title: Circum-menopausal changes in women's preferences for sexually dimorphic shape cues in peer-aged faces.
abstract: Recent studies suggest that post-menopausal women demonstrate stronger preferences for feminine characteristics in male and female faces than do pre-menopausal women, potentially reflecting stronger preferences for healthy men and greater derogation of attractive women among more fertile women. A limitation of this work was that it assessed circum-menopausal women's face preferences using images of young adults only. Here, we found that post-menopausal women demonstrated stronger preferences for feminine characteristics in male and female peer-aged faces that did pre-menopausal women. These data present novel evidence for circum-menopausal variation in face perception and confirm that the circum-menopausal variation in face preferences observed previously was not an artefact of the young faces employed as stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Face Research Laboratory, School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. ben.jones@abdn.ac.uk
authors.forename: Benedict C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Jovana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vukovic
authors.forename: Anthony C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Little
authors.forename: S Craig
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Debruine
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003463:Cues; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057228:Masculinity; D008875:Middle Aged; D010379:Peer Group; D047648:Perimenopause / Q000523:psychology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012938:Social Perception