haselton, M. G. (2012). Ovulatory shifts in women’s attractions to primary partners and other men: Further evidence of the importance of primary partner sexual attractiveness. PLoS One, 7, e44456. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044456.
Little, A. C., & Jones, B. C. (2012). Variation in facial masculinity and symmetry preferences across the menstrual cycle is moderated by relationship context. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 37, 999–1008. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.11.007.
Little, A. C., Jones, B. C., Penton-Voak, I. S., Burt, D. M., & Perrett, D. I. (2002a). Partnership status and the temporal context of relationships influence human female preferences for sexual dimorphism in male face shape. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 269, 1095–1100. doi:10.1098/rspb.2002.1984.
Little, A. C., Penton-Voak, I. S., Burt, D. M., & Perrett, D. I. (2002b). Evolution and individual differences in the perception of attractiveness: How cyclic hormonal changes and self-perceived attractiveness influence female preferences for male faces. In G. Rhodes & L. Zebrowitz (Eds.), Advances in social cognition, volume 1: Facial Attractiveness (pp. 59–90). Westport: Ablex.
Little, A. C., Jones, B. C., & Burriss, R. P. (2007a). Preferences for masculinity in male bodies change across the menstrual cycle. Hormones and Behavior, 31, 633–639. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2007.03.006.
Little, A. C., Jones, B. C., Burt, D. M., & Perrett, D. I. (2007b). Preferences for symmetry in faces change across the menstrual cycle. Biological Psychology, 76, 209–216. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.08.003.
Little, A. C., Jones, B. C., & DeBruine, L. M. (2008). Preferences for variation in masculinity in real male faces change across the menstrual cycle: Women prefer more masculine faces when they are more fertile. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 478–482. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2008.05.024.
Little A. C., Saxton T. K., Roberts S. C., Jones B. C., Debruine L. M., Vukovic J., … Chenore T. (2010). Women's preferences for masculinity in male faces are highest during reproductive age range and lower around puberty and post-menopause. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 35, 912–920.
Little, A. C., Connely, J., Feinberg, D. R., Jones, B. C., & Roberts, S. C. (2011). Human preference for masculinity differs according to context in faces, bodies, voices, and smell. Behavioral Ecology, 22, 862–868. doi:10.1093/beheco/arr061.
Morrison, E. R., Clark, A. P., Gralewski, L., Campbell, N., & Penton-Voak, I. S. (2009). Women’s probability of conception is associated with their preferences for flirtatious but not masculine facial movement. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39, 1297–1304. doi:10.1007/s10508009-9527-1.
Pashler, H. E., & Harris, C. R. (2012). Is the replicability crisis overblown? Three arguments examined. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 531–536. doi:10.1177/1745691612463401.
Pashler, H. E., & Wagenmakers, E. J. (Eds.) (2012). Special section on replicability in psychological science: A crisis of confidence? [Special section]. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 528–689.
Penton-Voak, I. S., & Perrett, D. I. (2000). Female preference for male faces changes cyclically: Further evidence. Evolution and Human Behavior, 21, 39–48. doi:10.1016/S1090-5138(99)00033-1.
Penton-Voak, I. S., Perrett, D. I., Castles, D. L., Kobayashi, T., Burt, D. M., Murray, L. K., & Minamisawa, R. (1999). Menstrual cycle alters face preference. Nature, 399, 741–742. doi:10.1038/21557.
Peters, M., Simmons, L. W., & Rhodes, G. (2009). Preferences across the menstrual cycle for masculinity and symmetry in photographs of male faces and bodies. PLoS One, 4, e4138. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004138.
Pillsworth, E. G., & Haselton, M. G. (2006). Male sexual attractiveness predicts differential ovulatory shifts in female extra-pair attraction and male mate retention. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 247–258. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.10.002.
Rossano, M. J. (2003). Evolutionary psychology: The science of human behaviour and evolution. New York: Wiley.
Rupp, H. A., James, T. W., Ketterson, E. D., Sengelaub, D. R., Janssen, E., & Heiman, J. R. (2009). Neural activation in women in response to masculinized male faces: Mediation by hormones and psychosexual factors. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30, 1–10. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.08.006.
Scott, I. M. L., Clark, A. P., Boothroyd, L. B., & Penton-Voak, I. S. (2013). Do men’s faces really signal heritable immunocompetence? Behavioral Ecology, 24, 579–589. doi:10.1093/beheco/ars092.
Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D., & Simonsohn, U. (2011). False-positive psychology: Undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychological Science, 22, 1359–1366. doi:10.1177/0956797611417632.
Wood, W., & Joshi, P. D. (2011, October). A meta-analysis of women’s mate preferences across the menstrual cycle. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, Washington, DC.
Wood, W., Kressel, L., Joshi, P. D., Louie, B. (2012a, January). Empirical findings of menstrual cycle effects on mate preferences: A meta-analytic review. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego, California.
Wood, W., Kressel, L., Joshi, P. D., Louie, B. (2012b, March). Meta-analytic review of menstrual cycle effects on mate preferences. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, Illinois.
Wood, W., Kressel, L., Joshi, P. D., Louie, B. (in press). Meta-analysis of menstrual cycle effects on women’s mate preferences. Emotion Review.
Acknowledgments
We thank Wendy Wood and Hal Pashler for helpful comments and discussion and appreciate Noriko Coburn’s assistance with manuscript preparation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Harris, C.R., Chabot, A. & Mickes, L. Shifts in Methodology and Theory in Menstrual Cycle Research on Attraction. Sex Roles 69, 525–535 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-013-0302-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-013-0302-3