TY - JOUR T1 - No compelling evidence that preferences for facial masculinity track changes in women’s hormonal status JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/136549 SP - 136549 AU - Benedict C Jones AU - Amanda C Hahn AU - Claire I Fisher AU - Hongyi Wang AU - Michal Kandrik AU - Chengyang Han AU - Vanessa Fasolt AU - Danielle Morrison AU - Anthony J Lee AU - Iris J Holzleitner AU - Kieran J O’Shea AU - Craig Roberts AU - Anthony C Little AU - Lisa M DeBruine Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/12/29/136549.abstract N2 - 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 the hormonal correlates of women’s preferences for facial masculinity (N=584). Analyses showed no compelling 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. ER -