هورمون های تخمینی ترجیحات همسر زنان برای ویژگی های شخصیت غالب را پیش بینی می کند

Recent studies have reported that women exhibit elevated preferences for behavioral dominance in potential mates on higher fertility days of the menstrual cycle. This study was designed to test which hormonal signals may be associated with such cycle phase shifts in dominance preferences. Women indicated their mate preferences for dominant personality traits, and self-reported cycle day was used to estimate each woman’s levels of estrogen, FSH, LH, progesterone, prolactin, and testosterone on her day of testing. Women’s preferences for dominance in long-term mates were elevated on cycle days when estrogen is typically elevated, including during the luteal phase when conception is not possible. Preferences for dominance in short-term mates were highest on cycle days when LH and FSH are typically peaking. These findings support the existence of two types of hormone-regulated psychological mechanisms, each of which is proposed by a distinct functional theory of menstrual phase preference shifts: (1) a between-cycle mechanism that increases preferences for dominance in long-term mates during more fertile cycles characterized by higher estrogen, and (2) a within-cycle mechanism that couples enhanced preferences for dominance in short-term mates to the timing of ovulation.

Accumulating evidence indicates that women express stronger attraction to putative markers of phenotypic quality in men (such as masculinized or symmetrical features) when tested near ovulation than when tested at other times in the menstrual cycle (for reviews, see Gangestad and Thornhill, 2008 and Jones et al., 2008). Although most of this research has focused on physical traits, two recent studies have reported that women tested near ovulation also show elevated preferences for videotaped displays of men’s dominance-related behaviors (Gangestad et al., 2007 and Gangestad et al., 2004). Dominant behaviors may signal direct benefits via greater access to material resources (see Sadalla, Kenrick, & Vershure, 1987); alternatively, the stronger preferences for such behaviors near ovulation have been interpreted as evidence that dominance-related behaviors may complement morphological features in acting as cues to men’s heritable health and fitness (Gangestad et al., 2004). On either account, cycle phase shifts in preferences for dominance may represent stronger attraction to behavioral signals of phenotypic quality during times of higher fertility.