TORONTO, February 16, 2004 --
Embargoed until 05:01 a.m. (EDT) Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Women do indeed compete for men’s attention says York University researcher Maryanne Fisher in a study to be published this week in Biology Letters, the online journal of the Royal Society. The study shows that women at the peak of their fertility cycle will downplay other women’s facial attractiveness as a strategy in competition for a mate.
While the news may come as no surprise to casual observers, this is believed to be the first study demonstrating that women compete among themselves for potential mates in this way. Fisher, a doctoral candidate in psychology at York, says women rated the attractiveness of the same female faces higher when their fertility was at its lowest.
"When a female finds a ‘potentially’ good mate, she will compete for him, and do so most fiercely when it is critical for conception," Fisher says.
Previous studies have shown that men prefer attractive women and Fisher’s study suggests women know this and attach great importance to their looks in the fight for a few "good" men. The results also show that women’s perception of male attractiveness – which they rated even lower than their opponents’ looks - remained the same regardless of changes in the fertility cycle.
Researchers conducted the study by asking 104 male and female first-year students to rate colour photographs of other students’ faces taken several years before. The subjects were then screened to eliminate mitigating factors such as sexual orientation and the use of oral contraceptives or anti-depressants. To gauge fertility, the women who took part were asked to indicate where they were in their ovulatory cycle.
While "the theory of intrasexual competition in women has been controversial," Fisher says, "this study demonstrates a potential competitive process." Fisher goes on to say in the report that derogating other women’s looks – the polite term for "dissing" the competition – is just one tactic women might employ. She suggests others could include attacking other women’s fidelity, promiscuity or maternal aptitude.
In future studies, Fisher says she hopes to look at how women compete in social situations. "It would be interesting to study what women say about each other in a normal, social environment and how this changes with the state of their fertility," she says. "Women are very willing to talk about these things and volunteer readily for these studies."
The study will appear Wednesday on the Royal Society’s web site http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/
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For further information, please contact:
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David Fuller |
YU/027/04
