Department of Anthropology Colloquium

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Dr. Penke is a brilliant scientist with wide-ranging interests across human psychology and behavior. Go to Dr. Penke's publications.

If you would like to meet with Professor Lars Penke between 8:30am and noon on Tue, Nov 11, email David Puts (dap27@psu.edu).

Talk Title: Testing Human Ovulatory Cycle Shifts in Motivational Priorities and Cues to Fertility

Abstract:

Females of many primate species show an estrus, a period of pronounced sexual receptivity, proceptivity, and attractivity, around the fertile days of their ovulatory cycles. Whether and how much human females show similar effects is still debated. I will present results from two recent studies on this topic from our lab. In an online diary study of 390 heterosexual couples, we showed that general sexual desire and initiation of sexuality increased around ovulation in naturally cycling, but not hormonally contracepting women. However, while this cycle shift was accompanied by greater self-perceived attractiveness, we found no compelling evidence that partners notice cycling individuals' ovulation status, nor that they show increases in mate retention tactics around ovulation. Ovulation also decreased food intake, overall supporting the Motivational Priorities Hypothesis. In a lab study of 28 naturally cycling women who provided repeated axillary and vulvar scent samples across their ovulatory cycles, we found no evidence that the chemical composition of scent volatiles (analysed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry) changed with ovulation, nor that male raters report greater preference for ovulatory samples. Overall, these studies support ovulatory changes in general receptivity and proceptivity, but not in cues to fertility in human females.