Investigating cycle shifts in women's clothing style and grooming.
clothing style
fertility cues
grooming
ovulatory cycle
steroid hormones
Journal
The British journal of social psychology
ISSN: 2044-8309
Titre abrégé: Br J Soc Psychol
Pays: England
ID NLM: 8105534
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
30 Aug 2023
30 Aug 2023
Historique:
received:
17
11
2022
accepted:
15
07
2023
medline:
30
8
2023
pubmed:
30
8
2023
entrez:
30
8
2023
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
In contrast to some non-human primate species, human females do not show overt cues to fertility. Previous research argued that women still show systematic changes in their appearance across their ovulatory cycle to enhance their mating success when fertile. We report five studies investigating whether women's clothing style and grooming behaviour change across the ovulatory cycle. All studies were large (with N = 157 in Study 1, N = 109 in Study 2, N = 257 in Studies 3-5), longitudinal studies with four testing sessions per participant. They involved salivary hormone samples and luteinizing hormone tests to validate conception risk estimates. Across all studies, our results suggest no compelling evidence for cycle shifts in clothing style and grooming. Rather, two studies suggest effects in the opposite direction as hypothesized, as women wore more skin-revealing clothes when non-fertile. One study suggests small effects of wearing necklaces more and eyeglasses less often when fertile. However, these effects were not robust across all studies. Our results are in line with other recent null replications and suggest that, if existent, cues to fertility might be even more subtle than previously assumed. We discuss the need for testing competing theories that explain the evolution of concealed ovulation.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Subventions
Organisme : Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)
ID : 254142454/GRK 2070
Informations de copyright
© 2023 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.
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