Female facial attractiveness increases during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle

Roberts, S. Craig; Havlı́ček, Jan; Flegr, Jaroslav; Hrušková, Martina; Little, Anthony C.; Jones, Benedict C.; Perrett, David I.; Petrie, Marion

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2004.0174

Cited by 231 publications

(238 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Recent investigations have shown that near peak fertility, women's faces are not only rated as more attractive by observers, but are also characteristically more feminine in appearance (Oberzaucher et al, 2012;Puts et al, 2013;Roberts et al, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of exogenous testosterone and mating context on men's preferences for female facial femininity

Bird

Welling

Ortiz

et al. 2016

Hormones and Behavior

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Correlational research suggests that men show greater attraction to feminine female faces when their testosterone (T) levels are high. Men's preferences for feminine faces also seem to vary as a function of relationship context (short versus long-term).However, the relationship between T and preferences for female facial femininity has yet to be tested experimentally. This thesis examined the causal role of T in modulating preferences for facial femininity across both short and long-term mating contexts, using two separate experiments. Results of Experiment 1 (within-subject design, n = 24)showed that participants significantly preferred feminized versus masculinized versions of women's faces. Further, participants showed a stronger preference for feminine female faces in the short-versus the long-term context after they received T, but not after they received placebo. Post-hoc analyses suggest that this effect was driven by a lower preference for feminine faces in the long-term context when on T relative to placebo.Results from Experiment 2 (between-subject design, n = 93) were highly consistent with those of Experiment 1: men demonstrated a significant preference for feminized female faces in the short-versus the long-term context after T, but not after placebo administration, and this effect was driven by lower preferences for feminine faces in the long-term context when on T relative to placebo. Collectively, these findings provide the first causal evidence that T modulates men's preferences for facial femininity as a function of mating context.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of exogenous testosterone and mating context on men's preferences for female facial femininity

Bird

Welling

Ortiz

et al. 2016

Hormones and Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Following this, they were asked to record a 1 min video, also capturing head and shoulders, in which they were asked to describe their most recent holiday (videos were edited to 15 s and muted when shown to female raters). Although some face-rating studies crop images to control for influences of hairstyle and clothing cues (e.g., Roberts et al, 2004), we did not do this here to maintain consistency with the video images. Note, however, that any confounding influence of clothing or hairstyle might reduce, but cannot enhance, a relationship between the phenotypic traits under study, particularly between the effect of odor and behavior; hence, the reported results likely underestimate the true underlying correlations.…”

Section: Materials and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body Odor Quality Predicts Behavioral Attractiveness in Humans

et al. 2011

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Growing effort is being made to understand how different attractive physical traits covary within individuals, partly because this might indicate an underlying index of genetic quality. In humans, attention has focussed on potential markers of quality such as facial attractiveness, axillary odor quality, the second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio and body-mass index (BMI). Here we extend this approach to include visually-assessed kinesic cues (nonverbal behavior linked to movement) which are statistically independent of structural physical traits. The utility of such kinesic cues in mate assessment is controversial, particularly during every day conversational contexts, as they could be unreliable and susceptible to deception. However, we show here that the attractiveness of nonverbal behavior, in 20 male participants, is predicted by perceived quality of their axillary body odor. This finding indicates covariation between two desirable traits in different sensory modalities. Depending on two different rating contexts (either a simple attractiveness rating, or a rating for long-term partners, by 10 female raters not using hormonal contraception), we also found significant relationships between perceived attractiveness of nonverbal behavior and BMI, and between axillary odor ratings and 2D:4D ratio. Axillary odor pleasantness was the single attribute that consistently predicted attractiveness of nonverbal behavior. Our results demonstrate that nonverbal kinesic cues could reliably reveal mate quality, at least in males, and could corroborate and contribute to mate assessment based on other physical traits.

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“…Each image was normalised on the inter-pupillary distance (Fink et al 2001) and digitally masked so that only the face was visible, obscuring potentially confounding information about hairstyle and clothing with plain black shading (e.g. Roberts et al 2004). Face images had a resolution of 1600 × 1200 pixels and were presented to raters with an on-screen face size of approximately 12 × 18 cm.…”

Section: Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

Discrimination of Attractiveness and Health in Men’s Faces: the Impact of Color Cues and Variation in Relation to Sex and Age of Rater

Roberts

Little

DeBruine

et al. 2017

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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Cues available in facial skin are used to assess mate quality in humans and non-human primates. In men, perception of skin healthiness and facial attractiveness are associated with heterozygosity at genes in the major histocompatibility complex, with potential implications for securing direct benefits through mate choice. There is, however, some debate as to the precise nature of the information available in skin that is used in health and attractiveness judgments. Here we investigate whether color cues are important in discrimination of skin healthiness and facial attractiveness in men's faces. We presented images of men judged to have attractive or unattractive faces, and healthy or less healthy skin, to independent raters in either full-color or gray-scale monochrome. Differences in ratings across these conditions indicate that hue carries additive information over that available in other skin cues (e.g. texture and tone) and that this aids discrimination of individual men's quality, especially in judgments of skin condition. We also found significant sex and age effects on discrimination. Our results are consistent with findings from other species that color cues can signal underlying quality and that sexual selection may have contributed to the evolution of color vision in primates.

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Female facial attractiveness increases during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle

Cited by 231 publications

References 18 publications

Effects of exogenous testosterone and mating context on men's preferences for female facial femininity

Effects of exogenous testosterone and mating context on men's preferences for female facial femininity

Body Odor Quality Predicts Behavioral Attractiveness in Humans

Discrimination of Attractiveness and Health in Men’s Faces: the Impact of Color Cues and Variation in Relation to Sex and Age of Rater

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