Contrary to most previous findings, women’s clothing style and grooming did not change according to cycle phase or hormone levels; women may not advertise their fertility with different clothing styles or make-up usage

Probing ovulatory cycle shifts in women’s make-up and clothing style. Julia Stern, Stephanie Rudolph, Lars Penke. Human Behavior and Evolution Society 31st annual meeting. Boston 2019. http://tiny.cc/aa1w6y

The existence of ovulatory cycle shifts in women’s mate preferences and sexual desire has been discussed controversially, highlighting methodological criticism and the need for high powered replication studies. However, there is still a lack of replication studies investigating whether women actually advertise their fertility to signal sexual proceptivity to men, by dressing more attractive (wearing red, sexy or skin revealing clothes) and spending more time and effort in grooming. We addressed this lack of research in a large, pre-registered within-subject study including salivary hormone measures and luteinizing hormone tests. One-hundred-fifty-seven female participants have been photographed in a standardized setting four times across two ovulatory cycles. All photographs were coded on a number of variables for three dimensions: a) clothing color (e.g. wearing red), b) body exposure (e.g. wearing skin revealing clothes), c) grooming (incl. make-up use, hairstyle or accessoires). Multilevel intraindividual comparisons revealed that, contrary to most previous findings, women’s clothing style and grooming did not change according to cycle phase or hormone levels. These results indicate that women may not advertise their fertility with different clothing styles or make-up usage. Hormonal mechanisms and implications for estrus theories will be discussed.