Department of Psychology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2024 Jan;63(1):378-402. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12681. Epub 2023 Aug 30.
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.
与一些非人类灵长类动物不同，女性的生育能力没有明显的表现。先前的研究认为，女性在排卵期仍会系统性地改变外貌，以提高其生育能力时的交配成功率。我们报告了五项研究，旨在探究女性的着装风格和修饰行为是否会在排卵周期中发生变化。所有研究的规模都很大（研究 1 中 N=157，研究 2 中 N=109，研究 3-5 中 N=257），均为每个参与者进行四次测试的纵向研究。这些研究涉及唾液激素样本和促黄体激素测试，以验证受孕风险的估计。在所有研究中，我们的结果都没有为着装风格和修饰行为在周期中的变化提供确凿的证据。相反，有两项研究表明，与假设的方向相反，当女性处于非生育期时，她们会穿更多暴露皮肤的衣服。一项研究表明，当女性处于生育期时，她们更频繁地戴项链，戴眼镜的次数则更少。然而，这些影响在所有研究中都不显著。我们的研究结果与其他最近的阴性重复研究结果一致，这表明，如果存在生育能力的信号，它们可能比之前假设的更为微妙。我们讨论了需要检验解释隐蔽排卵进化的竞争理论的必要性。
