Circum-menopausal changes in women's preferences for sexually dimorphic shape cues in peer-aged faces

Citation

Jones BC, Vukovic J, Little A, Roberts SC & DeBruine LM (2011) Circum-menopausal changes in women's preferences for sexually dimorphic shape cues in peer-aged faces. Biological Psychology, 87 (3), pp. 453-455. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.04.004

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.

Keywords
Attraction; Social cognition; Face perception; Menopause; Sexual dimorphism; Face shape

Journal
Biological Psychology: Volume 87, Issue 3