title: Female facial attractiveness increases during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle.
abstract: The lack of obvious visible manifestations of ovulation in human females, compared with the prominent sexual swellings of many primates, has led to the idea that human ovulation is concealed. While human ovulation is clearly not advertised to the same extent as in some other species, we show here that both men and women judge photographs of women's faces that were taken in the fertile window of the menstrual cycle as more attractive than photographs taken during the luteal phase. This indicates the existence of visible cues to ovulation in the human face, and is consistent with similar cyclical changes observed for preferences of female body odour. This heightened allure could be an adaptive mechanism for raising a female's relative value in the mating market at the time in the cycle when the probability of conception is at its highest.
authors.affiliation: School of Biology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4HH, UK. craig.roberts@ncl.ac.uk
authors.forename: S Craig
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Havlicek
authors.forename: Jaroslav
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Flegr
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hruskova
authors.forename: Anthony C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Little
authors.forename: Benedict C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: David I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Perrett
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petrie
mesh_terms: D001504:Beauty; D005060:Europe; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D005498:Follicular Phase / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008183:Luteal Phase / Q000502:physiology*; D011173:Portraits as Topic