Comment: Beyond ‘evolutionary versus social’: moving the cycle shift debate forward

Gillian Ruth Brown, Catharine Penelope Cross, Sally Street, Charlotte Olivia Brand

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Wood, Kressel, Joshi, and Louie (2014) thoroughly evaluate the evidence for menstrual cycle shifts in ratings of several male characteristics and conclude that their analyses fail to provide supportive evidence for consistent cycle effects. The topic of menstrual cycle shifts in mate preferences has been strongly debated, with disagreements over both scientific content and practice. Here, we attempt to take a step back from these acrimonious exchanges and focus instead on how to interpret menstrual cycle shifts in mate preference tasks, independently from the question of when, or if, task performance varies with cycle stage. A greater consideration of domain-general mechanisms could provide an opportunity for investigating how evolved predispositions interact with socially transmitted information in biasing women’s responses on mate preference tasks.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)250-251
Number of pages2
JournalEmotion Review
Volume6
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Jun 2014

Keywords

  • Mate preferences
  • Menstrual cycle

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