General sexual desire, but not desire for uncommitted sexual relationships, tracks changes in women’s hormonal status

Jones, Benedict C.; Hahn, Amanda; Fisher, Claire I.; Wang, Hongyi; Kandrik, Michal; DeBruine, Lisa

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.12.015

Cited by 100 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…This analysis included all women who were not using any form of hormonal contraceptive when tested ( n = 351). The specific models we used to test for hormonal correlates of within-woman changes in masculinity preferences are identical to those that we have used elsewhere to test for hormonal correlates of disgust sensitivity ( Jones, Hahn, Fisher, Wang, Kandrik, & DeBruine, 2018 ) and sexual desire ( Jones, Hahn, Fisher, Wang, Kandrik, Lee et al, 2018 ). No effects involving hormone levels were significant in this analysis (all t s < 0.88, all p s > .38), suggesting that women’s preferences for facial masculinity are not related to their hormonal status.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

No Compelling Evidence that Preferences for Facial Masculinity Track Changes in Women’s Hormonal Status

et al. 2018

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Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial-attractiveness judgments, findings suggesting that women’s preferences for masculine characteristics in men’s faces are related to women’s hormonal status are equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest-ever longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of women’s preferences for facial masculinity (N = 584). Analyses showed no compelling evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women’s salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subjects and between-subjects comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men’s faces, particularly when assessing men’s attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women’s preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

No Compelling Evidence that Preferences for Facial Masculinity Track Changes in Women’s Hormonal Status

et al. 2018

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“…Hormone-sensitive individuals demonstrate greater reward-related neural activation during the midfollicular phase as compared to the luteal phase, indicating increased reward sensitivity when E2 is elevated (Bayer, Bandurski, & Sommer, 2013;Dreher et al, 2007). Consistent with this, many appetitive urges like substance craving and sexual desire are also positively associated with E2 levels and are elevated in the follicular phase compared to the luteal phase (Jones et al, 2018;Roney & Simmons, 2013;. Thus, under conditions of elevated E2, heightened neural reactivity to anticipated reward and increased appetitive urges in the follicular and ovulatory phases may elevate susceptibility to engagement in proactive aggression to facilitate reward attainment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Differential Effects of the Menstrual Cycle on Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Borderline Personality Disorder

Peters

Owens

Schmalenberger

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by rapidly shifting symptoms, including intense anger and aggressive behavior. Understanding how fluctuations in ovarian hormones across the menstrual cycle may contribute to symptom instability is key for accurate assessment of BPD symptoms and effective interventions. Reactive and proactive aggression, as well as anger in and out, were assessed daily in 15 physically healthy, unmedicated naturally cycling female individuals without dysmenorrhea meeting criteria for BPD across 35 days. Urine LH surge and salivary progesterone were used to confirm ovulation and verify cycle phase. Cyclical worsening of symptoms was evaluated using multilevel models to evaluate symptom differences between cycle phases. Both forms of aggressive behavior demonstrated marked cycle effects, with reactive aggression highest during perimenstrual cycle phases, co-occurring with increases in anger in and out. In contrast, highest levels of proactive aggression were observed during the follicular and ovulatory phases, when emotional symptoms and anger were otherwise at lowest levels. These findings highlight the importance of identifying the function of aggression when considering potential psychological and biological influences. Naturally cycling individuals with BPD may be at elevated risk for perimenstrual worsening of a range of interpersonally reactive symptoms, including reactive aggression, whereas proactive aggression may occur more in phases characterized by less emotional and cognitive vulnerability and greater reward sensitivity. Research on aggression in this population should consider cycle effects. Cycling individuals with BPD attempting to reduce aggressive behavior may benefit from cycle-tracking to increase awareness of these effects and to develop appropriate strategies.

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“…Five hundred and thirty‐one young adult women took part in the study (mean age = 21.44 years, SD = 3.18 years), which was part of a larger project on hormones and mating psychology (Jones et al, , , ). All of the women who participated in the study were from the University of Glasgow.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facial masculinity is only weakly correlated with handgrip strength in young adult women

Hahn

Holzleitner

Lee

et al. 2018

American J Hum Biol

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Objectives Ancestrally, strength is likely to have played a critical role in determining the ability to obtain and retain resources and the allocation of social status among humans. Responses to facial cues of strength are therefore thought to play an important role in human social interaction. Although many researchers have proposed that sexually dimorphic facial morphology is reliably correlated with physical strength, evidence for this hypothesis is somewhat mixed. Moreover, to date, only one study has investigated the putative relationship between facial masculinity and physical strength in women. Consequently, we tested for correlations between handgrip strength and objective measures of face‐shape masculinity. Methods 531 women took part in the study. We measured each participant's handgrip strength (dominant hand). Sexual dimorphism of face shape was objectively measured from each face photograph using two methods: discriminant analysis and vector analysis. These methods use shape components derived from principal component analyses of facial landmarks to measure the probability of the face being classified as male (discriminant analysis method) or to locate the face on a female‐male continuum (vector analysis method). Results Our analyses revealed that handgrip strength is, at best, only weakly correlated with facial masculinity in women. There was a weak significant association between handgrip strength and one measure of women's facial masculinity. The relationship between handgrip strength and our other measure of women's facial masculinity was not significant. Discussion Together, these results do not support the hypothesis that face‐shape masculinity is an important cue of physical strength, at least in women.

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General sexual desire, but not desire for uncommitted sexual relationships, tracks changes in women’s hormonal status

Cited by 100 publications

References 22 publications

No Compelling Evidence that Preferences for Facial Masculinity Track Changes in Women’s Hormonal Status

No Compelling Evidence that Preferences for Facial Masculinity Track Changes in Women’s Hormonal Status

Differential Effects of the Menstrual Cycle on Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Borderline Personality Disorder

Facial masculinity is only weakly correlated with handgrip strength in young adult women

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