Volume 78, February 2016, Pages 1–7
Highlights
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- Woman's estradiol levels do not predict her preference towards facial masculinity.
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- No difference in masculinity preference between high and low-conception phase of cycle
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- Preferences for masculinity do not differ between short- and long-term mating contexts.
Abstract
It
has been proposed that women's preferences for male facial sexual
dimorphism are positively correlated with conception probability and
differ between short- and long-term mating contexts. In this study, we
tested this assumption by analyzing relationships between estradiol
levels to the women's preferences of male faces that were manipulated to
vary in masculinity. Estradiol was measured in daily saliva samples
throughout the entire menstrual cycle collected by Polish women with
regular menstrual cycles. In our analyses, we included the three most
commonly used definitions of the fertile window in the literature. After
computing the overall masculinity preference of each participant and
measuring hormone levels, we found that i) the timing of ovulation
varied greatly among women (between − 11 and − 17 days from the onset of
the next menses, counting backwards), ii) there was no relationship
between daily, measured during the day of the test (N = 83) or average
for the cycle (N = 115) estradiol levels and masculinity preferences,
iii) there were no differences in masculinity preferences between women
in low- and high-conception probability phases of the cycle, and iv)
there were no differences in masculinity preferences between short- and
long-term mating contexts. Our results do not support the idea that
women's preferences for a potential sexual partner's facial masculinity
fluctuate throughout the cycle.
Keywords
- Human sexual preferences;
- Facial preferences;
- Sex steroid hormones;
- Estradiol;
- Sexual dimorphism;
- Masculinity
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