van der Zwan Rick, Herbert Natasha
Psychology, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia.
BMC Res Notes. 2012 Aug 21;5:453. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-5-453.
Variations in hormone concentrations across the menstrual cycle affect human female mate preferences. It has been shown that around the time of ovulation human females prefer more masculine male voices, faces, and bodies while simultaneously preferring less faces that are more feminine. They prefer also displays of male dominance, males with more symmetrical faces, and the scent of males with high levels of body symmetry. The aim of the experiments reported here was to investigate whether there are changes in female preferences for walking gaits across the menstrual cycle.
Experiment 1 showed female observers could discriminate between point-light walkers with low and high levels of fluctuating asymmetries in their gaits. Female observers were more sensitive to asymmetries in female gaits than they were for asymmetries in male gaits. Experiment 2 showed that level of gait asymmetry did not affect the abilities of observers to discriminate female from male walkers. Experiment 3 showed that female observers did not change their preference for low and high asymmetry walkers across their menstrual cycles. However, females showed a decreased preference for all female walkers at the time during which it was estimated observers were at peak fertility. That same change in preference was not observed for male walkers.
These data suggest female observers may not value gait asymmetry, as a mate selection cue, in the same way that they value asymmetries in faces and bodies. While only "average" gaits were used in these experiments, rather than the gaits of individual walkers, the types of asymmetries in gait tested here were not used in the same way as static cues for judging the apparent healthiness of individuals. Females do discriminate well average female gait asymmetries and do change their preferences for those gaits across their menstrual cycle. Doing so may reflect the operation of processes that equip females with an advantage when competing for mates at times of peak fertility.
月经周期中激素浓度的变化会影响人类女性的配偶偏好。研究表明，在排卵前后，人类女性更喜欢更具男性化特征的男性声音、面孔和身材，同时更喜欢不太具女性化特征的面孔。她们也更喜欢表现出男性支配地位的男性、面部更对称的男性以及身体对称性高的男性的气味。本文所报告实验的目的是研究女性在月经周期中对行走步态的偏好是否存在变化。
实验1表明，女性观察者能够区分步态中波动不对称程度低和高的点光行走者。女性观察者对女性步态中的不对称比对男性步态中的不对称更敏感。实验2表明，步态不对称程度并不影响观察者区分女性和男性行走者的能力。实验3表明，女性观察者在整个月经周期中对低不对称和高不对称行走者的偏好没有改变。然而，在估计观察者处于生育高峰期时，女性对所有女性行走者的偏好都有所下降。男性行走者则未观察到同样的偏好变化。
这些数据表明，女性观察者可能不像重视面孔和身体的不对称那样，将步态不对称作为择偶线索。虽然这些实验中只使用了“平均”步态，而不是个体行走者的步态，但这里测试的步态不对称类型与用于判断个体表观健康状况的静态线索的使用方式不同。女性确实能很好地区分平均女性步态不对称，并在月经周期中改变对这些步态的偏好。这样做可能反映了在生育高峰期竞争配偶时使女性具有优势的过程的运作。
