Using 26,000 diary entries to show ovulatory changes in sexual desire and behavior.

Abstract

Previous research reported ovulatory changes in women's appearance, mate preferences, extra- and in-pair sexual desire, and behavior, but has been criticized for small sample sizes, inappropriate designs, and undisclosed flexibility in analyses. In the present study, we sought to address these criticisms by preregistering our hypotheses and analysis plan and by collecting a large diary sample. We gathered more than 26,000 usable online self-reports in a diary format from 1,043 women, of which 421 were naturally cycling. We inferred the fertile period from menstrual onset reports. We used hormonal contraceptive users as a quasi-control group, as they experience menstruation, but not ovulation. We probed our results for robustness to different approaches (including different fertility estimates, different exclusion criteria, adjusting for potential confounds, moderation by methodological factors). We found robust evidence supporting previously reported ovulatory increases in extra-pair desire and behavior, in-pair desire, and self-perceived desirability, as well as no unexpected associations. Yet, we did not find predicted effects on partner mate retention behavior, clothing choices, or narcissism. Contrary to some of the earlier literature, partners' sexual attractiveness did not moderate the cycle shifts. Taken together, the replicability of the existing literature on ovulatory changes was mixed. We conclude with simulation-based recommendations for reading the past literature and for designing future large-scale preregistered within-subject studies to understand ovulatory cycle changes and the effects of hormonal contraception. Interindividual differences in the size of ovulatory changes emerge as an important area for further study. (PsycINFO Database Record

Experience Sampling and Daily Diary Studies: Basic Concepts, Designs, and Challenges.pdf

“…Research questions that are asked at the within-person level may be concerned with (a) the development of person characteristics, (b) the explanation of variance in state measures (e.g., Rauthmann, Jones, & Sherman, 2016;Sherman et al, 2015), or (c) the explanation of sequences of events and experiences (e.g., Arslan, Schilling, Gerlach, & Penke, 2018). ESM is mostly not used to address the first question.…”

Are women more likely to wear red and pink at peak fertility? What about on cold days? Conceptual, close, and extended replications with novel clothing colour measures

“…1974; Dixson, 2012;Heistermann et al, 2001;Strassmann, 1981;Symons, 1979). However, recent studies suggest that humans might exhibit subtle cues to ovulation (Gangestad & Thornhill, 2008;Haselton & Gildersleeve, 2011), though the evidence for overt cues to ovulation remains rather weak (Arslan, Schilling, Gerlach, & Penke, 2018;Welling & Puts, 2014). Some scholars have speculated that such subtlety in signalling might have evolved to deter unwanted male attention during peak fertility or to confuse paternity certainty after conception (Deschner et al, 2004;Nunn, 1999;Wallen & Zehr, 2004;Wolfe, 1979).…”

formr: A study framework allowing for automated feedback generation and complex longitudinal experience-sampling studies using R

“…The Daily Habits and Sexuality Study (Arslan, Jünger, Gerlach, Ostner, & Penke, 2016) collected data from 1,345 women over a period of 70 days. The women were first screened on a variety of demographic criteria.…”

“…Although the participants were not formally surveyed on this, online interactions indicated that the feedback was generally well received. The complete study is reproducible from documentation on the Open Science Framework and can be imported and changed (Arslan et al, 2016). An earlier, similar study implemented in an older version of formr was recently published and is described in more detail in Arslan, Schilling, Gerlach, and Penke (2018).…”