James Roney: UC Santa Barbara Department of Psychology

Menstrual cycle shifts in women’s mate preferences have generally been interpreted as products of adaptations designed to alter behavior during the fertile window relative to other times in the cycle. I will discuss an alternative theory that posits that such shifts may be produced by mechanisms designed to use ovarian hormone concentrations to calibrate behaviors across different menstrual cycles. I will then present preliminary data showing that women’s estradiol concentrations correlate positively with their preferences for facial cues of men’s testosterone concentrations, and that this relationship holds during times of the cycle that are outside the fertile window. These data do not argue definitively for either position but do at least suggest the plausibility of the between-cycle alternative explanation.