Hormones May Not Affect Who You're Attracted To: Study

If you thought women tend to prefer a particular type of men when they were most fertile, then here's a study that proves there exists no such relationship between hormones and attractiveness.

The findings, published in the journal Psychological Science, show that women's hormones do not decide who they preferred. This is contrary to assumption that women preferred men with masculine features when they were fertile.

"We found no evidence that changes in hormone levels influence the type of men women find attractive," said lead researcher Benedict Jones of the University of Glasgow in Britain. "This study is noteworthy for its scale and scope -- previous studies typically examined small samples of women using limited measures," Jones explained, adding, "With much larger sample sizes and direct measures of hormonal status, we were not able to replicate effects of hormones on women's preferences for masculine faces."

The study looked at nearly 600 heterosexual women and they were asked to participate in weekly sessions where they were asked if they were in a relationship or using hormonal contraceptives. They were given a facial preference test, and as expected, women were more attracted to men with masculine faces. But hormones did not make any difference to who they were attracted to.

"The most surprising thing about the results is that the findings of many smaller studies didn’t really scale up in this larger study," Jones told Bustle. "I think that really underlined the importance of trying to replicate findings in big samples (for scientists) and the importance of not making decisions about contraceptive choices based on results of individual small studies (for women)."

However, the study lacked diversity, as all the women in the study were white. The photographs provided to them were also of white men.

"It would be great to replicate the study in more diverse groups," Jones told the media outlet. "Looking at people in other countries and cultures would be important, as would looking at the effects of hormonal changes in older women (e.g. changes that happen around menopause). We also only looked at straight women. I don’t know of any large studies looking at hormonal influences on mate preferences in gay or bisexual women. That would be fascinating to look at."