Department of Psychology, University of California.
Psychol Bull. 2014 Sep;140(5):1205-59. doi: 10.1037/a0035438. Epub 2014 Feb 24.
Scientific interest in whether women experience changes across the ovulatory cycle in mating-related motivations, preferences, cognitions, and behaviors has surged in the past 2 decades. A prominent hypothesis in this area, the ovulatory shift hypothesis, posits that women experience elevated immediate sexual attraction on high- relative to low-fertility days of the cycle to men with characteristics that reflected genetic quality ancestrally. Dozens of published studies have aimed to test this hypothesis, with some reporting null effects. We conducted a meta-analysis to quantitatively evaluate support for the pattern of cycle shifts predicted by the ovulatory shift hypothesis in a total sample of 134 effects from 38 published and 12 unpublished studies. Consistent with the hypothesis, analyses revealed robust cycle shifts that were specific to women's preferences for hypothesized cues of (ancestral) genetic quality (96 effects in 50 studies). Cycle shifts were present when women evaluated men's "short-term" attractiveness and absent when women evaluated men's "long-term" attractiveness. More focused analyses identified specific characteristics for which cycle shifts were or were not robust and revealed areas in need of more research. Finally, we used several methods to assess potential bias due to an underrepresentation of small effects in the meta-analysis sample or to "researcher degrees of freedom" in definitions of high- and low-fertility cycle phases. Neither type of bias appeared to account for the observed cycle shifts. The existence of robust relationship context-dependent cycle shifts in women's mate preferences has implications for understanding the role of evolved psychological mechanisms and the ovulatory cycle in women's attractions and social behavior.
在过去的 20 年中，科学界对女性在与交配相关的动机、偏好、认知和行为方面是否会随着排卵周期而发生变化产生了浓厚的兴趣。该领域的一个重要假设是排卵转变假说，该假说认为，女性在排卵周期的高生育力日相对于低生育力日对具有反映遗传质量的特征的男性会产生更高的即时性吸引力。已有数十项已发表的研究旨在检验该假设，其中一些研究报告称没有效果。我们进行了一项荟萃分析，以定量评估该假设所预测的模式的支持，该模式共有 134 个效应，来自 38 项已发表研究和 12 项未发表研究。与假设一致的是，分析显示出了与排卵转变假说一致的强烈的周期转变，这些转变是针对女性对（祖先）遗传质量的假设线索的偏好（50 项研究中的 96 个效应）。当女性评估男性的“短期”吸引力时，会出现周期转变，而当女性评估男性的“长期”吸引力时，这种转变则不存在。更集中的分析确定了周期转变是存在还是不存在的特定特征，并揭示了需要进一步研究的领域。最后，我们使用了几种方法来评估由于元分析样本中较小效应的代表性不足或高生育力和低生育力周期阶段的定义中的“研究人员自由度”而导致的潜在偏差。这两种类型的偏差似乎都不能解释所观察到的周期转变。在女性的配偶偏好中存在强大的关系上下文相关的周期转变，这对于理解进化心理机制和排卵周期在女性吸引力和社会行为中的作用具有重要意义。
