Investigating cycle shifts in women's clothing style and grooming

Abstract

In contrast to some non-human primate species, human females do not show overt cues to fertility. Previous research argued that women still show systematic changes in their appearance across their ovulatory cycle to enhance their mating success when fertile. We report five studies investigating whether women's clothing style and grooming behaviour change across the ovulatory cycle. All studies were large (with N = 157 in Study 1, N = 109 in Study 2, N = 257 in Studies 3–5), longitudinal studies with four testing sessions per participant. They involved salivary hormone samples and luteinizing hormone tests to validate conception risk estimates. Across all studies, our results suggest no compelling evidence for cycle shifts in clothing style and grooming. Rather, two studies suggest effects in the opposite direction as hypothesized, as women wore more skin-revealing clothes when non-fertile. One study suggests small effects of wearing necklaces more and eyeglasses less often when fertile. However, these effects were not robust across all studies. Our results are in line with other recent null replications and suggest that, if existent, cues to fertility might be even more subtle than previously assumed. We discuss the need for testing competing theories that explain the evolution of concealed ovulation.