PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jones, Benedict C
AU  - Hahn, Amanda C
AU  - Fisher, Claire I
AU  - Wang, Hongyi
AU  - Kandrik, Michal
AU  - Han, Chengyang
AU  - Fasolt, Vanessa
AU  - Morrison, Danielle
AU  - Lee, Anthony
AU  - Holzleitner, Iris
AU  - Roberts, Craig
AU  - Little, Anthony
AU  - DeBruine, Lisa
TI  - Women’s preferences for facial masculinity are not related to their hormonal status
AID  - 10.1101/136549
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 136549
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/11/136549.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/11/136549.full
AB  - Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial attractiveness judgments, evidence that preferences for masculine characteristics in men's faces are related to women's hormonal status is equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest ever longitudinal study of women's preferences for facial masculinity (N=584). Analyses showed no evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women's salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subject and between-subject comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men's faces, particularly when assessing men's attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women's preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.