Abstract
To increase their reproductive success, ancestral males must show preferences for fertile females. Gravid females are infertile, and, thus, should be less preferred by males compared with non-gravid females. We investigated this idea by manipulating salient cues of pregnancy with a sample of Slovak females who were rated by males. Physical attractiveness of putatively pregnant females was lower compared with non-gravid females. In line with the idea that pursuing short-term and long-term relationships creates different costs to males, physical attractiveness of putatively pregnant females was lower for short-term compared with long-term possible relationship. Older males and uncommitted males rated females as more attractive compared with younger and committed males. Our results suggest that putatively pregnant females are less attractive due to the costs of selecting an infertile partner, or due to male unwillingness to invest in biologically unrelated children.
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Acknowledgements
Four anonymous referees provided extremely insightful and valuable comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. David Livingstone improved the English of the manuscript. This work was partly funded by grant VEGA no. 1/0286/20 and KEGA no. 001PU-4/2017.
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This research has been approved by the Institutional Review Board at Comenius University. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Prokop, P., Zvaríková, M., Zvarík, M. et al. Cues of pregnancy decrease female physical attractiveness for males. Curr Psychol 41, 697–704 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00608-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00608-4