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Perceived Attractiveness

and Fertility Status


By Michelle K. Pyke
25 February, 2018
Gildersleeve and colleagues explored how samples of women’s body odors taken
at different stages of fertility influence perceived attractiveness. Their results
suggest that high fertility samples from naturally-cycling women are associated
with higher levels of “attractiveness” and “pleasantness” in comparison to low
fertility samples.
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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

those from the low fertility phase.2

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.


Cerda-Molina, AL, Hernández-López, L, de la O, CE, Chavira-Ramírez, R, & Mondragón-Ceballos, R


(2013). Changes in men's salivary testosterone and cortisol levels and in sexual desire after smelling
female axillary and vulvar scents. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 4, 159.

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.  

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