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Gildersleeve and colleagues organized a study to evaluate how women perceive the natural body
order of other women based on the fertility status of donors.1 The scientists hypothesized that women
would identify samples from the high fertility phase within the ovulatory cycle as more attractive than
Previous bodies of literature indicate that men typically respond to fertility cues with enhanced
sexual interest, with high fertility scents perceived as more pleasant.3 Gildersleeve and colleagues noticed
a lack of research surrounding the responses of women and theorized that selection pressures faced by
ancestral human males could be applied to females. These psychological mechanisms could potentially
serve as cues of (a) overall reproductive quality in other women (b) current cycle fertility in other women
or (c) fertility within the cycle in other women. Therefore, it is logical to hypothesize that the correlation
between attractiveness and fertility phase serves an adaptive purpose for women.
21 naturally-cycling women were chosen as scent donors for the study.4 Each donor attended two
sessions to provide samples. In order to ensure that one sample was collected during each fertility phase,
the backward counting method was applied based on personal reports of the date of one's next menstrual
onset. This information was verified through urine tests for luteinizing hormone. During each session, the
scientists collected a pair of cotton gauze pads from each donor; participants placed single pads under
each arm for 24 hours and followed strict behavioral guidelines to minimize potential contamination.
Scent samples were then frozen until the rating session to prevent the odors from dissipating. The scent
samples were transferred into 2 oz. plastic bottles the day prior and allowed to thaw the day of the first
rating session. Bottles were left uncapped and at room temperature during both rating sessions. The
scientists set up scent rating stations around a large classroom, with two bottles at each (labeled A or B).
One bottle contained a high fertility scent sample and the other contained a low fertility scent sample. In
three cases, a third bottle was placed with an unworn gauze pad. Donor scent samples were randomly
assigned to stations. Participants were instructed to sniff each bottle and rate which one smelled more
attractive to them; they also had to assess the pleasantness, sexiness, and intensity of each sample on a
scale from 1 to 9 (9 being very pleasant/sexy/intense). Should the hypothesis hold true, the bottles with
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high fertility scent samples should be chosen as more attractive and should have higher ratings for
pleasantness and sexiness as well as lower ratings for intensity (see Figures 1A and 1B). If the hypothesis
is false, there should be either no significant difference between the bottles (ratings and scale-wise) or the
lower-fertility samples should be rated more attractive as well as higher ranked for pleasantness and
sexiness and lower ranked for intensity (see Figures 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B).
The actual results indicate that donors' high fertility samples were chosen as more attractive than
their low fertility samples by 60% of raters (see Figure 4A). Additionally, ratings for pleasantness and
sexiness were higher for high fertility samples by a factor of around 0.8 for both; Intensity was lower for
high fertility samples by about 0.5 (see Figure 4B). Both of these results support the hypothesis.
Therefore, women consider the scents from naturally-cycling women during their high fertility phase as
more attractive; this aligns with previous studies who measured the response of men. Thus, it can be
inferred that the perception of fertility serves an adaptive purpose for both men and women. Some
questions that still remain include whether the degree of attractiveness perceived by males and females
differ as well as whether hormonal contraception influences perceived attractiveness for males and
females.
I would like to further explore which qualities women implicitly assume based on how attractive
an odor sample is from female donors during high and low fertility phases. Thus, the question that I pose
is whether the "attractiveness" of a sample influences how favorable an impression the rater has of the
donor. My hypothesis is that women will choose more positive adjectives for samples that are considered
less attractive and are derived from donors during low fertility phases (see Figure 5). Similar to the
current study, participants would have to sniff individual samples (half would be high fertility samples
and the other half would be low fertility samples) and choose which one is more attractive. Then, the
participants would have to select from a number of pre-written adjectives that they think best represent
the donor who contributed to each sample (i.e. kind, physically fit, arrogant, etc.). Each adjective will be
assigned to a category: positive or negative. I would then compare the frequency of positive adjectives to
the fertility status of the sample to determine whether my hypothesis holds true.
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Exhibits
** Note 1: standard deviations represent estimates for all figures (microsoft word does not permit
individual data points to have separate standard deviations).
** Note 2: “NC” is the shortened version of “naturally-cycling”.
Figure 1A: Should the hypothesis hold true, raters should select samples from NC women during their
high fertility phases as more attractive at a higher rate over those derived from their low fertility phases.
100
90
80
70
Percentage (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
NC High Fertility > NC Low Fertility
Figure 1B: Should the hypothesis hold true, samples derived from NC women during their high fertility
phases should rate higher in terms of pleasantness and sexiness and lower for intensity.
6
Rating
5 NC High Fertility
4 NC Low Fertility
1
Pleasantness Sexiness Intensity
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Figure 2A: If the hypothesis is false, the percentage of high fertility samples chosen as more attractive
should be indistinguishable (the rate chosen should be 50%).
100
90
80
70
Percentage (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
NC High Fertility > NC Low Fertility
Figure 2B: If the hypothesis is false, there should be no difference between high fertility and low fertility
samples across all three rating descriptors.
9
8
6
Rating
5 NC High Fertility
4 NC Low Fertility
2
1
Pleasantness Sexiness Intensity
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Figure 3A: Should the hypothesis be false, raters should select samples from NC women during their low
fertility phases as more attractive at a higher rate over those derived from their high fertility phase.
100
90
80
70
Percentage (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
NC High Fertility > NC Low Fertility
Figure 3B: Should the hypothesis be false, participants should rate low fertility samples as more pleasant
and sexy as well as less intense than high fertility samples.
9
8
6
Rating
5 NC High Fertility
4 NC Low Fertility
2
1
Pleasantness Sexiness Intensity
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Figure 4A: The actual results indicate that high fertility samples were chosen as more attractive 60% more
than low fertility samples.
100
90
80
70
Percentage (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
NC High Fertility > NC Low Fertility
Figure 4B: The actual results indicate that high fertility samples were rated higher for pleasantness and
sexiness and lower for intensity.
9
6
Rating
5 NC High Fertility
4 NC Low Fertility
2
1
Pleasantness Sexiness Intensity
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Figure 5: Should the hypothesis hold true, it should be less common for raters to choose more positive
adjectives for high fertility samples than low fertility samples.
100
90
80
70
Percentage (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
NC High Fertility > NC Low Fertility
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Endnotes
1
Gilderlseeve, KA., MR. Fales, MG. Haselton (2015). Women's evaluations of other women's natural
body odor depend on target's fertility status. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38, no. 2: 155 – 163.
2
For the sake of brevity, I will only focus on the data obtained from naturally-cycling women rather than
those who used hormonal contraceptives.
3
Amstislavskaya, TG, & Popova, NK (2004). Female-induced sexual arousal in male mice and rats:
behavioral and testosterone responses. Hormones & Behavior, 46, 544–550.
Bronson, FH, & Desjardins, C (1982). Endocrine responses to sexual arousal in male mice.
Endocrine, 111, 1286–1291.
Cobey, KD, Buunk, AP, Pollet, TV, Klipping, C, & Roberts, SC (2013). Men perceive their female
partners, and themselves, as more attractive around ovulation. Biological Psychology, 94, 513–516.
4
For my analysis, I will only focus on results from the donors who acted as raters during the study. The
scientists recorded data from this group as well as a separate group of individual raters in reality.