School of Sexology, Department of Clinical, Applied and Biotechnological Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
Laboratory of Biology, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
J Sex Med. 2015 May;12(5):1142-51. doi: 10.1111/jsm.12849. Epub 2015 Mar 5.
There is evidence that women's preferences for facial characteristics in men's faces change according to menstrual phase and sexual hormones. Literature indicates that the pregnancy is characterized by a specific sexual hormonal pattern with respect to all other physiological conditions concerning the sexual hormone status during the reproductive age, configuring this physiological condition as an excellent surrogate to study how the sexual hormones may affect many of the aspects concerning the sexual behavior.
The aim of this study was to investigate pregnancy as a model of hormonal influence on women's facial preferences in short-term and long-term relationships and compare the choices of pregnant women with those of nonpregnant women.
Measurement of women's preferences for synthetic men's faces, morphed from hyper-masculine to hypomasculine shape.
Forty-six women in the third trimester of pregnancy, and 70 nonpregnant women took part in the study. All women were shown a composite male face. The sexual dimorphism of the images was enhanced or reduced in a continuous fashion using an open-source morphing program that produced a sequence of 21 pictures of the same face warped from a feminized to a masculinized shape.
Pregnant women's choices differed significantly from those of nonpregnant women. In fact, in the context of both a hypothetical short- (M = -0.4 ± 0.11) and long-term relationship (M = -0.4 ± 0.07) pregnant women showed a clear preference for a less masculine man's face than the other group (short-term: M = 0.15 ± 0.13; long-term: M = -0.06 ± 0.15; P < 0.0001).
Women in the third trimester of pregnancy clearly prefer more feminine men's faces, distancing themselves from the choices of women in other physiological conditions concerning the sexual hormonal status during the reproductive age. However, other psychosocial variables may explain this interesting finding.
有证据表明，女性对面孔特征的偏好会随月经周期和性激素的变化而变化。文献表明，妊娠期间的性激素模式与生育年龄阶段的所有其他生理条件下的性激素状态都有所不同，这使得妊娠成为研究性激素如何影响许多与性行为相关方面的绝佳替代生理条件。
本研究旨在探讨妊娠作为性激素影响女性对面孔短期和长期偏好的模型，并比较孕妇和非孕妇的选择。
测量女性对合成男性面孔的偏好，这些面孔的形状从超男性化到低男性化。
46 名处于妊娠晚期的女性和 70 名非孕妇参加了研究。所有女性都被展示了一张男性合成面孔。使用开源变形程序，以连续的方式增强或降低图像的性别二态性，该程序产生了一张从女性化到男性化形状的同一面孔的 21 张变形图像序列。
孕妇的选择与非孕妇明显不同。事实上，在短期（M=-0.4±0.11）和长期（M=-0.4±0.07）假设关系中，孕妇都表现出对男性化程度较低的男性面孔的明显偏好，而另一组则偏好男性化程度较高的面孔（短期：M=0.15±0.13；长期：M=-0.06±0.15；P<0.0001）。
妊娠晚期的女性明显更喜欢更具女性化特征的男性面孔，与生育年龄阶段其他生理条件下的女性选择相背离。然而，其他心理社会变量可能可以解释这一有趣的发现。
