Estimated hormones predict women’s mate preferences for dominant personality traits Aaron W. Lukaszewski, James R. Roney * Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660, USA article info Article history: Received 12 November 2008 Received in revised form 24 February 2009 Accepted 26 February 2009 Available online 5 April 2009 Keywords: Dominance Estrogen Mate preference Menstrual cycle Personality abstract Recent studies have reported that women exhibit elevated preferences for behavioral dominance in potential mates on higher fertility days of the menstrual cycle. This study was designed to test which hor- monal signals may be associated with such cycle phase shifts in dominance preferences. Women indi- cated their mate preferences for dominant personality traits, and self-reported cycle day was used to estimate each woman’s levels of estrogen, FSH, LH, progesterone, prolactin, and testosterone on her day of testing. Women’s preferences for dominance in long-term mates were elevated on cycle days when estrogen is typically elevated, including during the luteal phase when conception is not possible. Prefer- ences for dominance in short-term mates were highest on cycle days when LH and FSH are typically peaking. These findings support the existence of two types of hormone-regulated psychological mecha- nisms, each of which is proposed by a distinct functional theory of menstrual phase preference shifts: (1) a between-cycle mechanism that increases preferences for dominance in long-term mates during more fertile cycles characterized by higher estrogen, and (2) a within-cycle mechanism that couples enhanced preferences for dominance in short-term mates to the timing of ovulation. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Accumulating evidence indicates that women express stronger attraction to putative markers of phenotypic quality in men (such as masculinized or symmetrical features) when tested near ovula- tion than when tested at other times in the menstrual cycle (for reviews, see Gangestad & Thornhill, 2008; Jones et al., 2008). Although most of this research has focused on physical traits, two recent studies have reported that women tested near ovula- tion also show elevated preferences for videotaped displays of men’s dominance-related behaviors (Gangestad, Garver-Apgar, Simpson, & Cousins, 2007; Gangestad, Simpson, Cousins, Garver- Apgar, & Christensen, 2004). Dominant behaviors may signal direct benefits via greater access to material resources (see Sadalla, Ken- rick, & Vershure, 1987); alternatively, the stronger preferences for such behaviors near ovulation have been interpreted as evidence that dominance-related behaviors may complement morphologi- cal features in acting as cues to men’s heritable health and fitness (Gangestad et al., 2004). On either account, cycle phase shifts in preferences for dominance may represent stronger attraction to behavioral signals of phenotypic quality during times of higher fertility. Because the menstrual cycle is regulated by reliable shifts in hormone concentrations, recent studies have begun to identify the proximate hormonal signals that may regulate fertility-related shifts in women’s mate preferences (Garver-Apgar, Gangestad, & Thornhill, 2008; Jones et al., 2005a; Puts, 2006; Roney & Simmons, 2008; Welling et al., 2007). A primary goal of this study is to extend these findings and integrate them with the findings regarding cycle phase shifts in women’s preferences for dominant behavior. To this end, the present research examines women’s estimated hormone concentrations across the menstrual cycle in relation to their self-reported preferences for dominant personality traits. At least two functional theories have been proposed to explain menstrual phase shifts in women’s attractiveness judgments. The most prominent of these we will refer to as ‘‘mixed-mating theory” (see Gangestad & Thornhill, 2008; Penton-Voak et al., 1999). Mixed-mating theory proposes the existence of mechanisms that increase attraction to masculine features during the ‘‘fertile win- dow” (the days of a cycle when conception is possible – approxi- mately, the day of ovulation and the preceding five days), which evolved to motivate copulation with men who had higher quality genes than may have been available from a woman’s primary part- ner. This argument posits that the potential costs to a woman from cheating on her primary partner (e.g., abandonment or violence if an infidelity was discovered) would have been constant across the menstrual cycle, but the potential benefits of obtaining higher quality genes could only have been realized within the fertile 0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.02.019 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 805 893 4871; fax: +1 805 893 4303. E-mail address: roney@psych.ucsb.edu (J.R. Roney). Personality and Individual Differences 47 (2009) 191–196 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid