When Women are Fertile

A study conducted about women's preference for men revealed that a woman prefers a more masculine man.

A woman prefers a more masculine man when she is fertile and looking for a fling rather than a mate for life, according to a new study.

The finding suggests the value that women place on masculinity changes with context and with women’s reproductive cycles and immediate goals. A woman's preference for manly men also was found to vary based on how attractive she rated herself.

And some of a woman's sex drive might involve tricks in the brain over which she has no control.

Previous research has shown that women view facial masculinity—square jaws and well-defined brow ridges—as good characteristics for short-term partners, while more feminine traits are perceived as better for long-term mates. Another study found that women smell better to men at certain points in their menstrual cycles.

A new look
In the new study, researchers asked women who were at different points in their menstrual cycles (and who were not on the pill) to rate their own attractiveness. Then researchers presented them with image pairs representing “feminized” and “masculinized” versions of the same male body. The women were asked to choose the body they thought was most attractive for a short-term relationship and then again for a long-term relationship.

Some of the women performed the experiment again at the opposite point in their cycle.

Fertile women chose the masculine version of each image 15 percent more often, on average, than women who were not fertile, said lead researcher Anthony Little, a psychologist at the University of Stirling in Scotland. The effect was strongest if they were looking for a short-term partner rather than a long-term one, and if they considered themselves attractive.

These findings, to be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal Hormones and Behavior, reveal that “preferences are not absolute,” Little said.

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ovulation

Women dress their best when ovulating

My old folks used to tell us that when a pregnant lady dresses well, it means that the baby is a girl.

This research shows that women even though she's not pregnant with a baby girl still dress their best when ovulating. This is the story:

Women dress their best when ovulating, study says

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Women dress better when they are most fertile, according to a study published online last week in the journal Hormones and Behavior.

Using 30 college-age women as subjects, five researchers had a panel of 42 men and women compare photos of the women taken both when they were ovulating and when they were not, asking in which photo each woman looked more attractive. Sixty percent of the time, the panel chose the photos of the women taken when they were most fertile.

In an interview, the study's lead author, Martie Haselton, called the findings "highly statistically significant" and said, "We know the effects have something to do with ovulation." She added that the judges thought the women dressed increasingly attractively the closer they were to their most fertile day.

While other species emit scents or display other physical changes when they are ready to mate, researchers have traditionally assumed humans conceal their fertility, the paper's authors wrote. They added that their work suggests that ovulating women engage in "self-ornamentation through attentive personal grooming and attractive choice of dress."

"It's just showing us our evolution, our biology, is showing up in even the most modern of behaviors," said Haselton, a scientist at the Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture at UCLA.

The researchers were uncertain what was motivating these women, however: whether ovulating women may be trying to attract mates beyond their primary partners or simply reflecting a mood change, they wrote.

Source: SF GATE.

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