Meta-Analysis of Menstrual Cycle Effects on Women’s Mate Preferences

@article{Wood2014MetaAnalysisOM,
  title={Meta-Analysis of Menstrual Cycle Effects on Women’s Mate Preferences},
  author={Wendy Wood and Laura M. Kressel and Priyanka Joshi and Brian E. Louie},
  journal={Emotion Review},
  year={2014},
  volume={6},
  pages={229 - 249}
}
In evolutionary psychology predictions, women’s mate preferences shift between fertile and nonfertile times of the month to reflect ancestral fitness benefits. Our meta-analytic test involving 58 independent reports (13 unpublished, 45 published) was largely nonsupportive. Specifically, fertile women did not especially desire sex in short-term relationships with men purported to be of high genetic quality (i.e., high testosterone, masculinity, dominance, symmetry). The few significant… Expand
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Comment: Menstrual Cycle Fluctuations in Women’s Mate Preferences
We applaud Wood, Kressel, Joshi, and Louie’s (2014) careful, nuanced meta-analysis. The evolutionary hypotheses designed to explain menstrual cycle fluctuations in mate preferences are convoluted… Expand
Fertile women evaluate male bodies as more attractive, regardless of masculinity
Abstract Ovulatory cycle shifts in women's mate preferences have been documented for several physical and behavioral traits. Research suggests that, at peak fertility, women tend to prefer men with… Expand
Elusiveness of menstrual cycle effects on mate preferences: comment on Gildersleeve, Haselton, and Fales (2014).
This comment uses meta-analytic techniques to reconcile the apparent conflict between Gildersleeve, Haselton, and Fales's (2014) conclusion of "robust" effects of menstrual cycles on women's… Expand
Probing Ovulatory-Cycle Shifts in Women’s Preferences for Men’s Behaviors
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Multilevel comparisons across two ovulatory cycles indicated that women’s mate preferences for men's behaviors did not shift across the cycle for either competitive or courtship behavior, and within-women hormone levels and relationship status did not affect these results. Expand
Do women's preferences for masculine voices shift across the ovulatory cycle?
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These studies partially provide evidence for cycle shifts in women's general attraction to men's voices regardless of masculine characteristics, and consider how future work can clarify the mechanisms underlying psychological changes across the ovulatory cycle. Expand
Women's preferences for men's beards show no relation to their ovarian cycle phase and sex hormone levels
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It is concluded that women's preferences for men's beardedness may not be related to changes in their likelihood of conception and their preferences for facial hair did not change over the menstrual cycle. Expand
No evidence that inbreeding avoidance is up-regulated during the ovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle
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A longitudinal design was used to investigate the relationship between changes in women’s steroid hormone levels and their perceptions of faces experimentally manipulated to possess kinship cues and found no evidence that women reported spending less time in the company of male kin or thought about male kin less often during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. Expand
No evidence that inbreeding avoidance is up-regulated during the ovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle - Study 1
TLDR
A longitudinal design was used to investigate the relationship between changes in women’s steroid hormone levels and their perceptions of faces experimentally manipulated to possess kinship cues and found no evidence that women reported spending less time in the company of male kin or thought about male kin less often during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. Expand
The role of mating context and fecundability in women’s preferences for men’s facial masculinity and beardedness
TLDR
Two studies and three analyses revisiting the ovulatory shift hypothesis with respect to both facial masculinity and beardedness suggest that closer scrutiny of the stimuli used to measure masculinity preferences across studies may help account for the many conflicting findings that have recently appeared regarding cycle phase preference shifts for facial masculinity. Expand
A longitudinal evaluation of ovulatory cycle shifts in women's mate attraction and preferences
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A large, preregistered, within-subjects study, including salivary hormone measures and conception risk estimates based on luteinizing hormone tests, finds no compelling robust evidence for mate preference shifts across the cycle. Expand
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