Ovulatory Shifts in Women’s
Mating Psychology: New
Methods, Evidence and Best
Practices
Ekaterina Netchaeva, PhD
Ekaterina Netchaeva, PhD
Adar Eisenbruch, MA
Eli Finkel, PhD
James Roney, PhD
Lady in Red: Hormonal
Predictors of Women’s
Clothing Choices
Adar B. Eisenbruch1, Zachary L. Simmons2 &
James R. Roney1
1University of California, Santa Barbara; 2University of
Portland
1/29/16
Enter the red shirts
• Beall & Tracy (2013): Women were more likely
to wear a red or pink top during the fertile
window of the menstrual cycle
• Red is a sexual signal in humans (e.g. Elliot,
Greitemeyer & Pazda, 2013; Elliot & Niesta, 2008)
• Men find women in red more attractive
• Women wear red when trying to attract a mate
• Women appear to prioritize mate attraction in the
fertile window (e.g. Haselton et al, 2007; Roney &
Simmons, 2013)
Red light!
• Mixed replication results (Tracy & Beall, 2014; Prokop &
Hromada, 2013)
• Common methodological problems
Problems with many cycle
phase studies
• Between subjects
• Counting methods  discrete fertile window
• Reduced accuracy / power (Gangestad et al, 2015;
Gildersleeve, Haselton & Fales, 2014)
• Researcher degrees of freedom? (Gelman, 2013;
Wood et al, 2014)
• Self-reports
• No evidence of hormonal mechanisms
What would a better design
look like?
• Within-subjects
• Confirmation of ovulation
• Timing
• Occurrence
• Objective measures
• Hormonal mechanism
Hormonal Mechanisms
The present study
• Existing dataset (Grillot, Simmons, Lukaszewski, & Roney,
2014; Roney & Simmons, 2013)
• 46 women (mean age = 18.80 years, SD =
1.22)
• Daily saliva samples (estradiol, progesterone
and testosterone)
• Weekly lab sessions over 1-2 menstrual cycles
• Saliva samples (estradiol, progesterone and
testosterone)
• Outfit photographs
Daily Saliva Samples
• Ovulatory cycles achieved progesterone ≥ 300
pmol/L (Ellison, Lager & Calfee, 1987)
• 53/82 cycles were ovulatory
• Fertile window analyses were restricted to ovulatory
cycles
• Ovulation = as the second of two consecutive
days (after or including the estradiol peak)
between which there was the greatest drop in
E.
• FW is day of ovulation plus 5 preceding (Wilcox,
Weinberg & Baird, 1995)
Lab sessions
• Saliva samples
• E, P, T & E:P ratio
• Photos
• Coded by two female RAs
• Colors: black, blue, gray, green, pink,
red, white, yellow, or other
• Items: dress, shirt/blouse,
jacket/sweatshirt, pants, shorts, skirt,
and accessories
• DV = red or pink top (shirt/blouse,
jacket/sweatshirt, dress)
• “red”
Statistical methods
• Level 1
• IVs: Session hormones, FW (1 or 0)
• DV: Red top (1 or 0)
• Level 2: subject
• Random intercept at level 2
• Models effectively look at within-cycle effects of
hormones or FW, controlling for women’s
baseline of wearing red.
Fertile Window Results
% of days wearing red
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
FW
Non-FW
b = 0.93, Odds Ratio = 2.53, p = .04
Hormone effects
Hormone
Variable
b
Odds Ratio
p
Estradiol
-0.03
0.97
>.250
Progesterone
-0.27
0.76
>.250
Testosterone
-0.24
0.79
>.250
E:P ratio
0.63
1.88
.01
Mediation of the FW
Predictor
b
Odds Ratio
p
Fertile Window
0.47
1.60
>.250
E:P ratio
0.65
1.92
.041
• Mediation of the FW
• Monte Carlo method with adjustment for dichotomous
outcomes (Herr, 2014; Selig & Preacher, 2008)
• Indirect effect = 0.042, 95% CI = [0.002, 0.09]
Discussion
• Replication of FW effect
• Hormones > counting methods
• Beall & Tracy’s counting method agreed with hormonal
identification of the FW in only 64% of cases
• Counting method misclassified 46% of FW days as low
fertility
• Frequent hormone sampling can solve some of the
problems in the cycle phase literature
• E:P ratio mediated the FW effect (see also Roney &
Simmons, 2013; Wang, Hahn, Fisher, DeBruine & Jones, 2014)
Remaining Questions
• What is it all for?
• Growing evidence that women reallocate energy
across different adaptive problems in response to
fertility fluctuations across the menstrual cycle.
• Why red?
• Sex flush
• E promotes vasodilation, P promotes
vasoconstriction
• Red skin may have the look of arousal and fertility
Thank you!
• Ellise Fallon
• Shelly Gable
• Samantha Wilcoxon
• Rachel Grillot
Funding:
• Hellman Family Faculty Fellowship to J. R. Roney
• UCSB Academic Senate Grant to J. R. Roney
• Hokkaido University Global Centers of Excellence
Program Grant to UCSB Center for Evolutionary
Psychology
Eisenbruch, A. B., Simmons, Z. L., & Roney, J. R. (2015).
Lady in Red Hormonal Predictors of Women’s Clothing
Choices. Psychological Science, 26(8), 1332-1338.