Probing Ovulatory-Cycle Shifts in Women’s Preferences for Men’s Behaviors

Stern, Julia; Gerlach, Tanja M.; Penke, Lars

doi:10.1177/0956797619882022

Cited by 30 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For these reasons, we do not think that our data and results, nor the results reported by Gangestad et al, are in favor of the ovulatory shift hypothesis. Indeed, the null results of our study are in line with other, recently published, large-scale replication studies investigating cycle shifts in preferences for masculine faces (Dixson et al, 2018;Jones et al, 2018;Marcinkowska et al, 2018a), bodies (Marcinkowska et al, 2018a;van Stein et al, 2019), voices (Jünger et al, 2018b) and behaviors (Stern, Gerlach, & Penke, 2019). Drawing null conclusions from just our data would be premature.…”

Section: The Problem Of Unfalsifiabilitysupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Importantly, many of the researchers of recently published studies investigating ovulatory cycle shifts (Dixson et al, 2018;Jones et al, 2018;Jünger et al, 2018a;Stern et al, 2019) opened their data, allowing for in-depth evaluations of the conducted analyses and the conclusions put forward, as shown in the current debate. However, all studies for which open data were provided reported no compelling evidence for the ovulatory shift hypothesis.…”

Section: Showcase For the Importance And Helpfulness Of Open Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

No robust evidence for cycle shifts in preferences for men's bodies in a multiverse analysis: A response to

Stern

Arslan

Gerlach

et al. 2019

Evolution and Human Behavior

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gangestad et al. (this issue) recently published alternative analyses of our open data to investigate whether women show ovulatory shifts in preferences for men's bodies. They argue that a significant three-way interaction between log-transformed hormones, a muscularity component, and women's relationship status provides evidence for the ovulatory shift hypothesis. Their conclusion is opposite to the one we previously reported (Jünger et al., 2018). Here, we provide evidence that Gangestad et al.'s differing conclusions are contaminated by overfitting, clarify reasons for deviating from our preregistration in some aspects, discuss the implications of data-dependent re-analysis, and report a multiverse analysis which provides evidence that their reported results are not robust. Further, we use the current debate to contrast the risk of prematurely concluding a null effect against the risk of shielding hypotheses from falsification. Finally, we discuss the benefits and challenges of open scientific practices, as contested by Gangestad et al., and conclude with implications for future studies.

show abstract

Section: The Problem Of Unfalsifiabilitysupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Showcase For the Importance And Helpfulness Of Open Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

No robust evidence for cycle shifts in preferences for men's bodies in a multiverse analysis: A response to

Stern

Arslan

Gerlach

et al. 2019

Evolution and Human Behavior

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, nonreplications and methodological criticisms (Arslan et al, 2018;C. R. Harris et al, 2013;Jünger, Kordsmeyer, et al, 2018;Jünger, Motta-Mena, et al, 2018;Stern et al, 2020Stern et al, , 2021Stern & Penke, in press;Wood et al, 2014) have cast doubt on reports that hormonal changes across the cycle cause changes in partner preferences, as concluded by Gildersleeve et al (2014). Nevertheless, there is robust evidence that hormonal changes across the cycle lead to changes in sexual desire that do not occur in women using hormonal contraceptives (Arslan et al, 2018).…”

Section: Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Partner Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, there is robust evidence that hormonal changes across the cycle lead to changes in sexual desire that do not occur in women using hormonal contraceptives (Arslan et al, 2018). In addition, normally cycling women evaluate male bodies, voices, and behavior as generally more attractive in their fertile phase (Jünger, Kordsmeyer, et al, 2018;Jünger, Motta-Mena, et al, 2018;Stern et al, 2020Stern et al, , 2021.…”

Section: Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Partner Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hormonal Contraception and Sexuality: Causal Effects, Unobserved Selection, or Reverse Causality?

Botzet

Gerlach

Driebe

et al. 2021

Collabra: Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many of the women who take hormonal contraceptives discontinue because of unwanted side effects, including negative psychological effects. Yet scientific evidence of psychological effects is mixed, partly because causal claims are often based on correlational data. In correlational studies, possible causal effects can be difficult to separate from selection effects, attrition effects, and reverse causality. Contraceptive use and, according to the congruency hypothesis, congruent contraceptive use (whether a woman’s current use/non-use of a hormonal contraceptive is congruent with her use/non-use at the time of meeting her partner) have both been thought to influence relationship quality and sexual functioning. In order to address potential issues of observed and unobserved selection effects in correlational data, we studied a sample of up to 1,179 women to investigate potential effects of contraceptive use and congruent contraceptive use on several measures of relationship quality and sexual functioning: perceived partner attractiveness, relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and diary measurements including libido, frequency of vaginal intercourse, and frequency of masturbation. No evidence for substantial effects was found except for a positive effect of hormonal contraceptives on frequency of vaginal intercourse and a negative effect of hormonal contraceptives on frequency of masturbation. These effects were robust to the inclusion of observed confounders, and their sensitivity to unobserved confounders was estimated. No support for the congruency hypothesis was found. Our correlational study was able to disentangle, to some extent, causal effects of hormonal contraceptives from selection effects by estimating the sensitivity of reported effects. To reconcile experimental and observational evidence on hormonal contraceptives, future research should scrutinize the role of unobserved selection effects, attrition effects, and reverse causality.

show abstract

“…Thomas et al [ 18 ] found that fertility status is unrelated to sociosexual attitudes and desires. Furthermore, contradictory findings regarding ovulatory shifts in mating preferences directing women’s attention and desire have been presented [ 15 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Nevertheless, researchers show evidence of multiple cues related to women’s fertility in reviews, see [ 22 , 23 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The More Fertile, the More Creative: Changes in Women’s Creative Potential across the Ovulatory Cycle

Galasinska

Szymków

2021

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Creative thinking is a defining human feature. It provides novel solutions and as such undoubtedly has contributed to our survival. However, according to signaling theory, creativity could also have evolved through sexual selection as a potential fitness indicator. In our study, we tested one implication of this theory. Specifically, we hypothesized that if creativity can serve as a signal of women’s fitness, then we should observe an increase in creative thinking in the fertile phase of the ovulatory cycle compared to other non-fertile phases. In our study (N = 751), we tested creative potential throughout the ovulatory cycle. We found a positive correlation between the probability of conception and both creative originality and flexibility. Importantly, we also tested the mediating role of arousal in the relationship between the probability of conception and creative thinking. The results of our study are discussed in terms of signaling theory, through which women advertise their fitness with their creativity.

show abstract

Probing Ovulatory-Cycle Shifts in Women’s Preferences for Men’s Behaviors

Cited by 30 publications

References 39 publications

No robust evidence for cycle shifts in preferences for men's bodies in a multiverse analysis: A response to

No robust evidence for cycle shifts in preferences for men's bodies in a multiverse analysis: A response to

Hormonal Contraception and Sexuality: Causal Effects, Unobserved Selection, or Reverse Causality?

The More Fertile, the More Creative: Changes in Women’s Creative Potential across the Ovulatory Cycle

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About