Fine-scale variation in lip and cheek colour according to the timing of ovulation in women

Rigaill, Lucie

doi:10.1007/s00265-020-02851-y

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Whatever the fluctuations in facial representation of fertility, they must be attenuated by the lack of specific trend in facial shape changes. Although aforementioned study focused on shape solely, it is possible, that the differences in perception observed in this study stem from changes in facial pigmentation or texture but see 41,42 . Therefore, neither colour nor facial shape may be an honest que to current fertility.…”

Section: Do Faces Convey Signals To Current Fertility?mentioning

confidence: 89%

An exploratory, cross-cultural study on perception of putative cyclical changes in facial fertility cues

Marcinkowska

Jones

Cai

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Although many researchers have argued that facial traits evolved as honest cues to women’s current fertility (possibly via changes in facial femininity), evidence that women’s facial attractiveness is significantly, positively related to probability of conception throughout menstrual cycle is mixed. These mixed results could reflect differences among studies in the methods used to assess facial attractiveness (i.e., forced choice versus rating-scale methods), differences in how fertility was assessed, differences in perceiver characteristics (e.g., their own attractiveness), and facial preferences possibly being moderated by the characteristics of the living environment. Consequently, the current study investigated the putative effect of cyclical changes in fertility on women’s facial attractiveness and femininity (1) using forced choice and rating-scale method, (2) conducting both ovulation tests and repeated daily measures of estradiol assessing the conception probability, (3) based on a culturally diverse sample of perceivers, while (4) controlling for inter-individual variation. Although we found some limited evidence that women’s faces became more attractive when conception probability increased, these effects differed depending on the methods used to assess both attractiveness and fertility. Moreover, where statistically significant effects were observed, the effect sizes were extremely small. Similarly, there was little robust evidence that perceivers’ characteristics reliably predicted preferences for fertility cues. Collectively, these results suggest that mixed results in previous studies examining cyclical fluctuation in women’s facial attractiveness are unlikely to reflect inter-cultural differences and are more likely to reflect differences in the methods used to assess facial attractiveness and fertility.

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Section: Do Faces Convey Signals To Current Fertility?mentioning

confidence: 89%

An exploratory, cross-cultural study on perception of putative cyclical changes in facial fertility cues

Marcinkowska

Jones

Cai

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…Does not correlate with the fertile phase. Encoded information (Burriss et al, 2015;Rigaill, 2020) Proceptive behaviors Not clear. Encoded information (Gangestad et al, 2002;Haselton et al, 2007) Voice pitch Correlates with the fertile phase.…”

Section: Proceptive Behaviorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical cues of identity and reproductive status in Japanese macaques

Rigaill

Vaglio

Setchell

et al. 2022

American J Primatol

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Olfactory communication plays an important role in the regulation of socio-sexual interactions in mammals. There is growing evidence that both human and nonhuman primates rely on odors to inform their mating decisions. Nevertheless, studies of primate chemical ecology remain scarce due to the difficulty of obtaining and analyzing samples. We analyzed 67 urine samples from five captive female Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) and 30 vaginal swabs from three of these females using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and examined the relationship between odor (compounds identified, richness, intensity, and diversity) and female identity as well as cycle phase. We found a total of 36 urine compounds of which we identified 31, and 68 vaginal compounds of which we identified 37. Our results suggest that urine and vaginal odor varied more between individuals than within cycle phases. However, we found that within a female cycle, urine samples from similar phases may cluster more than samples from different phases. Our results suggest that female odor may encode information about identity (vaginal and urine odor) and reproductive status (urine odor). The question of how conspecifics use female urine and vaginal odor remains open and could be tested using bioassays. Our results and their interpretation are constrained by our limited sample size and our study design. Nonetheless, our study provides insight into the potential signaling role of female odor in sexual communication in Japanese macaques and contributes to our understanding of how odors may influence mating strategies in primates.

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Fine-scale variation in lip and cheek colour according to the timing of ovulation in women

Cited by 2 publications

References 43 publications

An exploratory, cross-cultural study on perception of putative cyclical changes in facial fertility cues

An exploratory, cross-cultural study on perception of putative cyclical changes in facial fertility cues

Chemical cues of identity and reproductive status in Japanese macaques

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