Abstract
Women prefer slightly feminized male facial shapes1. Such faces (Fig. 1a) are given positive personality attributions1 that might correlate with actual behaviour2. In contrast, masculine features seem to signal immunological competence3. Heritable benefits can be realized only if conception follows copulation, so women might be more attentive to phenotypic markers indicating immunological competence during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle when conception is most likely4,5. Consistent with this hypothesis is the observation that women's preference for the odour of men with low fluctuating asymmetry (a correlate of testosterone-facilitated trait size and developmental stability) increases with the probability of conception across the menstrual cycle5.Symmetrical men report more extra-pair copulation partners6, and extra-pair copulation rates peak in midcycle7. Here we show that female preference for secondary sexual traits in male face shapes varies with the probability of conception across the menstrual cycle.
a, Face shapes that are 50% feminized (left) and 50% masculinized (right). Top: constructed1 from 26 males, mean age 19.7 years; 37 females, 18.7 years. Centre: 21 males, 21.0 years; 40 females, 21.0 years. Bottom: 18 males, 19.8 years; 38 females, 20.8 years. b, Mean feminization preferred in Japanese and Caucasian composites by Japanese subjects (n =39) in high- and low-conception-risk phases. c, Mean femininity preferred across faces for short- and long-term conditions (experiment 2) in high-risk and low-risk phases.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Perrett, D. I. et al. Nature 394, 884–887 (1998).
Berry, D. S. & Wero, J. L. F. J. Pers. 61, 497–523 (1993).
Folstad, I. & Karter, A. Am. Nat. 139, 603–622 (1992).
Regan, P. C. Can. J. Hum. Sexual. 5, 145–156 (1996).
Gangestad, S. W. & Thornhill, R. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 265, 927–933 (1998).
Gangestad, S. W. & Thornhill, R. Evol. Hum. Biol. 18, 69–88 (1997).
Baker, R. R. & Bellis, M.A. Human Sperm Competition: Copulation, Masturbation and Infidelity (Chapman & Hall, London, 1995).
Christenfeld, N. & Hill, E. A. Nature 378, 669 (1995).
Frost, P. Percept. Motor Skills 79, 507–514 (1994).
Grammer, K. Ethol. Sociobiol. 14, 201–208 (1993).
Graves, J., Ortegaruano, J. & Slater, P. J. B. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 253, 3–7 (1993).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Penton-Voak, I., Perrett, D., Castles, D. et al. Menstrual cycle alters face preference. Nature 399, 741–742 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/21557
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/21557
This article is cited by
-
No evidence that sociosexual orientation moderates effects of conception probability on women’s preferences for male facial masculinity
Scientific Reports (2023)
-
Tendencies Toward Supernormality/Subnormality in Generating Attractive and Unattractive Female and Male Avatars: Gender Differences
Archives of Sexual Behavior (2023)
-
A Preliminary Investigation Into Individual Differences that Predict Men’s Preferences for Cues to Fertility in Women’s Faces
Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology (2023)
-
Environmental convergence in facial preferences: a cross-group comparison of Asian Vietnamese, Czech Vietnamese, and Czechs
Scientific Reports (2021)
-
Facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men
Scientific Reports (2021)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
