Scent of a woman

You’ve probably heard the oft-reported scientific finding that men find women more attractive when they are ovulating (purely on a sub-conscious, pheremonal level).  Turns out, there’s a fairly interesting twist on this.  From Science Times:

Each of the young men thought she was simply a fellow student at Florida State University participating in the experiment, which ostensibly consisted of her and the man assembling a puzzle of Lego blocks. But the real experiment came later, when each man rated her attractiveness. Previous research had shown that a woman at the fertile stage of her menstrual cycle seems more attractive, and that same effect was observed here — but only when this woman was rated by a man who wasn’t already involved with someone else.

The other guys, the ones in romantic relationships, rated her as significantly less attractive when she was at the peak stage of fertility, presumably because at some level they sensed she then posed the greatest threat to their long-term relationships. To avoid being enticed to stray, they apparently told themselves she wasn’t all that hot anyway.

Pretty interesting.  And, in two totally unrelated facts: 1) my wife reads this blog (at least the non-political stuff); and 2) Of course I never find any other women attractive, regardless of the ovulatory status.

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